different layouts for different screen size - android

I finished to develop (application part) the app for my project, but now I have problems with the layout. I created the following folders and edited the xml file:
layout (default)
layout-large
layout-normal
layout-small
layout-xlarge
On my smartphone (Galaxy S Advance - screen 800x480), the layout is ok, colleague's smartphone (HTC MINI ONE - screen 720x1280) the app haven't got the appropriate layout. In both cases (my smartphone and colleague's smartphone), android loads layout-normal.
What's wrong ???
Thank you

Please mind screen densities for layouts. Even though you put layout files in appropriate layout containers it does not mean in anyway that Android will respect the folders as densities too play an important role in the way how Android selects the correct layout.xml file.
Any device less than 5 inches will fall under sw320dp category your solution would be then to create separate folders named layout-sw320dp-ldpi, layout-sw320dp-mdpi, layout-sw320dp-hdpi, layout-sw320dp-xhdpi and layout-sw320dp-xxhdpi and put the corresponding xml files in them.
Similarly you can approach other screen sizes like layout-sw600dp and layout-sw720dp etc with above screen densities.

You can create different layouts for different Screens width instead of just create small and large dpi folders, in this method you will just have one drawable folder contains all of your resources and multiple layout folders, the main one called layout and contains the default layouts in order to run the specified layout in case it didn't find it in another layout folder, and the folders hierarchy as described in android developers page will be like :
res/layout/main_activity.xml # For handsets (smaller than 600dp available width)
res/layout-sw600dp/main_activity.xml # For 7” tablets (600dp wide and bigger)
res/layout-sw720dp/main_activity.xml # For 10” tablets (720dp wide and bigger)
and for example if you want a customized layouts to 340dp screen width you will create layout-sw340dp folder inside res folder, So it will be like
res/layout-sw340dp/main_activity.xml
and the program will automatically assign the layout to the appropriate folder according to the device width.

As you provide layout-large layout-normal layout-small layout-xlarge 4 layout categories. The layout folder(without any qualifier) will be useless. All devices will fall into the other 4 screen buckets.
From your description, I guess you should remove layout-normal folder from your resource.
In addition, normal, large and the other two are just "ranges". If you want more accurate control over screen sizes, you can use layout-sw

Please Remove loyout folder for Your app Besouse The layout folder will be useless
Galaxy S Advance - screen 800x480 layout-hdpi
For devices having 720 * 1280 resolution, you can use layout-w720-h1280 folder

