Develop Reference

How to make android layout scalable for different screen size?

I found a lot of question were asked on supporting different screen size where the screen size are varies from Tablet to phone and etc. I am writing my first android application and when I am looking at the layout in different phone, All of them are not relatively scalable to screen.
I am pasting a small RelativeLayout code here to understand how to make it proper scalable in less changes. I also followed the android official doc and learn two things
drawable images for different screen
use sp for mentioning text size and for rest of them use dp
But it's not helping me
Code
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:background="#ffd5d6d6">
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="48dp"
android:background="#ffffffff"
android:elevation="#dimen/abc_action_bar_default_height_material">
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/back"
android:layout_width="24dp"
android:layout_height="24dp"
android:layout_centerVertical="true"
android:layout_marginLeft="16dp"
android:src="#drawable/ic_back" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/profileDesc"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_centerInParent="true"
android:text="Test"
android:textColor="#ff3c3f41"
android:textSize="15dp" />
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/flag"
android:layout_width="24dp"
android:layout_height="24dp"
android:layout_alignParentEnd="true"
android:layout_alignParentLeft="false"
android:layout_alignParentStart="false"
android:layout_alignWithParentIfMissing="false"
android:layout_centerVertical="true"
android:layout_marginRight="16dp"
android:src="#drawable/temp_ic_share" />
</RelativeLayout>
<RelativeLayout
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:layout_marginTop="52dp">
<TextView
android:id="#+id/roommate"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignParentStart="false"
android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
android:layout_marginTop="40dp"
android:text="Who are you?"
android:textColor="#ff3c3f41"
android:textSize="18dp" />
<Button
android:id="#+id/foodie"
style="#style/Widget.AppCompat.ButtonBar"
android:layout_width="60dp"
android:layout_height="38dp"
android:layout_alignParentStart="false"
android:layout_marginLeft="56dp"
android:layout_marginTop="80dp"
android:background="#fa6425"
android:text="Foodie"
android:textColor="#fff4f4f4"
android:textSize="12dp" />
<Button
android:id="#+id/button4"
style="#style/Widget.AppCompat.ButtonBar"
android:layout_width="80dp"
android:layout_height="38dp"
android:layout_marginLeft="15dp"
android:layout_marginTop="80dp"
android:layout_toEndOf="#+id/foodie"
android:background="#fa6425"
android:text="Beach bum"
android:textColor="#fff4f4f4"
android:textSize="12dp" />
<Button
android:id="#+id/button5"
style="#style/Widget.AppCompat.ButtonBar"
android:layout_width="80dp"
android:layout_height="38dp"
android:layout_alignTop="#+id/button4"
android:layout_marginLeft="15dp"
android:layout_toEndOf="#+id/button4"
android:background="#fa6425"
android:text="Tree hugger"
android:textColor="#fff4f4f4"
android:textSize="12dp" />
</RelativeLayout>
<Button
android:id="#+id/button"
style="#style/Widget.AppCompat.ButtonBar"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="50dp"
android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"
android:layout_alignParentStart="true"
android:background="#fa6425"
android:text="Send"
android:textColor="#fff4f4f4" />
</RelativeLayout>
As you can see that I am including two Parallel RelativeLayout in one main RelativeLayout. here the views on three different size:
nexus one
nexus 5
nexus 6
Best alignment is in Nexus 5 screen. Do I need to create different layout folder i.e. hdpi, mdpi and etc? If I am not wrong then I don't need to because my application is going to run only on phone devices (in portrait mode only).
How can I make scalable screen layouts. Any help would be appreciable :)

If you want to force all the views to have the same ration on screen the only way is to give it a size dynamically after you calculated the ratio between the desired pixels and the screen density, which is not really a solution, What you need to understand is when working with various screen sizes, each one suppose to behave differently, a Tablet screen is expected to be bigger and thus having more room for elements to show up on screen, a phone screen is smaller and less elements should be showed on screen, you need to adjust your view to support all of these screens and the proper way is to write a different layout for tablets and phones, or even different layout by screen dpi.

