Develop Reference

Planning custom screen layout for multiple screens

I have a custom layout with width="match_parent". Layout consists of big circle in the center and smaller one just next to it.
On my screen I have found the dimensions that I like and now I want to make it look similar across all devices.
My device is Galaxy S8 with display metrics reported as:
DisplayMetrics {
density=3.5,
width=1440,
height=2960,
scaledDensity=2.8,
xdpi=562.707,
ydpi=565.293
}
So as I understand I have 411dp in width available.
For dimensions I have
Big Circle in the center 110dp radius.
Smaller circle next to it 21dp radius.
The distance between them 20dp.
Now I wonder how should I go with this. I have 2 options in my mind. First will be to create separate values for other screen densities, or just convert this dimensions into percentage and do the layout programmatically.
My problem with first option is that some devices (like mine) have screen zoom which changes scaledDensity making it look totally different.

You can support different screen sizes use ConstraintLayout:
ConstraintLayout allows you to create large and complex layouts with a flat view hierarchy (no nested view groups). It's similar to RelativeLayout in that all views are laid out according to relationships between sibling views and the parent layout, but it's more flexible than RelativeLayout and easier to use with Android Studio's Layout Editor.
You can use those attributes to specify your views size in precents:
app:layout_constraintWidth_percent=".5"
app:layout_constraintHeight_percent=".5"
For example, single button that is equal to 50% of the screen both in height and width:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent">
<Button
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="0dp"
app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintWidth_percent=".5"
app:layout_constraintHeight_percent=".5"/>
</androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout>
And it will look something like this:
One more thing, because different phones got different screen size you better not use fixed size dimensions (50dp for example )on your views.
I can recommend using ConstraintLayout with guidelines and Chains to support different screen sizes (In addition to what I mentioned above - app:layout_constraintWidth_percent and app:layout_constraintHeight_percent).

ImageButton resizes automatically in gridlayout

I'm asking this (propably) pretty easy question since I can't figure it out by myself and googling in for more then an Hour doesn't give me proper results.
So the question is: How can I make my items(generally those are only 16 image buttons) so they can stay in scale (comparing to gridlayout) when my picture is really large (So in short way: I load 16xImages as src on buttonImages, each Image is 640x640, and I want to have those 16 buttons in grid layout scaled comparing to grid layout width/height and column/row count). I hope this is possible to write in XML since I don't want to refactor my java code :/
Ps. I'm newbie to Android programmig
Ps2.Here is my GridLayout with button example , but it's completly wrong :/
<GridLayout
android:id="#+id/GridLayout1"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:columnCount="4"
android:rowCount="4"
tools:context=".GridXMLActivity"
android:layout_below="#+id/Tx1"
android:layout_above="#+id/restart"
android:layout_marginBottom="50sp"
android:layout_marginTop="50sp"
>
<ImageButton
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:background="#android:color/transparent"
android:src="#drawable/clear"
android:id="#+id/But1"
android:scaleType="fitXY"
android:onClick="but1"
/>
[EDIT]
I've even made such layout , but there are some problems. 1st is that my grid layout doesn't scale at all!(So when I take screen with lower or higher resolution it won't fit). That's why I wanted to make this button some kind of resizeable (in this screen each button has width and height at 60sp which I know it shouldn't)
Another problem is that I'm working on button backgrounds and I wanted to make it src.
Genereally I want to achive same thing like on the screen , but making it other/more flexible way (So the resolution and orientation won't affect my gui and sizes of it's element). If you need whole XML file I'll post it here but it's a bit mess since I've copy-paste 16 times Image Button

If you want something to scale, keeping aspect ratio and you have one dimension set to match_parent, the other must be wrap_content.
So, presuming you want the button to always fit the width but stay at the correct aspect:
<ImageButton
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
... />
To make all items fit in grid rather than all items fit their images, you should use weight. Weight with grid layout requires the support library before API21
<GridLayout ...
android:columnCount="2">
<ImageButton
app:layout_gravity="fill"
app:layout_columnWeight="1"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
... />
...

