AIR mobile always in landscape - android

I am making an app in AIR mobile that I need to be in landscape mode all the time. On most devices this is OK, but on some devices (Motorola XOOM for example) the app launches in landscape. At least on the build in emulator that comes with Flash Builder 4.5. I don't know if this is a problem with the emulator or if the XOOM has different orientations than most devices.
Anyway, I want to make sure that the device is always in landscape mode. This can be checked easily:
if(stage.stageWidth<stage.stageHeight){
//rotate screen;
}
What do I need to put in if statement to make sure that it is properly oriented?
Thanks.

In the *-app.xml file you can define how application should act:
<aspectRatio>landscape</aspectRatio>
<autoOrients>true</autoOrients>

Even with aspectRatio set to landscape and autoOrients set to false in application.xml, sometimes a device's orientation is incorrectly set during the first frame of a mobile air 3.1 app, so stage.stageWidth will return the smaller of the two dimensions. Several frames later it will flip to the correct orientation. This could be what you witnessed.
So if you need to know the landscape stage dimensions when your app first loads, use:
var width :Number = Math.max(stage.stageWidth, stage.stageHeight);
var height :Number = Math.min(stage.stageWidth, stage.stageHeight);
You should not need to rotate your entire app manually, but here's how:
this.rotationX = 90

You should take care in locking rotation in your app, if you ever submit to the Apple store you can be denied if the app won't adjust to the device being held upside down. Many devices differ in what their 'default' orientation is, but setting your app descriptor with a starting aspect ratio of landscape should work. In AIR 3.3 there is a change so that setting stage.aspectRatio will keep the expected aspect ratio, regardless of the device's default orientation, or the device being upside down.
You need to set:
<aspectRatio>landscape</aspectRatio>
<autoOrients>true</autoOrients>
in your app descriptor. You also need to set
-swf-version=16
in your compiler options. With these setting and AIR 3.3, the app will hold a landscape aspect ratio, regardless if the device is rotated to the 'top' of the device is on the left or the right. Setting the aspect ratio to portrait will make the device keep portrait aspect ration, even if the device is held upside down.

Related

Different layouts for portrait and landscape modes based on screen width, not orientation per se

I have two versions of my layout, for smaller screens and for larger screens. Incidentally, I have a device where different layouts are required in different orientations. On other device that may not be so. I want to base it on screen width, not the orientation as such.
I've read this article and noticed that the "Available screen width" (w<N>dp modifier) can be used for specifying the proper layouts. It also says:
The system's corresponding value for the width changes when the screen's orientation switches between landscape and portrait to reflect the current actual width that's available for your UI.
Sounds perfect. So I put the smaller layout in the base layout folder, and the larger one into layout-w750dp. And the larger layout is picked. The problem is that it doesn't switch to the base layout when I rotate the device into portrait mode.
I have used the code from this answer to check the screen width in dp. It's 960 in landscape and 600 in portrait. Then I made sure android:configChanges="orientation" is not specified for this activity. I have also put Log into this activity's onCreate() - it is indeed called when I rotate the device, so it should have received the correct layout?.. Why doesn't it work and how to make it work?
Update: launching the activity (and even the whole application) in portrait mode right from the start still picks the w750dp layout.
Update 2: layout-land didn't work either. This layout is still picked in the portrait mode. Odd. It's becoming clear that the issue has little to do with width but with general functioning of the resource selectors.
Comments are getting long so to answer.
I just tested on tablet (768x1024 dp) two layouts first in layout, second in layout-w900dp and everything works just fine.
Second layout is shown in landscape mode which is correct because 900 < 1024.
Note: I used getResources().getConfiguration().screenWidthDp for screen width!
So it's definitely problem on your side :)
Ether you messed up your layouts or android studio messing with you :D.
Sorry for lack of more definitive answer :/

Multi-windows in Android 7.0 - Always get landscape layout even though device in multiwindows portrait mode

I am developing an android application that supports multi-windows feature on Android 7.0.
I followed this guide on https://developer.android.com.
, imported sample project https://github.com/googlesamples/android-MultiWindowPlayground
I create a new resource named layout-land and did some testing. I recognized that landscape layout is inflated even though the device is in portrait mode.
Check out attached images.
How can I set portrait layout when device is in portrait mode.
Assume you have two screens. One is in landscape and one in portrait.
How can you say which one is in landscape and which one in portrait?
In portrait width of the screen is less than height.
And for landscape width of the screen is greater than height.
Agree?
So, here, when you enter multiwindow mode your app's window no longer fits screen - width is greater than height and it is considered as landscape.
That is why landscape layout resource is used.
There is no separate modifier for layout resource to be used in split-screen mode.
The only thing you can do to achieve portrait in your case is to remove layout-land.
Or you can create two separate layouts (without any modifiers such as -land) and in activity call activity.isInMultiWindowMode(); to choose corresponding layout you want to use.

