Programmatically set '?selectableItemBackground' on Android view

In xml, I often do this to emulate onClick effect:

<android.support.v7.widget.CardView
    android:id="@+id/cardView"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:foreground="?selectableItemBackground">

    ...

</android.support.v7.widget.CardView>

Is there any way to access ?selectableItemBackground in java?

For appcompat you can use,

TypedValue outValue = new TypedValue();
getContext().getTheme().resolveAttribute(android.R.attr.selectableItemBackground, outValue, true);
cardView.setBackgroundResource(outValue.resourceId);

For those who work with Kotlin, here are some extensions functions to add Ripple on Android View type :

private fun View.addRipple() = with(TypedValue()) {
    context.theme.resolveAttribute(android.R.attr.selectableItemBackground, this, true)
    setBackgroundResource(resourceId)
}

private fun View.addCircleRipple() = with(TypedValue()) {
    context.theme.resolveAttribute(android.R.attr.selectableItemBackgroundBorderless, this, true)
    setBackgroundResource(resourceId)
}

I was looking for the same solution. I slightly changed this answer to make it more suitable for the asked question. Call the following code from your constructor.

private void setClickableAnimation(Context context)
{
    TypedValue outValue = new TypedValue();
    context.getTheme().resolveAttribute( 
        android.R.attr.selectableItemBackground, outValue, true);        
    setForeground(getDrawable(context, outValue.resourceId));
}

You should reference it as

android.R.attr.selectableItemBackground

For Kotlin I'm using

binding.yourCoolView.apply {
    background = with(TypedValue()) {
        context.theme.resolveAttribute(
            R.attr.selectableItemBackground, this, true)
        ContextCompat.getDrawable(context, resourceId)
    }
}

For people using Kotlin, this is an extended version of @Nicholas answer. If you are using CardView, you need to change the foreground, not the background.

Code

fun View.addBackgroundRipple() = with(TypedValue()) {
    context.theme.resolveAttribute(android.R.attr.selectableItemBackground, this, true)
    setBackgroundResource(resourceId)
}

fun View.addBackgroundCircleRipple() = with(TypedValue()) {
    context.theme.resolveAttribute(android.R.attr.selectableItemBackgroundBorderless, this, true)
    setBackgroundResource(resourceId)
}

fun View.addForegroundRipple() = with(TypedValue()) {
    context.theme.resolveAttribute(android.R.attr.selectableItemBackground, this, true)
    foreground = ContextCompat.getDrawable(context, resourceId)
}

fun View.addForegroundCircleRipple() = with(TypedValue()) {
    context.theme.resolveAttribute(android.R.attr.selectableItemBackgroundBorderless, this, true)
    foreground = ContextCompat.getDrawable(context, resourceId)
}

Usage

// Background ripple
linearLayout.addBackgroundRipple()

// Foreground ripple
cardView.addForegroundRipple()

Based on @Wirling answer we can use foreground to set both the color and the ripple effect

Note: Foreground requires android API level 23(M) and above:

if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.M) {  
    TypedValue outValue = new TypedValue();
    getContext().getTheme().resolveAttribute(android.R.attr.selectableItemBackground, outValue, true);
    view.setForeground(getDrawable(getContext(), outValue.resourceId));
}

Try below code.

int[] attrs = new int[]{R.attr.selectableItemBackground};
TypedArray typedArray = context.obtainStyledAttributes(attrs);
int backgroundResource = typedArray.getResourceId(0, 0);
cardView.setBackgroundResource(backgroundResource);
cardView.setClickable(true);
typedArray.recycle();

From a fragment:

TypedValue outValue = new TypedValue();
requireContext().getTheme().resolveAttribute(android.R.attr.selectableItemBackground, outValue, true);
cardView.setBackgroundResource(outValue.resourceId);

From an adapter declaring in its constructor the context or the same fragment:

TypedValue outValue = new TypedValue();
fragment.requireContext().getTheme().resolveAttribute(android.R.attr.selectableItemBackground, outValue, true);
holder.cardView.setBackgroundResource(outValue.resourceId);