Exact view position on top of ImageView - android

I'm trying to make an interactable imageView by setting some invisible image buttons on top of it, the user can then click different parts of the image and do things with it, the problem is that i need this image buttons to be in very exact positions in relation to the image view, if the phone size varies even a little, the image buttons will get off the positon i want them to be.
The xml where the image view is:
<android.support.v4.widget.NestedScrollView xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
tools:context=".fragments.Offroad18nitro4wdbuggy_frontFragment">
<RelativeLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent">
<TextView
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:text="OffRoad 1/8 nitro 4WD buggy front" /> <!-- Here just to show the programmer which fragment is showing -->
<RelativeLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="300dp"
android:layout_centerHorizontal="true">
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/ivLosi4_offroad18nitro4wdbuggy_front"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:scaleType="fitCenter"
android:src="#drawable/losi4_18scale_front"/>
<ImageButton
android:id="#+id/ibTest"
android:layout_width="50dp"
android:layout_height="41dp"
android:alpha="0"
android:background="#color/colorGreen"
android:layout_alignParentEnd="true"
android:layout_marginEnd="40dp"
android:layout_marginTop="5dp"/>
</RelativeLayout>
As you can see in the second screenshot, the image button is out of place, my phone is the Samsung Galaxy S6.
Screenshot of the image button in the exact position i want it to be
Screenshot of the app being emulated to my phone

I've dealt with this exact problem before. The workaround that I managed to accomplish is to divide the screen up into several sub-layouts so it looks like a grid of layouts. First divide the screen in half at the center point, then place an empty textview with no dimensions in the center of the top and bottom layouts, which will allow you to divide those layouts into four. Then do the same thing for those four to create sixteen if you have to. Then place your image buttons along the sides or the attached to the center point of whichever of these layouts contains your desired area.
The point is to create a grid that is fixed relative to the center of the screen. That way, if the screen size changes, the grid and the buttons attached to it will adjust accordingly. Its not a perfect solution but it worked for my purposes. Here is a link to a sample xml file from the project that I used this strategy in:
https://github.com/ribalding/AdventureAdventure/blob/master/app/src/main/res/layout/activity_kitchen.xml

Display a image larger than the device screen, and then go through the picture with a translation animation

Now I know how to make the translateAnimation, in order to go through the picture, and show it on the screen.
What I do not know how to do, is put the picture on the screen, and make it in such a way so that it will not scale it by the scale type. So I can start the translateAnimation.
I saw some posts about this, and a lot of suggestions are saying I should use a HorrizontalScrollView, in order to put a picture bigger than the device screen. But I need to make a animation go thought it, and not for me to be able to move the picture, so in my opinion that might not be the perfect way to go.
Do you guys have any other suggestions?

Did not use a horrizontalScrollView, instead, forced the width of the whole layout to be the size of a picture, set a RelativeLayout inside, with the size of the screen, and then made the animations.
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:id="#+id/container"
android:layout_width="1103dp"
android:layout_height="736dp"
android:background="#color/white">
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/background"
android:visibility="invisible"
android:src="#drawable/story1"
android:scaleType="fitXY"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"/>
<RelativeLayout
android:id="#+id/screen_container"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent">
-----------------CODE inside relative layout for normal page--------
</RelativeLayout>
</RelativeLayout>
Then inside my code I set the screen width and height for my screen container (containing everything except the background picture which will translate):
screenContainer.setLayoutParams(new RelativeLayout.LayoutParams(Math.round(Constants.screenWidth), Math.round(Constants.screenHeight)));
This is my Translation for the ImageView that matches the parent (the size of the background pic):
TranslateAnimation translateBackground = new TranslateAnimation(
TranslateAnimation.RELATIVE_TO_PARENT,from,
TranslateAnimation.RELATIVE_TO_PARENT,-0.5f,
TranslateAnimation.RELATIVE_TO_PARENT,0.0f,
TranslateAnimation.RELATIVE_TO_PARENT,0.0f);
translateBackground.setDuration(15000);
background.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
background.startAnimation(translateBackground);

Full screen background image in an activity

I see many applications that use a full-screen image as background.
This is an example:
I want to use this in a project, the best way I've found so far to do this is to use an image with a large size, put it in a ImageView and use android: adjustViewBounds="true" to adjust the margins
The problem is that if a screen with a very high resolution, the image falls short.
Another option I thought of is to use the image in a FrameLayout, with match_parent in width and height as background... this stretches the image, but I think the result is not very good.
How would you do it?