Related

Supporting different screens for android

This is my first time working with multiple screens. I want to build my application for multiple screens i.e from sw320dp to sw720dp. I have created the following layout folders.
res/layout-sw320dp
res/layout-sw360dp
res/layout-sw480dp
res/layout-sw600dp
res/layout-sw720dp
I have copied all the xml files inside these folders. Is there anything else I need to add to make sure all the layouts support multiple screens. I have gone through the android documentation but I am not clear with the manifest.xml part. If anyone implemented multiple screen support in their application, so please do provide a description and implementation of the same.
Step 1 -You have to create different values folder for Different values for different screens.
Go to Your Project / app / src / main / res.
Right click on res and create different values folder in it.
Step - 2. Create folders named
values-large
values-small
values-sw320dp
values-sw320dp-hdpi
values-sw320dp-xhdpi
values-sw320dp-xxhdpi
values-sw480dp
values-sw600dp
values-sw720dp
Step - 3. Create dimensions.xml file in values folders.
Different values for different screen size.
values-ldpi 2.7" 240*320 ldpi
values-ldpi 3.3" 240*400 ldpi
values-ldpi 3.4" 240*432 ldpi
values-mdpi 3.2" 320*480 mdpi
values-hdpi 4.0" 480*800 hdpi
values-hdpi 3.7" 480*854 hdpi
values-xhdpi 4.7" 1280*720 xhdpi
values-xhdpi 4.65" 720*1280 xhdpi
values-sw480dp 5.1" 480*800 mdpi
values-sw480dp 5.4" 480*854 mdpi
values-sw600dp 7.0" tablet 1024*600 mdpi
values-sw720dp 10.1" tablet 1280*800 mdpi
when you attach dimension.xml file with your layout than you will get direct effect with your screen size.
This will help you to set dimensions for all type of screens.
There is a difference between supporting multiple screen sizes and creating different layout.xml files for each screen size.
In all the apps I've ever worked on, there were really only three different kinds of screens we cared about: small phones (years-old devices that our users weren't upgrading), "regular" phones (e.g. modern-day Samsung or LG phones etc), and tablets. Even considering those three kinds of screens, we often didn't need to create more than a single layout.xml file for a single screen.
If you have just one layout.xml file, it will display itself on any screen size. To "support" multiple screen sizes, you just need to make sure that your content looks good on short phones and tall phones, on wide phones and narrow phones, on phones and tablets, etc. This generally comes down to using dimensions like match_parent, or layout_weight to fill available space, etc.
It is only when you actually need to change what elements are on screen (as opposed to how big elements are) that you need to create extra layout.xml files. For instance, perhaps you know that a certain set of text + images just won't fit on smaller phones. Then you can create one res/layout/layout.xml that has only the text, and another res/layout-sw360dp/layout.xml that has the text + the image. Or maybe you have some content that you want to display side-by-side on a tablet, but you only want part of it on phones. Then you can make one res/layout/layout.xml with the normal content and one res/layout-sw600dp/layout.xml with the tablet-only content.
Regardless, when you decide that you do want to make multiple versions of a layout for different screen sizes, the only thing you have to do is create copies of your layout.xml in different layout-swXXXdp folders. Don't bother with layout-large unless your app supports really old API levels; the swXXXdp method is much more accurate and solves the same problem (but was only added in API 13).
Hey you dont need to do anything in manifest.
You have done the part with layouts.
Next you can do is to add support in drawable folder i.e. different density images for different sizes.
And if different screens require different values(dimentions etc) you need to create multiple file in values.

Android : Screen Size

I'm working on android application and got in trouble of multiple screen support. I developed the app for 1080x1920 and when i tested the app on my friends Micromax Unite 2 with resolution of 480x800, it was something else. So i made two folders in the layout as:
layout-1080x1920
layout-480x800
thinking that the 480x800 device will pick up the layout-480x800 folder. But no it used the layout-1080x1920. So what should i do? So that the device having resolution of 480x800 works on layout-480x800
I suggest naming the folders as such:
layout-sw600dp
Where sw600dp means Screen Width 600dp. This layout folder will be used by devices with screen widths of 600dp or more (typically all 7-10 inch tablets, or just very dense screen). And when you are targeting for the phone use just the layout folder without any specified criteria. All phones not matching the sw600dp will use the default layout resources. Possibly also consider using
layout-sw600dp-port
if you need to use specific layouts for portrait orientation, likewise you can do
layout-sw600dp-land
if you wanted to specified layouts for landscape.
The link cricket_007 provided is where I learned this information
Note that 1080x1920 equates to about 540 x 960 dp in dp measurement, which is why I suggested to use the particular 600dp for width
giving the folder names pixel according to android screen support dev page. Even if you know all possible resolutions for every device, the android system takes those *xml files/drawables etc specified by their DPI, not PX. Those dpi resolutions still can change on runtime, such as, when your activity uses a tool bar (which is not part of your dpi resolution). Name your folders layout-xlarge, layout-large, layout-normal, layout-small for *xml layouts. I suggest to put 4 different xml files with same name in each of them and try it again for different devices.