REVERSE_PORTRAIT is not detectable?

I am developing an App, and I want whenever the user change the orientation of the device I display the current orientation of the device. Actually, I achieved this step, but when i rotate the device to be in REVERSE_PORTRAIT the screen does not obey the rotation, in other words, my screen can not be in the REVERSE_PORTRAIT.
In the manifest file, I changed the value of android:ScreenOrientation to be user, but still in the same problem, all the three orientations PORTRAIT, LANDSCAPE and REVERSE_LANDSCAPE are detectable EXCEPT REVERSE_PORTRAIT
How can I find a solution for this problem?
You can try to use fullSensor if you want every possible orientation
"fullSensor" The orientation is determined by the device orientation sensor for any of the 4 orientations. This is similar to "sensor" except this allows any of the 4 possible screen orientations, regardless of what the device will normally do (for example, some devices won't normally use reverse portrait or reverse landscape, but this enables those). Added in API level 9.
all the possible values for screenOrientation and some explanations are here :
http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/manifest/activity-element.html

Force android screen Orientation depending on screen size

I am writing an application that allows users to select various things on the screen.
On large 10 inch screens this looks best in landscape so I force landscape in the manifest file.
However, I want to make the application friendly for users of 8 (or 7) inch tablets as well. On these screen sizes the application should be forced in portrait mode.
Does anyone know how I can force the screen orientation depending on the screen size?
To find out if the device is a 7, 8 or 10 inches tablet, you can check this.
One way you can manipulate the device orientation is in every activity, after onCreate(), like this:
// set the orientation of the device
if(isTabletWith10Inches) {
setRequestedOrientation(ActivityInfo.SCREEN_ORIENTATION_LANDSCAPE);
} else {
setRequestedOrientation(ActivityInfo.SCREEN_ORIENTATION_PORTRAIT);
}

CSS Media Query - Soft-keyboard breaks css orientation rules - alternative solution?

