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Add shadow using drawable without png android

Shadow effect or Elevation will work on lollipop and higher versions of Android using xml property android:elevation=“4dp” and in java view.setElevation(4);. But these properties will not work on pre lollipop devices. Then to get shadow effect we can use 9 patch png images with shadow effect to show shadow below your view. But multiple png will take more storage space and make your app heavy.

In this case you can use xml drawables to make background for your views.

Below is code to make shadow effect with drawable file:

file name :- res/drawable/shadow_bg.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<layer-list xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <item >
        <shape
            android:shape="rectangle">
        <solid android:color="@android:color/darker_gray" />
        <corners android:radius="3dp"/>
        </shape>
    </item>
    <item android:right="1dp" android:left="1dp" android:bottom="1dp">
        <shape
            android:shape="rectangle">
        <solid android:color="@android:color/white"/>
        <corners android:radius="4dp"/>
        </shape>
    </item>
</layer-list>

to use this background in your layout, just set this drawable as background on that layout and done. for example

<LinearLayout
  android:layout_width="wrap_content"
  android:layout_height="wrap_content"
  android:background="@drawable/shadow_bg"/>

So in this code I used <Layer-list>, in layer list items show in stack. First item will be shown on top of all items.

I have given background color to my first item, then two second item I given grey color which will be shown as shadow. You can customize this code according to your need.