How can I fix android tablet's width and height

I am making android application in tablet using fragments so that I arranged 8 buttons vertically in 10.1 tablet it is showing fine but in 7.1 tablet only 5 icons it is showing.
So How can I manage height and width properly in all tablets ... please help
Remember to write different xml layouts (with same name) and place to different folders: layout-large, layout-normal, layout-small and layout-xlarge. Same is with drawables (different size images) and values (different type padding and other values). These folders are for different phone/tablet types with various resolution and screen size. If you do it, then you can easily manage layout for small device and not touch big screen devices. Device is picking xml file automatically so it's good practice to place xml files in different folders for various phones.
More information you can find in http://developer.android.com/guide/practices/screens_support.html
You can use different layout for different screen sizes. You can also add different buttons and other drawable also. Please see the link
Supporting Multiple Screens
You can write different xml layouts using different folders:
For example:
res/layout
res/layout-sw600dp //used by 7''
res/layout-sw720dp //used by 10''
Also you can use the same layout with the same component but with different dimensions.
You can use #dimen/my_dimen notation, and then put your my_dimen in different folders like:
res/values/dimens.xml
res/values-sw600dp/dimens.xml
and so on..
Official doc: http://developer.android.com/guide/practices/screens_support.html

Android - standard layout folder, which screen size?

I'm implementing an application and I want to support all screen sizes. I have 4 layout folders: layout, layout-small, layout-large and layout-xlarge.
Which screen size supports the standard layout folder? Is it even necessary?
Which screen size supports the standard layout folder?
In your case, it will depend on what files are in what directories.
Let's say that you have main.xml in layout/, and not in any of the other three candidates. Then, setContentView(R.layout.main) will use the copy in layout/.
Now, let's say that you add a revised version of main.xml in layout-xlarge/. On an -xlarge device, Android will use the layout-xlarge/ version of main.xml, and on other screen sizes, Android will use the layout/ version of main.xml.
Now, let's say that you add a third main.xml version, this time in layout-small/. Android will still use the layout-xlarge/ copy of main.xml for -xlarge devices. However, all other devices will use layout-small/, and the layout/ copy of main.xml will be ignored. Android will not try to shrink a layout from a larger size (e.g., -xlarge layout on a -normal device), but it will try to expand a layout from a smaller size (e.g., a -small layout on a -normal device).
What I tend to do is use layout/ for:
Layouts that do not need different versions for different sizes
Layouts to be used on -normal devices (as I rarely support -small)
I then use layout-large/, layout-xlarge/, or their Android 3.1+ replacements (e.g., layout-w720dp/) for layouts to be used on larger screen sizes.
However, that is just my particular style, and you are welcome to do what you want, within the usage rules described above.
using modern notation is a better solution:
/layout // for phones
/layout-sw600dp // for 7 inch tablets
/layout-sw720dp // for 10 inch tablets
In popular:
Mdpi screen smartphone is cheap
Hdpi screen smartphone is expensive.
If you use layouts only mdpi folder, this layout will be used for all screens
Legend:
layout-small = ldpi
layout = mdpi
layout-large = hdpi
layout-xlarge = xhdpi

How can we force Android System to take a specific layout from a specific layout folder

I've main.xml in layout and layout-xlarge folder. In phones with wider screens like Galaxy Note, I would like to use main.xml from layout-xlarge folder. How can I redirect the android system to use that specific layout file dynamically from code based on condition?
For eg : if some condition is true, then use main.xml file from layout folder and if false use main.xml from layout-xlarge folder.
You can't do that any how you don't want to redirect the Android system if you are using XHDPI devices it will take from layout-xhdpi.. Say for example Samsung S3 it will takes layout as layout-xhdpi.. It always depends on Devices Densities.
Say if DPI is 120dpi - layout-ldpi
DPI is 160dpi - layout-mdpi
DPI is 240 & 256dpi - layout-hdpi
DPI is >256dpi - layout-xhdpi
All above given values is approximately.
Quick solution :
Duplicate main.xml and name it something like main_phone_large.xml
Then in your main activity.
//whatever width you decide for
if(getResources().getDisplayMetrics().widthPixels > 500){
setContentView(R.layout.main_phone_large.xml);
}else
setContentView(R.layout.main.xml);
You don't have anything to do, as long as you provide different layouts for the different densities, the system will automatically select the one that is adapted to the device screen.
You also don't have to provide layouts for all densities. If some elements don't need a different layout, simply create a xml in the layout folder and it will be used for all screen densities.
I highly recommend you read this page of the official documentation : http://developer.android.com/guide/practices/screens_support.html

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