How do I inflate a shape to draw on a Canvas?

Question

I have a shape stored in an xml file in my drawables directory. I'd like to use it in my Canvas (I know I can define the shape in code, but I'm trying to figure out how to implement it the more "Androidy" way).

I'm at a loss as to the syntax for getting the shape out to the Canvas. Should I be trying to transform it into a Shape or a Drawable? Does it need a Matrix? A Paint? etc.

I don't need a lot of details, just point me in the right direction :)

Thanks.

[edit] my Android XML shape looks like this:

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<shape xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:shape="rectangle" >
<stroke android:width="3px" android:color="#583010"/>
    <solid android:color="#ffffff" />
    <corners android:bottomRightRadius="3px" android:bottomLeftRadius="3px"
android:topLeftRadius="3px" android:topRightRadius="3px"/>
</shape>

I'm assuming there must be some way to get that inflated, no? [/edit]

Answer 1

Let's call your file 'res/drawable/my_shape.xml'. The following lines of code will inflate my_shape.xml from XML and draw its contents onto a Canvas. The ImageView is used to prove that this works.

Drawable shape = getResources().getDrawable(R.drawable.my_shape);
Bitmap bitmap = Bitmap.createBitmap( shape.getIntrinsicWidth(), shape.getIntrinsicHeight(), Config.ARGB_8888 );
Canvas canvas = new Canvas( bitmap );
shape.setBounds( 0, 0, canvas.getWidth(), canvas.getHeight() );
shape.draw( canvas );

ImageView imageView = (ImageView) findViewById(R.id.my_imageView);
imageView.setImageBitmap( bitmap );

Make sure these lines of code are executed after setContentView in your onCreate.

To eliminate as much confusion as possible, this is a functional sample of my_shape.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<shape xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:innerRadius="0dp"
    android:shape="ring"
    android:thicknessRatio="1.9"
    android:useLevel="false" >

    <solid android:color="#DDAAAFFF" />

    <size
        android:height="10dp"
        android:width="10dp" />

    <stroke
        android:width="1dp"
        android:color="#AAAAAA" />

</shape>

Answer 2

Defined how? Something like SVG? You'll need to write your own parser and translate shape/spaths to calls to Canvas.drawPath()/Rect() , etc. You can write a custom view that knows how to draw itself, etc. Either way, someone has to write the code for it. Inflating is just parsing XML and creating an object graph.