Style android spinner

Question

I'm trying to get my android app a bit more stylish and have made some progress but the spinner dropdown are giving me trouble. I've got a screenshot to show you the problem:

What I want is the white box in the background to be transparent, as in the same grey overlay over the back screen as the rest of the screen outside the dropdown.

Android 4.0, API 15 if I recall correctly.

As requested here's how I do it so far. These are snippets I think are relevant but I might have missed something.

Here's the xml for spinner:

<Spinner
    android:id="@+id/edit_countrySpinner"
    android:layout_width="0dip"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_weight="1"
    android:entries="@array/edit_countryArray"
    android:gravity="center"
    android:prompt="@string/country_prompt" />

In my values/style.xml. If I change the color of the background here the background in the dialog do change, but all the rest of the backgrounds as well. I haven't figure out how to jus change the background in the dropdown dialog.

<style name="appcin" parent="@android:style/Theme.NoTitleBar.Fullscreen">
    <item name="android:spinnerStyle">@style/spinnerStyle</item>
    <item name="android:spinnerItemStyle">@style/SpinnerItem</item>
    <item name="android:spinnerDropDownItemStyle">@style/SpinnerDropDownItem</item> -->
    <item name="android:background">#FFFFFF</item>
</style>
<style name="spinnerStyle">
    <item name="android:background">@drawable/pink_white_dropdown</item>
    <item name="android:clickable">true</item>
</style>
<style name="SpinnerItem">
    <item name="android:textColor">#993399</item>
    <item name="android:background">@drawable/pink_white_dropdown</item>
    <item name="android:maxHeight">10dip</item>
</style>
<style name="SpinnerDropDownItem">
    <item name="android:textColor">#993399</item>
    <item name="android:background">#FFFFFF</item>
</style>

I've tried adding this to the app theme but none of them made any difference, the background was still white.

<...theme....>
   <item name="android:dropDownListViewStyle">@style/DropDownStyle</item>
   <item name="android:dropDownSpinnerStyle">@style/DropDownStyle</item>
   <item name="android:dropDownSelector">@style/DropDownStyle</item>
</... theme ...>
<style name="DropDownStyle">
    <item name="android:background">#FFF000</item>
    <item name="android:popupBackground">#FFF000</item>
    <item name="android:cacheColorHint">#FFF000</item>
</style>

In drawable/pink_white_dropdown, just showing the same image for all the cases. pink_white_arrow is a 9patch image I've made. There are lots of guides, here's one I found by 30sec on google.

<selector xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
  <item android:state_window_focused="false" android:state_enabled="true"
      android:drawable="@drawable/pink_white_arrow"/>
  <item android:state_window_focused="false" android:state_enabled="false"
      android:drawable="@drawable/pink_white_arrow"/>
  <item android:state_pressed="true" 
      android:drawable="@drawable/pink_white_arrow"/>
  <item android:state_pressed="false" 
      android:drawable="@drawable/pink_white_arrow"/>
  <item android:state_focused="true" android:state_enabled="true" 
      android:drawable="@drawable/pink_white_arrow"/>
  <item android:state_enabled="true" 
      android:drawable="@drawable/pink_white_arrow"/>
  <item android:state_focused="true" 
      android:drawable="@drawable/pink_white_arrow"/>
  <item 
      android:drawable="@drawable/pink_white_arrow"/>
</selector>

Somewhere in these files I figure something should be made transparent, but I don't know where.

Answer 1

style android spinner

Spinner Widget requires two different custom layouts, one for the view to be displayed and another for the drop down list!

In this example blog on Custom Spinner Android, we will guide you how to create a custom spinner in android studio which will have:

1. Customized Background for Selected Item
2. Custom Selected Item Text Color
3. Text Color for Dropdown
4. Background for Drop down List
5. Spinner Animation

Link here: https://androiddvlpr.com/custom-spinner-android/

Answer 2

I had the same problem, and the below code worked for me:

<item name="android:popupBackground">@null</item> 

Answer 3

Remove the SpinnerStyle background attribute.

Remove this:

<style name="spinnerStyle">
    <item name="android:background">@drawable/whitish_rectangle</item>
</style>

which is what draws the background white rectangle.

Building on the code in your question, here is a basic example on how you can style your Spinner:

The styles.xml file sets styles for the SpinnerItem and SpinnerDropDownItem:

<resources>
    <style name="customtheme" parent="@android:style/Theme.Light">
        <item name="android:spinnerItemStyle">@style/SpinnerItem</item>
        <item name="android:spinnerDropDownItemStyle">@style/SpinnerDropDownItem</item>
    </style>
    <style name="SpinnerItem">
        <item name="android:textColor">#993399</item>
        <item name="android:background">@drawable/my_rectangle</item>
    </style>
    <style name="SpinnerDropDownItem">
        <item name="android:textColor">#993399</item>
        <item name="android:background">@drawable/my_rectangle</item>
    </style>
</resources>

For testing, I've created a bright-colored drawable shape, called my_rectangle.xml. Replace this with your own drawable:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<shape xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" >
    <solid android:color="#ff0000" />
    <stroke
        android:width="1dp"
        android:color="#888888" />
</shape>

Add the Spinner to the Activity's layout:

<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent" 
    android:padding="40dip">
    <Spinner
        android:id="@+id/edit_countrySpinner"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:entries="@array/location_names"/>
</LinearLayout>

This produces:

with no white square in the background.

Answer 4

add

<item name="android:popupBackground">@null</item>

to your spinner style.