I'm a little confused, hopefully somebody can clarify for me.
I have a dimens file in /res/values, but I want to override some of those default dimens for normal-mdpi screens. i.e. I want to have special dimens for normal-mdpi that won't affect the rest of my screen size / density buckets.
However, the dimens I put in res/values-normal-mdpi/dimens.xml are affecting other screen sizes / resolution buckets (e.g. large-xhdpi). I would expect large-xhdpi to still pull from res/values and not be affected by what I put in rev/values-normal-mdpi.
Does anyone why? And how I can achieve the desired effect?
This SO Question is very similar, and the answers to it very helpful (1) (2). Basically, the Android system will find the best match using these methods. For screen density, it will find the closest match and take that. It will only use res/values/dimens.xml if the dimension isn't in any of the density-specific directories.
In this case, create another version of dimens in any directory that will be a "better match" for the other devices that you want to support (ex: values-hdpi), and put the default values of the dimens that were overriden in there.
Related
I am creating different values folder for supporting different screen sizes.The following are the folders:
values-sw320dp-hdpi
values-sw320dp-xhdpi
values-sw320dp-xxhdpi
values-sw420dpi
values-sw560dpi
values-sw480dp-hdpi
values-sw480dp-xhdpi
values-sw480dp-xxhdpi
values-sw600dp
values-sw720dp
In the list of devices provided by Android Studio there is 1080x1920 420dpi.It should access dimens values from values-sw420dp.But instead it is accessing from sw320dp-xxhdpi.The layout in 1080x1920 420dpi **looks slightly different from **1080x1920 xxhdpi. Can anyone explain to me why it is not accessing from its own folder?Or could you explain to me the correct way to create a layout so that it support different screen sizes with different densities?I have referred different sites.They are confusing..Please help me!!
I am creating different values folder for supporting different screen sizes.
First, using density qualifiers (e.g., -xhdpi) on resource types other than drawable and mipmap is a serious code smell. Almost assuredly, you are not going to get the results that you expect.
Second, there is no -sw420dpi or -sw560dpi qualifier. You could have -sw420dp or -sw560dp, to say that you want to use these resources for those screen size thresholds. However, such directories would never be used, because of your density qualifiers on directories like values-sw320dp-hdpi.
In the list of devices provided by Android Studio there is 1080x1920 420dpi.It should access dimens values from values-sw420dp
No, it should not.
The smallest width of that screen is 1080px. 1080px, at 420dpi, is 411dp (1080 * 160 / 420). 411 < 420. Hence, anything that is -sw420dp will not qualify.
But instead it is accessing from sw320dp-xxhdpi.
Partially, that is because 411 is lower than 420.
Partially, that is because you are using density qualifiers here, which short-circuit a lot of the "normal" rules for resource selection.
The layout in 1080x1920 420dpi **looks slightly different from **1080x1920 xxhdpi.
Your question has no layouts, so nobody can comment on that.
Can anyone explain to me why it is not accessing from its own folder?
There is no "its own folder".
Or could you explain to me the correct way to create a layout so that it support different screen sizes with different densities?
Use layout resources based on screen size and (perhaps) orientation (e.g., res/layout-sw420dp/)
Use dimen resources measured in sp (for sizing text or things that are dominated by text) or dp (for everything else) in those layout resources (e.g., <dimen name="margin">16dp</dimen>)
Use density qualifiers, and maybe size qualifiers, for drawable and mipmap resources (e.g., res/drawable-hdpi/)
Frequently, that is sufficient.
I have referred different sites.They are confusing
Perhaps consider reading a book.
I know there are many questions like this, I have read many blogs and questions on this and I am not satisfied by what I have understand.
I want to support multiple screens and resolutions like hdpi, xxxhdpi etc.
And i am using dimens.xml for this purpose. But m still unclear about how to calculate exact dp value for different screens.
For example if 48dp x 48dp ImageView is proper for hdpi device, what values should i define for xxhdpi device? Is there any fixed calulation just like there is for drawable images?
I am using these folder for trying to support multiple screens :
values-sw320dp-hdpi
values-sw320dp-xhdpi/xxhdpi/xxxhdpi
There are few problems I am facing currently
Though defining values in respective dimens.xml works almost for most of the devices, there are few devices which takes wrong values
For example I have Lg optimus G that is xhdpi device, but it reads values from values-sw320dp-xxxhdpi's dimens.xml instead of xhdpi one
I am not able to calculate the exact value for each resolution (hdpi,xhdpi etc), so the view which looks perfect in hdpi device, seems little large or small in xxxhdpi as I can't guess the value like if hdpi view size is 48dp then xxxhdpi should be of 64dp or something as I don't know the exact approach.
Also while searching for supporting different screens, I read many times about calculating dp at runtime based on density or calulating pixels etc.
I am too confused about all this. Please help me in understanding and learning the proper way of making responsive apps.
You can use resource qualifiers to specify different sizes for Views.
If you want the width of an ImageView to vary based on the size of the screen, create a new dimension in your dimens.xml file called image_view_width (for example).
