Is it possible to use VectorDrawable in Buttons and TextViews using android:DrawableRight?

Question

it possible to use drawableRight etc for SVG assets ?

Yes

AppCompatTextView now supports app:drawableLeftCompat, app:drawableTopCompat, app:drawableRightCompat, app:drawableBottomCompat, app:drawableStartCompat and app:drawableEndCompat compound drawables, supporting backported drawable types such as VectorDrawableCompat.

Include this in your gradle file

implementation 'androidx.appcompat:appcompat:1.1.0-alpha01'

In your text view you can use

app:drawableLeftCompat
app:drawableStartCompat

---

If you have problems while using app:drawableLeftCompat, app:drawableStartCompat in buttons you will need to update your library to

androidx.appcompat:appcompat:1.2.0-alpha01

they had a bug on

androidx.appcompat:appcompat:1.1.0-alpha01

you can see the docs

---

Or if you don't want to update yet, then:

Because it seems Google not going to do anything about this issue any time soon, I had to came up with a more solid reusable solution for all of my apps:

1. First add custom TextView attributes in attrs.xml file of your app "res/values/attrs.xml" :

   <resources>
       <declare-styleable name="CustomTextView">
           <attr name="drawableStartCompat" format="reference"/>
           <attr name="drawableEndCompat" format="reference"/>
           <attr name="drawableTopCompat" format="reference"/>
           <attr name="drawableBottomCompat" format="reference"/>
       </declare-styleable>
   </resources>
   

2. Then create custom TextView class like this:

   import android.content.Context;
   import android.content.res.TypedArray;
   import android.graphics.drawable.Drawable;
   import android.os.Build;
   import android.support.v7.content.res.AppCompatResources;
   import android.support.v7.widget.AppCompatTextView;
   import android.util.AttributeSet;
   
   public class CustomTextView extends AppCompatTextView {
       public CustomTextView(Context context) {
           super(context);
       }    
       public CustomTextView(Context context, AttributeSet attrs) {
           super(context, attrs);
           initAttrs(context, attrs);
       }
       public CustomTextView(Context context, AttributeSet attrs, int defStyleAttr) {
           super(context, attrs, defStyleAttr);
           initAttrs(context, attrs);
       }
   
       void initAttrs(Context context, AttributeSet attrs) {
           if (attrs != null) {
               TypedArray attributeArray = context.obtainStyledAttributes(
                       attrs,
                       R.styleable.CustomTextView);
   
               Drawable drawableStart = null;
               Drawable drawableEnd = null;
               Drawable drawableBottom = null;
               Drawable drawableTop = null;
               if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.LOLLIPOP) {
                   drawableStart = attributeArray.getDrawable(R.styleable.CustomTextView_drawableStartCompat);
                   drawableEnd = attributeArray.getDrawable(R.styleable.CustomTextView_drawableEndCompat);
                   drawableBottom = attributeArray.getDrawable(R.styleable.CustomTextView_drawableBottomCompat);
                   drawableTop = attributeArray.getDrawable(R.styleable.CustomTextView_drawableTopCompat);
               } else {
                   final int drawableStartId = attributeArray.getResourceId(R.styleable.CustomTextView_drawableStartCompat, -1);
                   final int drawableEndId = attributeArray.getResourceId(R.styleable.CustomTextView_drawableEndCompat, -1);
                   final int drawableBottomId = attributeArray.getResourceId(R.styleable.CustomTextView_drawableBottomCompat, -1);
                   final int drawableTopId = attributeArray.getResourceId(R.styleable.CustomTextView_drawableTopCompat, -1);
   
                   if (drawableStartId != -1)
                       drawableStart = AppCompatResources.getDrawable(context, drawableStartId);
                   if (drawableEndId != -1)
                       drawableEnd = AppCompatResources.getDrawable(context, drawableEndId);
                   if (drawableBottomId != -1)
                       drawableBottom = AppCompatResources.getDrawable(context, drawableBottomId);
                   if (drawableTopId != -1)
                       drawableTop = AppCompatResources.getDrawable(context, drawableTopId);
               }
   
               // to support rtl
               setCompoundDrawablesRelativeWithIntrinsicBounds(drawableStart, drawableTop, drawableEnd, drawableBottom);
               attributeArray.recycle();
           }
       }
   }
   

3. Now you can use it easily in any layouts by your custom attributes:

   <YOUR_VIEW_PACKAGE.CustomTextView
       android:id="@+id/edt_my_edit_text"
       android:layout_width="wrap_content"
       android:layout_height="wrap_content"
       app:drawableStartCompat="@drawable/your_vector_drawable" <!-- vector drawable -->
       app:drawableEndCompat="@drawable/your_vector_drawable" <!-- vector drawable -->
       app:drawableTopCompat="@drawable/your_vector_drawable" <!-- vector drawable -->
       app:drawableBottomCompat="@drawable/your_vector_drawable" <!-- vector drawable -->
       />
   

   • You can do similar thing with Button, EditText and RadioButton because they derived from TextView

Hope this helps :)

The best way I found:

Drawable leftDrawable = AppCompatResources.getDrawable(this, R.drawable.ic_search);
search.setCompoundDrawablesWithIntrinsicBounds(leftDrawable, null, null, null);

This solution is no longer correct. From 23.3.0 version vector drawables can only be loaded via app:srcCompat or setImageResource()

Try to wrap your vector drawable into layer-list or selector:

<TextView
    android:id="@+id/textView"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:drawableRight="@drawable/ic_accessible_white_wrapped"
    android:background="@color/colorPrimary"
    android:textColor="#FFFFFF"
    android:textSize="22sp"
    android:text="Hello World!"/>

ic_accessible_white_wrapped.xml:

<layer-list xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <item android:drawable="@drawable/ic_accessible_white_36px"/>
</layer-list>

To complement some of the answers here: you can get VectorDrawable to work as drawableLeft (etc.) but it depends on the Support Library version and it comes with a price.

In which cases does it work? I've made this diagram to help (valid for Support Library 23.4.0 to - at least - 25.1.0).