Custom checkbox image android

Is there an easy way to use a custom image for a checkbox? I'm looking to duplicate the "starred" behavior of gmail. So I want to have a checkbox that, when checked, is a filled in star. And when unchecked is an empty star. Do I have to use an imageview and do my own logic myself?

Create a drawable checkbox selector:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<selector xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" >
    <item android:drawable="@drawable/checkbox" 
          android:state_checked="false"/>
    <item android:drawable="@drawable/checkboxselected" 
          android:state_checked="true"/>
    <item android:drawable="@drawable/checkbox"/>    
</selector>

Make sure your checkbox is like this android:button="@drawable/checkbox_selector"

<CheckBox
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:button="@drawable/checkbox_selector"
    android:text="CheckBox"
    android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceLarge"
    android:textColor="@color/Black" />

Checkboxes being children of Button you can just give your checkbox a background image with several states as described here, under "Button style":

...and exemplified here:

Copy the btn_check.xml from android-sdk/platforms/android-#/data/res/drawable to your project's drawable folder and change the 'on' and 'off' image states to your custom images.

Then your xml will just need android:button="@drawable/btn_check"

<CheckBox
    android:button="@drawable/btn_check"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:checked="true" />

If you want to use different default android icons, you can use android:button="@android:drawable/..."

res/drawable/day_selector.xml

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
    <selector xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" >
        <item android:drawable="@drawable/dayselectionunselected"
              android:state_checked="false"/>
        <item android:drawable="@drawable/daysselectionselected"
              android:state_checked="true"/>
        <item android:drawable="@drawable/dayselectionunselected"/>
    </selector>

res/layout/my_layout.xml

<CheckBox
    android:id="@+id/check"
    android:layout_width="39dp"
    android:layout_height="39dp"
    android:background="@drawable/day_selector"
    android:button="@null"
    android:gravity="center"
    android:text="S"
    android:textColor="@color/black"
    android:textSize="12sp" />

If you have Android open source code, you can find the styles definition under:
src/frameworks/base/core/res/res/values

<style name="Widget.CompoundButton.CheckBox">
    <item name="android:background">
        @android:drawable/btn_check_label_background
    </item>
    <item name="android:button">
        ?android:attr/listChoiceIndicatorMultiple
    </item>
</style>

Based on the Enselic and Rahul answers.

It works for me (before and after API 21):

<CheckBox
    android:id="@+id/checkbox"
    android:layout_width="40dp"
    android:layout_height="40dp"
    android:text=""
    android:gravity="center"

    android:background="@drawable/checkbox_selector"
    android:button="@null"
    app:buttonCompat="@null" />

Try it -

package com;

import android.content.Context;
import android.content.res.TypedArray;
import android.util.AttributeSet;
import android.view.View;
import android.widget.ImageView;



public class CheckBoxImageView extends ImageView implements View.OnClickListener {
    boolean checked;
    int defImageRes;
    int checkedImageRes;
    OnCheckedChangeListener onCheckedChangeListener;

    public CheckBoxImageView(Context context, AttributeSet attr, int defStyle) {
        super(context, attr, defStyle);
        init(attr, defStyle);
    }

    public CheckBoxImageView(Context context, AttributeSet attr) {
        super(context, attr);
        init(attr, -1);
    }

    public CheckBoxImageView(Context context) {
        super(context);
    }

    public boolean isChecked() {
        return checked;
    }

    public void setChecked(boolean checked) {
        this.checked = checked;
        setImageResource(checked ? checkedImageRes : defImageRes);
    }

    private void init(AttributeSet attributeSet, int defStyle) {
        TypedArray a = null;
        if (defStyle != -1)
            a = getContext().obtainStyledAttributes(attributeSet, R.styleable.CheckBoxImageView, defStyle, 0);
        else
            a = getContext().obtainStyledAttributes(attributeSet, R.styleable.CheckBoxImageView);
        defImageRes = a.getResourceId(0, 0);
        checkedImageRes = a.getResourceId(1, 0);
        checked = a.getBoolean(2, false);
        a.recycle();
        setImageResource(checked ? checkedImageRes : defImageRes);
        setOnClickListener(this);
    }

    @Override
    public void onClick(View v) {
        checked = !checked;
        setImageResource(checked ? checkedImageRes : defImageRes);
        onCheckedChangeListener.onCheckedChanged(this, checked);
    }

    public void setOnCheckedChangeListener(OnCheckedChangeListener onCheckedChangeListener) {
        this.onCheckedChangeListener = onCheckedChangeListener;
    }

    public static interface OnCheckedChangeListener {
        void onCheckedChanged(View buttonView, boolean isChecked);
    }
}

Add this attrib -

<declare-styleable name="CheckBoxImageView">
        <attr name="default_img" format="integer"/>
        <attr name="checked_img" format="integer"/>
        <attr name="checked" format="boolean"/>
</declare-styleable>

Use like -

 <com.adonta.ziva.consumer.wrapper.CheckBoxImageView
        xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
        android:id="@+id/checkBox"
        android:layout_width="40dp"
        android:layout_height="40dp"
        android:layout_alignParentRight="true"
        android:layout_centerVertical="true"
        android:clickable="true"
        android:padding="5dp"
        app:checked_img="@drawable/check_box_checked"
        app:default_img="@drawable/check_box" />

It will fix all your porblems.

If you are using custom adapters than android:focusable="false" and android:focusableInTouchMode="false" are nessesury to make list items clickable while using checkbox.

<CheckBox
        android:id="@+id/checkbox_fav"
        android:focusable="false"
        android:focusableInTouchMode="false"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:button="@drawable/checkbox_layout"/>

In drawable>checkbox_layout.xml

<selector xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" >
    <item android:drawable="@drawable/uncked_checkbox"
        android:state_checked="false"/>
    <item android:drawable="@drawable/selected_checkbox"
        android:state_checked="true"/>
    <item android:drawable="@drawable/uncked_checkbox"/>
</selector>

Another option is to use a ToggleButton with null background and a custom button.

Bellow an example that includes a selector to the text color as well.

<ToggleButton
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:button="@drawable/toggle_selector"
    android:background="@null"
    android:paddingLeft="10dp"
    android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
    android:gravity="center"
    android:textColor="@drawable/toggle_text"
    android:textOn="My on state"
    android:textOff="My off state" />

toggle_selector.xml

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

    <item
        android:state_checked="true"
        android:drawable="@drawable/state_on" />

    <item
        android:drawable="@drawable/state_off" />

</selector>

toggle_text.xml

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

    <item
        android:state_checked="true"
        android:color="@color/app_color" />

    <item
        android:color="@android:color/darker_gray" />

</selector>

If you use androidx.appcompat:appcompat and want a custom drawable (of type selector with android:state_checked ) to work on old platform versions in addition to new platform versions, you need to use

    <CheckBox
        app:buttonCompat="@drawable/..."

instead of

    <CheckBox
        android:button="@drawable/..."

Adding custom drawable in the android:button did not work for me in Material Checkbox version-1.3.0 . I had to set android:drawable="@drawable/checkbox_selector" instead and also set android:button="@null" . You can also add android:drawablePadding to make it look good. However, this makes the entire checkbox clickable (along with the text).