I am working with multiple tablet devices - both Android and iOS. Currently I have following resolution variations for all the tablets.
1280 x 800
1280 x 768
1024 x 768 (iPad Obviously) - iPad does not have this issue
Simplest way to apply device orientation based style is to use media query's orientation using following syntax.
#media all and (orientation:portrait)
{
/* My portrait based CSS here */
}
#media all and (orientation:landscape)
{
/* My landscape based CSS here */
}
This works perfectly fine on all tablet devices. BUT, the problem is, when device is in portrait mode and user taps on any input field (eg. search) the soft-keyboard pops up - which reduces the visible area of web page and forces it to render in landscape based css. On android tablet devices, it depends on keyboard's height.
So, ultimately the web page looks broken. Therefore, I can't use CSS3's orientation media query to apply styles based on orientation (unless there is better media query to target orientation). Here is a fiddle http://jsfiddle.net/hossain/S5nYP/5/ which emulates this - for device testing use full test page - http://jsfiddle.net/S5nYP/embedded/result/
Here is a screenshot of the behaviour taken from the demo page.
So, is there any alternative to takle this issue, I'm open to JavaScript based solution if native CSS based solution does not work.
I found a snippet on http://davidbcalhoun.com/2010/dealing-with-device-orientation which suggests to add class on and target based on that. For example:
<html class="landscape">
<body>
<h1 class="landscape-only">Element Heading - Landscape</h1>
<h1 class="portrait-only">Element Heading - Portrait</h1>
<!-- .... more... ->
# CSS
.landscape .landscape-only { display:block; }
.landspace .portrait-only { display:none; }
.portrait .portrait-only { display:block; }
.portrait .landscape-only { display:none; }
What do you guys think about this? Do you have better solution?
I know this is a couple of years late but I found a great solution
For landscape media:
#media screen and (min-aspect-ratio: 13/9) { /* landscape styles here */}
And for portrait media:
#media screen and (max-aspect-ratio: 13/9) { /* portrait styles here */}
The full solution and why it works can be found here Michael Barret - Android browser challenges
Edit: this link is now expired, but a snapshot can be found on the internet archive: Michael Barret - Android browser challenges
The problem lies in the way that orientation is calculated:
http://www.w3.org/TR/css3-mediaqueries/#orientation
The ‘orientation’ media feature is ‘portrait’ when the value of the ‘height’ media feature is greater than or equal to the value of the ‘width’ media feature. Otherwise ‘orientation’ is ‘landscape’.
Since the height/width is calculated on the visible viewport, the soft keyboard apparently causes the orientation to flip now that the viewport width is less than the height. One solution would be just to use your media queries based on just width instead. This makes it more flexible across devices regardless of orientation, not to mention width/height is more widely supported than orientation.
If you want to account for the width instead of orientation, I'll use the iPhone as an example:
#media screen and (max-width: 320px) {
/* rules applying to portrait */
}
#media screen and (max-width: 480px) {
/* rules applying to landscape */
}
This approach is more flexible than orientation since the queries aren't limited to devices/user-agents that support orientation, not to mention that orientation tells you very little versus the width.
Of course if you really need to know orientation, it seems like setting the class initially and just use that might be your best option.
An alternative might be to use device-aspect-ratio, which remains unchanged. However, in Webkit, rotating the device doesn't trigger an update of CSS rules using this query, even though JavaScript tests return true for the new aspect ratio. This is apparently due to a bug, but I'm not able to find a bug report. Using a combination of orientation and {min,max}-device-aspect-ratio seems to work fine:
#media screen and (max-device-aspect-ratio: 1/1) and (orientation: portrait)
#media screen and (min-device-aspect-ratio: 1/1) and (orientation: landscape)
The use of orientation triggers updates as expected, and the use of device-aspect-ratio restricts updated to actual changes of orientation.
I worked through the options listed above and none quite fixed the issues for me. I switched to using screen.availHeight as it gives consistent height results avoiding the keyboard display issue.
// Avoiding the keyboard in Android causing the portrait orientation to change to landscape.
// Not an issue in IOS. Can use window.orientation.
var currentOrientation = function() {
// Use screen.availHeight as screen height doesn't change when keyboard displays.
if(screen.availHeight > screen.availWidth){
$("html").addClass('portrait').removeClass('landscape');
} else {
$("html").addClass('landscape').removeClass('portrait');
}
}
// Set orientation on initiliasation
currentOrientation();
// Reset orientation each time window is resized. Keyboard opening, or change in orientation triggers this.
$(window).on("resize", currentOrientation);
For me, this did the trick:
#media screen and (max-device-aspect-ratio: 1/1), (max-aspect-ratio: 1/1){
/*Portrait Mode*/
};
While max-aspect-ratio takes care of triggering Portrait mode simply by resizing the window (useful for PCs and other landscape-only devices), max-device-aspect-ratio helps with smartphones or other devices with variable orientation. And because I'm not declaring specific settings for Landscape mode, even if max-aspect-ratio is reporting >1 to the system, Portrait mode will still be triggered by max-device-aspect-ratio if the Android device is oriented that way.
The 1/1 part basically means that if the ratio is <=1, it goes to Portrait mode, otherwise it goes to landscape mode.