I am pretty new, I am using Android Studio, is that what you are using? First thing first, if you always want you activity to be in portrait mode, use this code in your manifest, you have to add the code to each activity you want to stay in portrait mode. If you don't, and you don't add code to handle the switch in screen orientation, the phone will likely crash.
<activity
android:name=".TitleActivity"
android:label="#string/title_activity"
android:screenOrientation="portrait" >
</activity>
Instead of a relative view, Try the Linear Layout.
You would have your Main Layout, with a few nested Linear Layouts.
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
xmlns:ads="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:orientation="vertical"
android:id="#+id/example">
<LinearLayout
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:orientation="horizontal"
android:gravity="center">
<TextView
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceLarge"
android:text="Title Here"
android:id="#+id/Title"
android:layout_gravity="top|center_horizontal"
android:layout_marginTop="20dp"
android:gravity="center_horizontal"
android:layout_marginBottom="20dp" />
</LinearLayout>
<LinearLayout
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:orientation="horizontal"
android:layout_marginBottom="50dp">
<Button
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="New Button"
android:id="#+id/button"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:layout_marginLeft="10dp" />
<Button
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="New Button"
android:id="#+id/button2"
android:layout_weight="1" />
<Button
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="New Button"
android:id="#+id/button3"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:layout_marginRight="10dp" />
</LinearLayout>
<LinearLayout
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content">
<ImageView
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:id="#+id/imageView"
android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal"
android:background="#drawable/test"
android:layout_margin="50dp" />
</LinearLayout>
This layout has A title Above the three buttons, Then three buttons, then an image view below, it scales from 3.7 to 7.0. Larger than 7, I would make another layout.
You need an image named test in your drawable file.

use this Library will help you to set a Responsive scalable Views for all the devices Layouts
https://github.com/intuit/sdp
irs really easy and simpl just replace.
android:layout_width="50dp"
android:layout_height="60dp"
with.
android:layout_width="50sdp"
android:layout_height="60sdp"
and for textView
android:textSize="60ssp"
instead of. sp

TextView isn't wraping on small screen Samsung Devices

I have problem with text wrapping on small screen Samsung devices. On other phones like S4 everything is ok.
Let's look on the screens:
Correct one (HTC Desire Z):
Incorrect (Samsung S4 Mini):
My xml file:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:orientation="vertical" android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent">
<include
android:id="#+id/tool_bar"
layout="#layout/tool_bar"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_width="match_parent" />
<ImageView
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:id="#+id/imageView"
android:layout_gravity="center_vertical"
android:src="#drawable/ic_launcher_web"
android:layout_marginRight="334dp"
android:layout_marginEnd="334dp"
android:layout_alignParentRight="true"
android:layout_alignParentEnd="true"
android:layout_below="#+id/tool_bar" />
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:orientation="vertical" android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:id="#+id/Rel1"
android:layout_alignBottom="#+id/imageView"
android:layout_alignParentRight="true"
android:layout_alignParentEnd="true">
<TextView
android:maxLines="100"
android:scrollHorizontally="false"
android:singleLine="true"
android:ellipsize="end"
android:textSize="22sp"
android:textStyle="bold"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="#string/app_name"
android:id="#+id/AppName"
android:layout_marginTop="130dp"
android:layout_marginRight="16dp" />
<TextView
android:textSize="18sp"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="#string/created"
android:id="#+id/Created"
android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal"
android:layout_below="#+id/AppName"
android:layout_centerHorizontal="true" />
<TextView
android:textSize="22sp"
android:textStyle="bold"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="#string/ms"
android:id="#+id/MS"
android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal"
android:layout_below="#id/Created"
android:layout_centerHorizontal="true" />
<TextView
android:textSize="20sp"
android:autoLink="web"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="#string/home_page"
android:id="#+id/textView"
android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal"
android:layout_below="#+id/MS"
android:layout_centerHorizontal="true" />
</RelativeLayout>
Could You tell me why it's rendering like that?

Ditch the Relative Layout. It's not a good fit for this type of layout.
Use the horizontal LinearLayout instead for your main container. Divide the screen into 2 parts, the imageView with set width and height, and another LinearLayout (vertical) with width set to 0dp and layout_weight to 1. Fill the vertical one with your 4 TextViews and center them. To make sure text will be visible call
.setEllipsize(TextUtils.TruncateAt.MARQUEE);
.setSingleLine(true);
.setMarqueeRepeatLimit(2);
.setSelected(true);
on your TextViews to make them scroll.
This should work on all devices with all types of screens, but you should be able to also just design special type of xml for small screens if you want to go that way.

For starters, you have this attribute, and 334dp is probably wider then the entire display:
android:layout_marginRight="334dp"
Did you mean something more reasonable like "34dp"?