This then essentially creates a copy of the dimens.xml but adding the 'Size' qualifier. This will create another version of the dimens.xmlfile, and any device that meets your specified qualifications will use that version of dimens.xml. You then add image_view_width to this new file and give it a different (smaller/bigger) value. You can do this as many times as you want and with as many different qualifiers as you want.
Finally, when you want to use this value in your layouts, you only have to type:
android:layout_width="#dimen/image_view_width"
and android will do the rest for you.
Hope this helps!
Hello I am using different textsizes depending on different screen sizes.
Like:
values-small: dimens.xml -> ?
values-normal: dimens.xml -> 10sp
values-large: dimens.xml -> ?
values-xlarge: dimens.xml -> ?
I want to know if there is a formula to set the right sizes depending on small, large, xlarge instead of setting sp size by testing it on different screens^^?
second question: is values-normal neccessary, isnt "values" folder == values-normal?
third question: what happens when I declare dimens.xml for small, normal, and large and the device is a XLARGE device will it use dimens.xml from values? or valuse-normal? or the next smaller one values-large?
thank you
I want to know if there is a formula to set the right sizes depending on small, large, xlarge instead of setting sp size by testing it on different screens
Not really. Many apps do not change their font size at all based on screen size, just as most Web apps do not change their font size based on browser window size. Of course, you are certainly welcome to specify different <dimen> resources for different screen sizes, including dimensions for use with text. And there's nothing stopping you from using an algorithm like the others suggest; just understand that there's no real reason to use that algorithm. To put it another way, a graphic designer should be telling you how big to make the text, not a calculator.
Moreover, the -small, -normal, etc. buckets are not used as much anymore, in favor of the more flexible -wNNNdp, -hNNNdp, and -swNNNdp buckets.
isnt "values" folder == values-normal?
No.
Suppose you have res/values-small/, res/values/, res/values-large/, and res/values-xlarge/. Further suppose that each resource set defines a text_size dimension resource, and you use that in in layouts (e.g., #dimen/text_size).
A -normal device will then pull from res/values-small/, as -small is for small screens or larger. Your res/values/ version of the resource will never be used. Hence, the typical pattern would be not have res/values-small/, putting your -small resources in res/values/, and overriding that default value in res/values-normal/, res/values-large/, and res/values-xlarge/.
what happens when I declare dimens.xml for small, normal, and large and the device is a XLARGE device will it use dimens.xml from values? or valuse-normal? or the next smaller one values-large?
It should pull from res/values-large/, as that is the closest match among the qualifying resource sets.
This is the common problem in majority of Android projects to support varied screen sizes.
In short, you can make use of scalable DP and scalable Font approach.
Android project structure inherently allows specifying different font size (SP) and margin values (DP) by defining them in dimens.xml files for supported screen sizes. But the problem that still remain is - what values to be used ? UX designers normally provide style guides for only one set (e.g. 360x640 DP screen size) and don't provide for all other supported screen sizes. So the problem to use right vlaues for other supported screen sizes still remain unanswered.
One good solution (per my understading) is to use readymade scalable dictionary of dimens.xml files, something similar to the dictionary of files provided by this library. After adding these xml files to project, you just need to use the keys in your layouts, then Android automatically uses font/margin value from respective directory. Please refer here for visual difference - with and without this approach.
I use the ratio 0.75 : 1 : 1.5 : 2 same as for DPIs. It works fine.
Say you have a dimens.xml file that goes in the res/values folder of your project. Then, you want to have some different dimensions based on screen density. So, for example, you can create res/values-hdpi/dimens.xml and res/values-xxhdpi/dimens.xml and have specific data for those configurations.
My question is, is there ever a reason to use res/values-mdpi? As I understand it, mdpi is the default density. Any values in the default values folder is considered mdpi so why is there ever a need for having values-mdpi?
Although I can think of a reason why you might have extra qualifiers such as values-en-mdpi, I don't see how values-mdpi is ever necessary when you can just put them in values.
I have the font size defined in my dimens.xml (e.g <dimen name="name_text_size">12sp</dimen>)
Since this size wasn't ok on all screens I created some additional folders with different values:
values-xhdpi
values-xlarge-mdpi
values-large-mdpi
I thought this should be enough, since before creating this layouts the text look ok on ldpi, mdpi and hdpi screens, but actually the font became too large. The problem is that I am not able to figure out from which file it takes the value now for these screens. Initially, I thought it uses the default value from the folder "values", but actually no layout is using that value. Can somebody help me understand(I sow Providing documentaion and Support Multiple Screens) how this folders are working and how could I optimize the number of defined resources (e.g. xhdpi and large-mdpi have the same values)?
The solution is simple create the following folders:
values-ldpi
values-mdpi
values-hdpi
But I don't want to make things more complicated than they must be.
Thanks in advance :)
You can provide the different string text in each Values-folder. Once it will run you can check from which folder its taking the string values.
You can achieve this by this trick.