Introduction

This tutorial will help you understand android SeekBar. Here in this example, we’ll see how to create and customize SeekBar with different color and layout.

SeekBar is one of the useful user interface element in android applications. SeekBar is an extension of ProgressBar that allows the selection of integer values using a natural user interface. Basically SeekBar has a thumb that you can slide to choose a value between 0 and some maximum that you set. A typical usage of Seekbar is your device brightness control and volume control.

We can add a SeekBar widget using element. android:max property is basically used to set a maximum integer value for selection using SeekBar. android:progress property is basically used to set a integer value for SeekBar progress.

Android Seekbar Example

activity_seekbar.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent"
    android:background="#F0F0F5" >

    <LinearLayout
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_margin="5dp"
        android:background="@drawable/background_view_rounded_single"
        android:orientation="vertical"
        android:visibility="visible" >

        <TextView
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:padding="10dp"
            android:text="Seekbar"
            android:textColor="#ffffff"
            android:textSize="20sp" />

        <SeekBar
            android:id="@+id/seek1"
            android:layout_width="fill_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:layout_margin="10dp"
            android:progress="20"
            android:secondaryProgress="20" />

        <TextView
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:padding="10dp"
            android:text="Custom Seekbar"
            android:textColor="#fcfcfc"
            android:textSize="20sp" />

        <SeekBar
            android:id="@+id/volume_bar"
            android:layout_width="fill_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:layout_margin="10dp"
            android:max="100"
            android:progress="0"
            android:progressDrawable="@drawable/progressbar"
            android:secondaryProgress="0" />
    </LinearLayout>

</RelativeLayout>

background_view_rounded_single.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<inset android:insetLeft="1.0px" android:insetRight="1.0px" android:insetTop="0.0px" android:insetBottom="1.0px"
  xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <selector>
        <item android:state_pressed="true">
            <shape>
                <gradient android:startColor="@color/rounded_container_bg" android:endColor="@color/rounded_container_bg" android:angle="270.0" />
                <corners android:radius="11.0dip" />
            </shape>
        </item>
        <item>
            <shape>
            	<stroke android:width="1.0px" android:color="@color/rounded_container_border" />
                <gradient android:startColor="@color/rounded_container_bg" android:endColor="@color/rounded_container_bg" android:angle="270.0" />
                <corners android:radius="10.0dip" />

            </shape>
        </item>
    </selector>
</inset>

progressbar.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<layer-list xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" >

    <item android:id="@android:id/background">
        <shape android:shape="rectangle" >
            <corners android:radius="5dp" />

            <gradient
                android:angle="270"
                android:endColor="@color/light_gray_header_color"
                android:startColor="@color/light_gray_header_color" />
        </shape>
    </item>
    <item android:id="@android:id/secondaryProgress">
        <clip>
            <shape android:shape="rectangle" >
                <corners android:radius="5dp" />

                <gradient
                    android:angle="270"
                    android:endColor="#00996a"
                    android:startColor="#00d190" />
            </shape>
        </clip>
    </item>
    <item android:id="@android:id/progress">
        <clip>
            <shape android:shape="rectangle" >
                <corners android:radius="5dp" />

                <gradient
                    android:angle="270"
                    android:endColor="#00996a"
                    android:startColor="#00d190" />
            </shape>
        </clip>
    </item>

</layer-list>

colors.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>

    <color name="default_screen_bg">#f9f9f9</color>
    <color name="rounded_container_bg">#222222</color>
    <color name="rounded_container_border">#3b3f44</color>
    <color name="light_gray_header_color">#646663</color>

</resources>

We are good with layout design, lets move a bit into Java coding. Below is my activity code

public class SeekbarActivity extends Activity {

	private SeekBar volumeControl = null;

	@Override
	protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
		super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
		setContentView(R.layout.activity_seekbar);

		volumeControl = (SeekBar) findViewById(R.id.volume_bar);

		volumeControl.setOnSeekBarChangeListener(new OnSeekBarChangeListener() {
			int progressChanged = 0;

			public void onProgressChanged(SeekBar seekBar, int progress, boolean fromUser){
				progressChanged = progress;
			}

			public void onStartTrackingTouch(SeekBar seekBar) {
				// TODO Auto-generated method stub
			}

			public void onStopTrackingTouch(SeekBar seekBar) {
				Toast.makeText(SeekbarActivity.this,"seek bar progress:"+progressChanged, 
						Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
			}
		});
	}

}

Our activity implements SeekBar.OnSeekBarChangeListener; Basically SeekBar.OnSeekBarChangeListener is a public static interface that is used to listen the SeekBar events. The SeekBar.OnSeekBarChangeListener interface allows us to override the below methods.

1. onProgressChanged(SeekBar seekBar, int progress, boolean fromUser) – Used to notify that the progress level has changed.
2. onStartTrackingTouch(SeekBar seekBar) – Used to notify that the user has started a touch gesture.
3. onStopTrackingTouch(SeekBar seekBar) – Used to notify that the user has finished a touch gesture.

Output

Output of the above code is shown below

Download Source Code

Download complete example source code from GitHub.