How to implement correct UI for several screens in android

Here i am trying to handle different screens ,These are several screens i am trying to handle ,Here if i adjust for one screen remaining screens getting error ,not getting what is problem
here is
Here is my code
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:background="#drawable/transactionpagebg" >
<TextView
android:id="#+id/textView1"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_marginTop="160dp"
android:gravity="center"
android:paddingLeft="50dp"
android:text="Current Meter Reading"
android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceLarge"
android:textColor="#android:color/white" />
<LinearLayout
android:id="#+id/linearLayout1"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"
android:layout_alignParentRight="true"
android:layout_centerVertical="true"
android:gravity="center"
android:orientation="horizontal" >
<EditText
android:id="#+id/editText1"
android:layout_width="130dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:inputType="number" />
<Spinner
android:id="#+id/spinner1"
android:layout_width="150dp"
android:layout_height="50dp" />
</LinearLayout>
<AbsoluteLayout
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent" >
<Button
android:id="#+id/saveButton"
android:layout_width="113px"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_x="61dp"
android:layout_y="330dp"
android:background="#drawable/savebutton" />
<Button
android:id="#+id/settingsButton"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_x="208dp"
android:layout_y="330dp"
android:background="#drawable/settingbutton" />
</AbsoluteLayout>
</RelativeLayout>

to do as it need to be, you need to have support for different screen sizes you need to have different layouts, and also some changes in your manifest file...
check this question How to support different screen size in android
and this link http://developer.android.com/guide/practices/screens_support.html

There are many ways to make each view look right on various screens. However, I have found two methods are working best for me (at the moment):
To get the views to dynamically set their screen positions, wrap the widgets in a LinearLayout (LL), and put those LLs in a single LL. Set the weight of the inner LL to 1, and they will space themselves equally within the parent LL. This works for horizontal and vertical layouts. The distance between the widgets gets adjusted automatically by the OS.
create different dimens.xml folders/files for the different screen sizes (small, medium, large) and further differentiate them by density of needed (mdpi, hdpi, xhdpi, etc.). This way you can set margins, paddings, font sizes, for each size/density to get what you want.
EDIT: I see you put "TRANSACTION" in the background drawable? You can't do that! You need to create an image with just the text, and put it in an ImageView at the top of the layout. That way, you can set its position and size as needed for different screens, and make the other widgets adjust their positions relative to that image.
Even better would be to find a free font (ttf file) you can use that matches what you want, and put it in a TextView.
Here is a quick example of your layout with the ideas I mentioned. You would put the margins and font sizes in a dimens.xml file, so that you can adjust them.
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:id="#+id/LinearLayout1"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:background="#0000ee"
android:orientation="vertical" >
<LinearLayout
android:id="#+id/hh"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal"
android:layout_marginTop="36dp"
android:orientation="vertical" >
<TextView
android:id="#+id/textView1"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal"
android:layout_marginBottom="36dp"
android:text="TRANSACTION"
android:textColor="#ffffff"
android:textSize="28sp" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/test_textView1"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:gravity="center_horizontal"
android:text="Current Meter Reading"
android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceLarge"
android:textColor="#android:color/white" />
</LinearLayout>
<LinearLayout
android:id="#+id/test_linearLayout1"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:gravity="center"
android:orientation="horizontal" >
<EditText
android:id="#+id/test_editText1"
android:layout_width="130dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_marginRight="24dp"
android:background="#ffffff"
android:inputType="number" />
<Spinner
android:id="#+id/test_spinner1"
android:layout_width="150dp"
android:layout_height="50dp"
android:background="#999999" />
</LinearLayout>
<LinearLayout
android:id="#+id/LinearLayout1"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal"
android:layout_weight="1" >
<Button
android:id="#+id/test_saveButton"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_marginRight="24dp"
android:text="Save" />
<Button
android:id="#+id/test_settingsButton"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content" />
</LinearLayout>
</LinearLayout>