I've run through several of the answers above and none of them did exacly what i wanted, which is, to mimic iPhone functionality as closely as possible. The following is what is working for me in production now.
It works by assigning the window width and height of the device viewport to a data attribute for future checking. Since phones don't resize width when pulling up the keyboard, only the height, checking the ratio AND the width against the original width can tell you if the keyboard is up. I haven't found a use case this has failed yet, but I'm sure I will. If you all find one, please let me know.
I am using some globals, like InitialRun and MobileOrientation, which are used for js switching, I am also using html5 data-attributes to store info in the DOM for css manipulation.
var InitialRun = true; // After the initial bootstrapping, this is set to false;
var MobileOrientation = 'desktop';
function checkOrientation(winW, winH){ // winW and winH are the window's width and hieght, respectively
if (InitialRun){
if (winW > winH){
$('body').attr('data-height',winW);
$('body').attr('data-width',winH);
MobileOrientation = 'landscape';
$('body').attr('data-orientation','landscape');
}
else{
$('body').attr('data-height',winH);
$('body').attr('data-width',winW);
MobileOrientation = 'portrait';
$('body').attr('data-orientation','portrait');
}
}
else{
if (winW > winH && winW != $('body').data('width')){
MobileOrientation = 'landscape';
$('body').hdata('orientation','landscape'); //TODO:uncomment
$('body, #wrapper').css({'height':"100%",'overflow-y':'hidden'});
//$('body').attr('data-orientation','portrait');
}
else{
MobileOrientation = 'portrait';
$('body').attr('data-orientation','portrait');
$('body, #wrapper').css({'height':$('body').data('height'),'overflow-y':'auto'});
}
}
}
I used a simple trick to solve this problem
#media (max-width: 896px) and (min-aspect-ratio: 13/9){/* Landscape content*/}
I found max-width: 896px can be used for all mobile device. try this solution it works!
Take a look at this link:
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/a-pixel-identity-crisis/
Relying not only on orientation, but also on max-device-height or device-pixel-ratio may help. Anyway, I did not test it, so not sure that it'll help.
Idea: Take the portrait parameter off of your media query and leave it only with a min-width. Do your normal styling for portrait mode in that media query. Then, create another media query for landscape mode with a min-height tall enough so that the the browser won't use that query when the keyboard pops up. You'd have to experiment with what this 'tall enough min-height' is, but it shouldn't be too hard since most (if not all) landscape modes have a height larger than you'd have when a keyboard pops up. Additionally, you could add a 'min-width' to the landscape query that is larger that most smart-phones in portrait view (i.e around ~400px) to limit scope of the query.
Here's an alternative (and tenuous) solution:
- Add an empty arbitrary element to your html that will have 'display: none' in anything other than portrait mode.
- Create a jquery or javascript listener for input:focus. When an input is clicked, your javascript checks the display property of the arbitrary element. If it returns 'block' or whatever you set it during portrait mode, then you can override your styling with JS to your portrait mode queries. Conversely, you'd have an input:blur listener to blank out the style.cssText properties of the elements you hard-coded.
I'm experimenting with this myself right now - I'll post code of what works when I get something solid and manageable. (My first solution seems the most reasonable).
This works reliably for me. I am using http://detectmobilebrowsers.com/ for the jQuery extension to detect $.browser.mobile.
if ($.browser.mobile) {
var newOrientationPortrait = true;
//Set orientation based on height/width by default
if ($(window).width() < $(window).height())
newOrientationPortrait = true;
else
newOrientationPortrait = false;
//Overwrite orientation if mobile browser supports window.orientation
if (window.orientation != null)
if (window.orientation === 0)
newOrientationPortrait = true;
else
newOrientationPortrait = false;
Here is my code to modify the viewport based on orientation. This function is only called for mobile devices, not even tablets. This allows me to easily write CSS for 400px and 800px (Portrait vs Landscape).
_onOrientationChange = function() {
if (_orientationPortrait)
$("meta[name=viewport]").attr("content", "width=400,user-scalable=no");
else
$("meta[name=viewport]").attr("content", "width=800");
}
Due to the nature of my requirements I was not able to do this in CSS Media queries alone, since the DOM itself needed to change based on orientation. Unfortunately at my job, business people write software requirements without consulting development first.
I faced the exact same issue in iPad.
ie; when the soft keyboard appears in portrait mode, device is detected in landscape orientation and styles for landscape is applied to the screen, which resulted in a messed up view.
Device Specification
Device: iPad Mini 4
OS: iOS 11.2.6
Screen Resolution: 1024 x 768
unfortunately, for me, this solution didn't worked.
#media screen and (min-aspect-ratio: 13/9) { /* landscape styles here */}
#media screen and (max-aspect-ratio: 13/9) { /* portrait styles here */}
So, what I did is, I've written a media query like this for my portrait mode.
#media only screen and (min-width : 300px) and (max-width : 768px) and (orientation : landscape) {
/* portrait styles, when softkeyboard appears, goes here */
}
ie; when the soft keyboard appears, the screen height reduces but screen width remains to 768px, which resulted in media query detecting screen as landscape orientation. Hence the work around given as above.
Since iPhone 11 Pro Max Viewport is 414 x 896 PX - should be enough to have orientation: landscape with min-width: 500px

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