Nexus 7: 7" 1280x800
Galaxy tab 10.1 10" 1280x800
I want my app to run on 7 and 10 inch tablets. As far as I know, I have to include these layout folders in my app:
for 7 inch tablets
layout-sw600dp
layout-sw600dp-port
for 10 inch tablets
layout-sw720dp
layout-sw720dp-port
It runs fine on the nexus 7, but loads the sw600dp layouts on the 10" tablet.
If I include these default folders:
layout
layout-port
10" galaxy tab loads layouts from these.
If I only include the default layout folders and the sw600dp one, it crashes on the nexus7.
How am I supposed to support phones, 7" tablets and 10" tablets, if the 10" galaxy tab won't load the sw720p layouts?
edit:formatting
The problem was, that I had no default layout folder.
I tried getting by, using only the sw600dp and sw720dp folders. I still have no idea why they don't work, but I don't care. I can't use swxxxdp <3.2 anyway, so screw that.
So if you want to write an app, that has to support phones(2.2+), 7inch tablets and 10 inch tablets, use the following oldschool stuff:
layout this is the default, it is needed even if you don't plan to support phones!
layout-large for 7" tablet (works on emulator and nexus7)
layout-xlarge for 10" tablet (works on emulator and galaxytab10.1)
Other people have came to the same conclusion too.
I am also facing such problem in my application. But I found a good solution for this.
I have only one layout for tablet and directory name is layout-sw600dp.
Now, when part came to height and width problems, I have created several different values directory in which i place dimensions and font size and other stubs. So there will be no constant value in layout of tablet screen.
androd:layout_width:"60dp" // i drop this scenario
androd:layout_width:"#dimen/tab_width" // i used this scenario
and your values directory name will be like
values-xlarge
values-large
All the values will be fetched from your values directory. It will not create different layout, but one layout can be used multiple times.
Following are words of Developer.android site.
Configuration examples
To help you target some of your designs for different types of devices, here are some numbers for typical screen widths:
320dp: a typical phone screen (240x320 ldpi, 320x480 mdpi, 480x800 hdpi, etc).
480dp: a tweener tablet like the Streak (480x800 mdpi).
600dp: a 7” tablet (600x1024 mdpi).
720dp: a 10” tablet (720x1280 mdpi, 800x1280 mdpi, etc).
Using the size qualifiers from table 2, your application can switch between your different layout resources for handsets and tablets using any number you want for width and/or height. For example, if 600dp is the smallest available width supported by your tablet layout, you can provide these two sets of layouts:
res/layout/main_activity.xml # For handsets
res/layout-sw600dp/main_activity.xml # For tablets
===
In this, you can see that, layout for 1280*720 is under layout-sw720dp so instead of creating layout-normal-xlarge you should use this thing which lets you to decide differences. Instead of identify differently using layout-large-mdpi and layout-large-ldpi, are't you just identify by its smallest width? Because, android providing drawables directory for different images, only thing is its resolution. And you have above solution.
Edit
Then you must have to develop different layouts. No other option. I found at http://jamil.fluidsoul.net/2011/03/06/creating-android-applications-for-multiple-screen-sizes.
Low density Small screens QVGA 240x320 (120dpi):
layout-small-ldpi (240x320)
layout-small-land-ldpi (320x240)
Low density Normal screens WVGA400 240x400 (x432) (120dpi):
layout-ldpi (240 x 400 )
layout-land-ldpi (400 x 240 )
Medium density Normal screens HVGA 320x480 (160dpi):
layout-mdpi (320 x 480 )
layout-land-mdpi (480 x 320 )
Medium density Large screens HVGA 320x480 (160dpi):
layout-large-mdpi (320 x 480 )
layout-large-land-mdpi (480 x 320)
Galaxy Tab ( 240 dpi ):
layout-large (600 x 1024)
layout-large-land (1024 x 600)
High density Normal screens WVGA800 480x800 (x854) (240 dpi):
layout-hdpi (480 x 800)
layout-land-hdpi (800 x 480)
Xoom (medium density large but 1280x800 res) (160 dpi):
layout-xlarge (800 x 1280)
layout-xlarge-land (1280 x 800)
Yes, you should use layout-dependent folders but also make sure any device independent layouts go in your res/layout folder.
