How to get a Bitmap from a drawable defined in a xml?
android
Solution
a ShapeDrawable doesn't have a bitmap associated with it - its sole purpose is to be drawn on a canvas. Until its draw method is called, it has no image. If you can get a canvas element at the place where you need to draw the shadow, you can draw it as a shapeDrawable, otherwise you might need a separate, empty view in your layout with the shadow as a background.
Problem
How can I get the bitmap from a xml shape drawable. What am I doing wrong? shadow.xml ``` <shape xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" android:shape="rectangle" > <gradient android:angle="270.0" android:endColor="@android:color/transparent" android:startColor="#33000000" android:type="linear" /> <size android:height="7.0dip" /> </shape> ``` My method to retrieve the bitmap from drawable: ``` private Bitmap getBitmap(int id) { return BitmapFactory.decodeResource(getContext().getResources(), id); } ``` getBitmap() is returning null when the id passed in is the shadow.xml drawable id.