There are several ways you can do it.
Option 1:
Create different perfect images for different dpi and place them in related drawable folder. Then set
android:background="#drawable/your_image"
Option 2:
Add a single large image. Use FrameLayout. As a first child add an ImageView. Set the following in your ImageView.
android:src="#drawable/your_image"
android:scaleType = "centerCrop"

Another option is to add a single image (not necessarily big) in the drawables (let's name it backgroung.jpg), create an ImageView iv_background at the root of your xml without a "src" attribute.
Then in the onCreate method of the corresponding activity:
/* create a full screen window */
requestWindowFeature(Window.FEATURE_NO_TITLE);
getWindow().setFlags(WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_FULLSCREEN,
WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_FULLSCREEN);
setContentView(R.layout.your_activity);
/* adapt the image to the size of the display */
Display display = getWindowManager().getDefaultDisplay();
Point size = new Point();
display.getSize(size);
Bitmap bmp = Bitmap.createScaledBitmap(BitmapFactory.decodeResource(
getResources(),R.drawable.background),size.x,size.y,true);
/* fill the background ImageView with the resized image */
ImageView iv_background = (ImageView) findViewById(R.id.iv_background);
iv_background.setImageBitmap(bmp);
No cropping, no many different sized images.
Hope it helps!

You should put the various size images into the followings folder
for more detail visit this link
ldpi
mdpi
hdpi
xhdpi
xxhdpi
and use RelativeLayout or LinearLayout background instead of using ImageView as follwoing example
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:orientation="vertical"
android:background="#drawable/your_image">
</RelativeLayout>

It's been a while since this was posted, but this helped me.
You can use nested layouts. Start with a RelativeLayout, and place your ImageView in that.
Set height and width to match_parent to fill the screen.
Set scaleType="centreCrop" so the image fits the screen and doesn't stretch.
Then you can put in any other layouts as you normally would, like the LinearLayout below.
You can use android:alpha to set the transparency of the image.
<RelativeLayout
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent">
<ImageView
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:scaleType="centerCrop"
android:src="#drawable/image"
android:alpha="0.6"/>
<LinearLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:orientation="vertical"
tools:context=".MainActivity">
<TextView
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Hello"/>
<TextView
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="There"/>
</LinearLayout>
</RelativeLayout>

What about
android:background="#drawable/your_image"
on the main layout of your activity?
This way you can also have different images for different screen densities by placing them in the appropriate res/drawable-**dpi folders.

If you want your image to show BEHIND a transparent Action Bar, put the following into your Theme's style definition:
<item name="android:windowActionBarOverlay">true</item>
Enjoy!

use this
android:background="#drawable/your_image"
in your activity very first linear or relative layout.

In lines with the answer of NoToast, you would need to have multiple versions of "your_image" in your res/drawable-ldpi,mdpi, hdpi, x-hdpi (for xtra large screens), remove match_parent and keep android: adjustViewBounds="true"

Add android:background="#drawable/your_image" inside your Relativelayout/Linearlayout
Worked.

If you have bg.png as your background image then simply:
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:background="#drawable/bg"
tools:context=".MainActivity" >
<TextView
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
android:layout_centerVertical="true"
android:text="#string/hello_world"/>
</RelativeLayout>

Working. you should tryout this:
android:src="#drawable/img"

three step for put background
1)you should choose your like picture. for example :enter image description here
2)Then you copy this picture in drawable.
warning: you should choose types short for name picture.
enter image description here
3)you go to page xml Intended and write :
android:background="id picture"
for example my picture id is #drawable/download.
enter image description here
finish.

The easiest way:
Step 1: Open AndroidManifest.xml file
You can see the file here!
Step 2: Locate android:theme="#style/AppTheme" >
Step 3: Change to android:theme="#style/Theme.AppCompat.NoActionBar" >
Step 4: Then Add ImageView & Image
Step 4: That's it!