This is mentioned on the Android developer site but to reiterate their point, if you have a layout that is only available in an layout-xlarge folder on an app that supports say large and normal sized devices as well, the app will crash as smaller devices will not be able to find any match for this resource.
Here is a good folder structure, start with:
res/layout
Keep a device-independent layout in there, you can avoid this if you are accounting for every possible qualifier type but this is still the safer option.
If you want to add specific layouts for say 7 and 10 inch tablets, use all of the following:
res/layout-large
res/layout-xlarge
res/layout-sw600dp
res/layout-sw720dp
res/layout-sw800dp
And so on for any specific device screen widths you want to support. It should be noted that sw600 supports the smallest possible width, so avoids the use of the screen width when the device is held landscape. Using the swxxxdp qualifers are preferred but these were added in API 13 so you will still need large, xlarge for older Android OS.
Regarding use of the dpi, be aware that if you ONLY set one density qualifier for a size, so layout-large-mdpi for example, then any devices that match the large qualifier will use layouts from here instead of another folder, this is due to the Best Match criteria, which you can read about here. It will match it as a large device before it will match the density so non-mdpi density screens will still use these layouts.
To counter this, you will have to include folders for whatever other densities you support as well, so layout-large-hdpi following on from the above example, and include in this folder hdpi versions of layouts that you have used in the mdpi folder if you require them to be different.
Avoid duplicating your layouts as well of course, don't copy device-independent layouts into every unused folder if you only need them in res/layout, try and only keep the layouts that need these qualifiers in the folders and organise them properly, making sure your folders are named with the qualifiers in the right order of precedence to prevent using the wrong folder for a density/size combination.
This is very strange, since you are doing the correct thing.
The sw600dp qualifier should be selected by the Nexus 7.
If available, the sw720dp qualifier should be selected by the Galaxy Tab.
Are you sure it crashes when trying to find an appropriate layout? Android may find the correct layout, but something in the layout xml file may be missing and the crash is caused by that.
Related
I have developed an app for phones. Now I need to support it to tablets as well. I need to change few dimensions of few views. I had kept 4 values folders for hdpi, xhdpi, xxhdpi and xxxhdpi. Now for a 7" tab I have kept values-sw600dp and for 10" inch tab I have kept values-sw720dp. But any changes I make in the dimens folders of the 600dp and 720dp does not change when I run in the tab. The 7" tab takes the values of values-hdpi folder. How do I support for both screens and tabs?
Please suggest.
My 7" inch tap get resourses from sw320dp folder, You need use
dp = px / (dpi / 160)
to find right size qualifier.
This link have morе information:
Application Skeleton to support multiple screen
And answer from https://developer.android.com/guide/practices/screens_support.html?hl=ru#DeclaringTabletLayouts The proper way to declare tablet layouts was to put them in a directory with the xlarge configuration qualifier (for example, res/layout-xlarge/).
If you actually have a tablet that has a smallest width of 600dp (values-sw600dp), then it should prioritize that over that over values-hdpi (see here). Are you sure your tablet is actually 600dp?
I have created an android application that is working fine in the mobile handsets. Now I want it to be compatible for 7" and 10" tablets as well. For this I have created drawable folders as well as layout folders (sw600dp for 7 and sw720dp for 10).
There are many 7 inches tablets in the market. With different pixel as well as screen density.
For instance - 7 inch tablets range from Width x Height (600 X 1024) to (1200 x 1920) with PPI ranging from 170 to 323.
Similarty 10 inch tablets range from Width x Height (768 X 1280) to (1600 x 2560) with PPI ranging from 132 to 300.
