How to use a selector to highlight a ListView row 'permanently' on long press, but briefly on normal press

Question

I have a ListFragment whose ListView is set to ListView.CHOICE_MODE_SINGLE. The adapter returns a custom row layout and I'm setting the background of each row layout to a selector.

But I can't seem to define the selector so that on a long-press, the row stays highlighted, but on a normal press, it just highlights briefly.

Here is my selector:

<selector xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">

    <item android:state_activated="true" android:drawable="@color/light_blue" />
    <item android:drawable="@android:color/transparent" />

</selector>

The row stays highlighted on long-press, but a normal press also makes the row stay highlighted. I've tried using various combinations of attributes in each item but can't get it right.

Clarification: I would still like it so that when another row is pressed, the previously long-pressed (and highlighted) row becomes un-highlighted. And the above selector does do that.

Answer 1

If you want to use states, look at the default states android defines to make sure there isn't one already. If android doesn't have a state that suits your needs, take a look at defining custom states here How to add a custom button state

If you don't want to do that you can always add selections to a list and change backgrounds in getView as my comment hints.