Android Xml button layout

I have a problem while placing the buttons in my xml file.
Now what I want is that the "ok" button at the bottom should come below the mileage edit text that is at the second last strip. I am using a scroll view before the button. Also I am using a single image as a background.
How is it possible that all my buttons in my application only come on the second last strip (gray color)? The rest of the layout should come in between (i.e. between top gray strip and the bottom gray strip).
I tried using margin_top or margin_bottom in 'dp' but its not coming properly plus on every other phone the layout of button changes. Here is my code (.xml file):
<?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:background="#drawable/menu"
android:padding="10dp">
<ScrollView
android:id="#+id/scv"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_marginTop="105dp"
android:layout_marginBottom="105dp" >
<RelativeLayout
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content" >
<EditText
android:id="#+id/editText1"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignParentTop="true"
android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
android:layout_marginTop="10dp"
android:ems="10"
android:hint="Year"
android:inputType="date" />
<Spinner
android:id="#+id/spinner1"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignLeft="#+id/editText1"
android:layout_alignRight="#+id/editText1"
android:layout_below="#+id/editText1"
android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
android:layout_marginTop="10dp" />
<Spinner
android:id="#+id/spinner2"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignLeft="#+id/spinner1"
android:layout_alignRight="#+id/spinner1"
android:layout_below="#+id/spinner1"
android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
android:layout_marginTop="10dp" />
<Spinner
android:id="#+id/spinner3"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignLeft="#+id/spinner2"
android:layout_alignRight="#+id/spinner2"
android:layout_below="#+id/spinner2"
android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
android:layout_marginTop="10dp" />
<EditText
android:id="#+id/editText2"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignLeft="#+id/spinner3"
android:layout_below="#+id/spinner3"
android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
android:layout_marginTop="10dp"
android:ems="10"
android:hint="Mileage"
android:inputType="number" />
</RelativeLayout>
</ScrollView>
<Button
android:id="#+id/button1"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"
android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
android:layout_marginBottom="10dp"
android:text="OK" />
</RelativeLayout>

You should never use a single image for your complete layout on Android. That just doesn't run very well as you have so many different screen sizes.
I'd recommend you cut the graphic out in portions and make it stretch so it will fit depending on the screen size. It's not really possible to help you much more based on the poorly copy paste of your own code and the lack of visualization of what you want the graphic to look like.

For your button xml, try
<Button
android:id="#+id/button1"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_below="#id/scv"
android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
android:text="OK" />
You can add android:layout_marginTop="5sp" changing the value if necessary.
This will place your button below your scrollview.

Not all elements are displayed on smaller screens

I have a linear layout with some EditText and Buttons. And when running the app on smaller screens, the layout gets cut off (not all elements are displayed). I've added <supports-screens ...> in manifest, but it's still not working. Is there a way to display all elements?
Edit: Code:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:orientation="vertical" >
<TextView
android:id="#+id/textView1"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium"
android:textStyle="bold"
android:text="#string/tx" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/textView2"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="#string/tx1"
android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium" />
<EditText
android:id="#+id/editText1"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:ems="10"
android:hint="#string/ed1"
android:inputType="number" >
<requestFocus />
</EditText>
<TextView
android:id="#+id/textView3"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="#string/tx2"
android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium" />
<EditText
android:id="#+id/editText2"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:hint="#string/ed2"
android:inputType="textCapCharacters|textAutoCorrect"
android:ems="10" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/textView4"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="#string/tx3"
android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium" />
<EditText
android:id="#+id/editText3"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:hint="#string/ed3"
android:inputType="textCapCharacters|textAutoCorrect"
android:ems="10" />
<RadioGroup
android:id="#+id/radioGroup1"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content" >
<RadioButton
android:id="#+id/radio1"
android:layout_width="304dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:checked="true"
android:text="#string/radioTX1" />
<RadioButton
android:id="#+id/radio2"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="#string/radioTX2" />
<RadioButton
android:id="#+id/radio3"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="#string/radioTX3" />
</RadioGroup>
<Button
android:id="#+id/button1"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:onClick="doSomething"
android:text="#string/bt1" />

You should make sure to make your layouts as flexible as possible. This includes using things like RelativeLayouts, and things like layout_weight. You can also preview your layouts in the android layout editor by changing the screen size ... this ensures that it will behave as expected on smaller (or larger) screen sizes.
The mindset should be similar to web developers making responsive layouts. Some great documentation/guidance from Google can be found here:
http://developer.android.com/training/multiscreen/screensizes.html

Well, if there isn't enough space to show all this on a small screen, then you should put this all these inside a ScrollView so that the user can scroll the page. Android won't add a ScrollView automatically for you.
You can do this for all sizes of screen (shouldn't hurt anyone even if they have a bigger screen) or only for the smaller screens.