I have created my image resources in the sw600dp and sw720dp considering the base size of the 7 and 10 inch tablets which is 600 x 1024 and 768 x 1280. I have designed my layouts in a way that my application looks fine in both these pixel and PPI densities.
BUT WHAT ABOUT THE REST OF THE DEVICES?
I need a way to make sure that my application looks great on all the 7 and 10 inches tablets available in the market. How do I achieve this?
Google has recommended that developer should focus on the density of the device rather its size but here problem is that If I try the DisplayMetrics to find the density of the current device and show my drawable and layouts accordingly - possibility is that I might display wrong drawable in wrong layouts since the PPI range of 7 inch (170 - 323) and 10 inch (132 - 300) overlap with each other.
How do I make sure to display right drawable and layouts for the current device? Do I need to create multiple drawable and layouts folders for the 7 inch and 10 inch tablets or will 2 drawable and 2 layouts (sw600dp and sw720dp) will suffice for this?
Kindly suggest as I am facing this problem for many days now. TIA.
First of all, you don't need to check DisplayMetrics for all the devices. You need not worry about the "actual screen density"; instead look for the "generalized density".
From the docs,
A set of six generalized densities:
ldpi (low) ~120dpi
mdpi (medium) ~160dpi
hdpi (high) ~240dpi
xhdpi (extra-high) ~320dpi
xxhdpi (extra-extra-high) ~480dpi
xxxhdpi (extra-extra-extra-high) ~640dpi
You need to specify your layouts and drawables in their appropriate density specific folder to get them right on the different devices.
For example, you have some image to show, then create copies of that image with different dimensions (small size image for small display, large size image for large display). Once you get these images ready then put them into the density folders (for drawables it will be drawable-hdpi/, drawable-mdpi/ etc). Thats it. Now when your app runs, system will detect the screen density and will take the image from appropriate folder.
For details on this, read Supporting Multiple Screens.
I'm trying to figure out how to define different layout for different screen density.
At the moment I have to manage a 7" (Nexus 7), 10" (galaxy tab S) and now a 9.7" (Galaxy tab A) tablets
So I've defined for now two layouts directories :
layout (for 7")
layout-sw720dp (should be only for 10")
My problem is the 9.7" tablet match the layout-sw720dp directory as my 10" tablet. So from this point I don't know how to define another layout directory based only on my 9.7" tablet.
The density of the 10" is 288ppi and the density of the 9.7" is 132ppi.
I guess if the density would be the same I wouldn't have this problem.
Is it possible to create a new directory layout based only on the density ? What is the best practice for this use case and manage at the same time my 10" layout and my 9.7" layout with a different density ?
you have two options for this either you use
layout-sw600dp
layout-sw720dp
layout-sw800dp
or use the dpi wise folder structure like this
drawable-land-mdpi
drawable-land-hdpi
drawable-land-xhdpi
drawable-land-xxhdpi
What I've done is instead of using layout-sw720dp I used these two layouts:
layout-hpdi for 10" with hight dpi
layout-mdpi for 9.7 with medium dpi
And it seems to work good.
Edit
Actually I kept layout-sw720dp and then I use also a value-hdpi and value-mdpi resource directories to manage at the same time screen size and density.
I am using the emulator to test the screen layout for Motorola Razr phone at Landscape mode.
The phone dimensions are not common like other phones and so I am getting smaller layout with respect to the screen size of the phone.
Physical size: 4.5 inches
Resolution: 720 x 1280 pixels
Pixel density: 326 ppi
I already have folders for handling multiple size tablets and phones in res folder -
layout
layout-large
layout-large-land
layout-large-land-tvdpi
layout-sw600dp-land
layout-xlarge
So the phone (Motorola Razr) is using layout folder xml to display the contents but this is small enough for the phone resolution.
What should be the layout folder for this phone specification ?
If I create layout-sw720dp folder and put the layout file there, the application still takes layout file from layout.
If I create layout-w720-h1280 folder then I gets compile time error after creation with red cross mark on this folder.
The post new-tools-for-managing-screen-sizes mentions -
Typical numbers for screen width dp are:
320: a phone screen (240x320 ldpi, 320x480 mdpi, 480x800 hdpi, etc).
480: a tweener tablet like the Streak (480x800 mdpi).
600: a 7” tablet (600x1024).
720: a 10” tablet (720x1280, 800x1280, etc).
But then my device is not a 10” tablet but a 4.5 inch phone so that to use the smallest dp value.
UPDATE:
The Motorola Razr phone is a xhdpi device, so I have to divide a pixel-based dimension by 2 to get the dimension in dp. So the Motorola Razr is 640dp tall, and 360dp wide.
layout-sw720dp - Wrong folder.
layout-sw360dp - Right folder.
With the above statement in account I created a layout-sw360dp folder and kept my layout files there. Now the application is successfully taking the layout files from this folder to show for this device.
But now, another problem arises. My 7' tablet device is also taking layout files from this folder instead of layout-large-land from where it was taking the layout files previously.
So again this idea dropped!
Any help....
What I have in my project is:
values-small;
values-normal;
valuse-large;
valuse-xlarge;
these folders contain the dimensions of the images and texts for all the screen sizes;
But should I add hdpi,mdpi... although I've added the size of the image in dp, and the size of the text in sp..?
example:
<dimen name="btnwidth">60dp</dimen>
<dimen name="btnheight">60dp</dimen>
<dimen name="fsinlistview">25sp</dimen>
because I am not getting the needed result on all the devices...
So why the dp and sp aren't being fixed depending on the screen dpi?
Create a Single layout for default screens 4.7 inch (hdpi) in layout folder and dimensions in values folder. This is your superset.
Now let say you want your layouts for 7inch devices.
Create values-sw320dp folder for 7inch in Portrain orientation
Now lets say you want your layouts for 10 inch devices
Create values-dw720dp folder
NOTE :- For landscape just add "-land" in front of folder names.
Now lets say you have new devices such as Xperia SP (4.7' and XHDPI) and Nexus 5(5" and XXHDPI).
For these, you can create values-xhdpi and values-xxhdpi folders..
I hope you got the point of how to create folders..
Now your superset is defined in values folder. Most of the dimensions will be used from here only. Now run your app in other devices. Whatever mismatch is occuring just add that specific dimension in their respective values folder
The answer from #RahulGupta is pretty flawed. You should more follow what #amalBit has written.
As mentioned in my comment, the basic idea is to have a very flexible layout with some basic "cross screen" settings that you can and should follow
For example: The Settings list has on a phone maybe 16-32 dp margin on the sides, on a xlarge tablet like the Nexus 10 it has a way bigger margin. I highly doubt that the Settings screen was built with dozens of dimens files to fit all and every screen resolution, dimension and dpi. I guess that is basically just using one default for all and for the bigger tablets it is using a bigger value. So maybe a differenciation between 320dp and 720dp.
My suggestion: Start small with one layout, one dimens.xml file in your values folder and use a normal phone for your development. When you have done the layouting on it, check it on different screens and see if you need to modify something. Normally on a low res/low dpi device, the paddings/margins and sizes should scale correctly and in a good visual way.
The biggest "issues" you will face with 7"+ tablets and for them I would just start by creating a separate dimens.xml file and increase the dimens I need to make it better looking.
Normally the default values folder should contain 80% of your "style", the rest are just additions to make them fit perfect.
Check this link Supporting multiple screens.
From the above link:
320dp: a typical phone screen (240x320 ldpi, 320x480 mdpi, 480x800 hdpi, etc).
480dp: a tweener tablet like the Streak (480x800 mdpi).
600dp: a 7” tablet (600x1024 mdpi).
720dp: a 10” tablet (720x1280 mdpi, 800x1280 mdpi, etc).
Check out this converter.