android-how to differentiate the small screen ldpi and mdpi - android

I implemented the application which will supports the small screen ldpi and hdpi. It is working for only one either ldpi or hdpi. Because my application layout have some distance between the views. so i want differentiate the ldpi and mdpi. how to implement this can any body help me.
For this i am creating the layout-small folder in the res. is any name conventions like layout-small-ldpi (or) layout-small-mdpi or exiting or not. same like normal and large (layout-normal-ldpi or layout-normal-mdpi or layout-normal-hdpi). Please give the naming convention clearly.
thanks

In your res folder you have 2 folders:
drawable and layout.
You can add folders with a postfix with "-hdpi" for hdpi specifics, "-mdpi" for mdpi and "-ldpi" for ldpi.
So you should have these folders:
drawable-hdpi
drawable-mdpi
drawable-ldpi
layout-hdpi
layout-mdpi
layout-ldpi
You can also use specifics for landscape orientation or even SDK versions.
Read http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/resources/providing-resources.html for more info

To seemlessly support landscape / portrait mode, screen with different densities, you need to put appropriate "drawables" with following naming convention # res directory. res directory will be # root level of you application folder. For example LunarLander\res. res has different directories for storing images (drawables), layaout (for UI) and values (for font support).
You need to use the same name for all modes, this name shall be used in the application regardless of the mode.
Nomenclature is something like . (This may not be the exhaustive list) where type would be drawable / layout / values etc.
language would en / fr for english and french respectively. (this list is also not complete)
mode would be land / port for landscape and portrait respectively
density would be hdpi / mdpi / ldpi for high / medium and low density screen respectively.
Example
Suppose I have a background image, which needs to look differently for landscape and portrait mode. Then I will place two different images for background into res\drawable-land and res\drawable-port\ folder under the name background_image.png. I will refer to these in my application (or layout) using background_image as the name. The android system will appropriate choose the image based on the mode.
Same is applicable to ldpi / hdpi or en / fr.
Basically you need to create appropriate folder structure and keep the same name for entities. (string, drawable, layout etc)
Shash

Related

dimension folder for different screen sizes [duplicate]

I am creating different values folders in my app (values, values-ldpi, values-mdpi, values-hdpi, values-xhdpi, values-nodpi, values-w360dp-mdpi). But some devices that belong same category. But having different screen sizes. But I see give font size according to device densities in this the answer provided by #PankajSharma suggest to create folders like-
res/values/dimens.xml
res/values-small/dimens.xml
res/values-normal/dimens.xml
res/values-xlarge/dimens.xml
I want to know what is the difference b/w my way and the other way? I think the answer provided by #PankajSharma is easy. I also want to know which way is better?
The approach you are using is a valid approach, but a little outdated. From HoneyComb, there is a new way to fix all of this. Your resources folder should now look like this:
Please refer to the link I have posted and familiarize yourself with Smallest Width concept.
Hope this helps :)
EDIT: Adding to this post, try to establish some kind of standardization in your dimens.xml, something like this:
Doing this makes it easier to maintain code, plus it reduces the number of dimen folders. Normally rather than having values-hdpi, values-xhdpi, etc. files like values-sw480dp-xhdpi might have more values to adjust, but then again all of this is contextual.
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-sw600dp folder for 7inch in Portrait 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 and similary add -land for landscape orientation..
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
To check from which folder your layouts, images are used, use my trick.
Create five same strings and put in it all the values folders like this :-
Default Screen
Screen 4.7
XHDPI Screen
MDPI Screen
Create five drawable folders, most of them will be already there : - drawable-hdpi, drawable-mdpi, drawable-xhdpi, drawable-xxhdpi, drawable-xxxhdpi
Put the screenshots below in their respective folder under the same name
This is how my res folder looks like and i am supporting all the devices from 4.7 screen and above :-

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 : the mystical technique to set different dimensions for different device / screen sizes

My first Android App. And, am trying to get this sorted -> setting different text sizes, layout sizes for different screen / device sizes. Now, I Googl'ed a lot , then read several Stackoverflow threads, & am doing this:
Created different folders under 'res' like
values-ldpi
values-mdpi
values-hdpi
values-xhdpi
values-xxhdpi
values-xxxhdpi
Then I put a dimens.xml & styles.xml in each folder above.
Phew! But this doesn't suffice. I want to have different textsizes (and other dimensions, am not speaking about images here) for phones & different ones for tablets. I know there are these 'values-sw600dp, and 'values-sw720dp' which they say is aimed at tablets. But even within each tablet size, I need to differentiate the different densities right? For example, within 'values-sw600dp', I need to have different textsizes for, say, hdpi, xhdpi, ... How do I do this? Any help please?
Here is an example of what am doing:
TextView textView = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.text_interference);
textView.setHeight(layoutHt);
textView.setWidth((layoutWd-20)/2);
int dimensControlButtonTextSize = getResources().getInteger(R.integer.CONTROL_BUTTON_TEXT_SIZE);
textView.setTextSize(dimensControlButtonTextSize);
Then in dimens.xml, it would be:
17
This value, i.e. 17 here, will differ in each device i.e. it is given a different value in each dimens.xml under each values- folder. I hope am clear.
Drawable resources do not need to be duplicated per screen configuration, except for special cases like you have a full screen splash that would be displayed differently for landscape and portrait. Normally for icons, specifying once in the main resources folder (under hdpi, mdpi, xhdpi, xxhdpi...) should be sufficient.
I would find screen configuration specific resources to be useful for dimen values, like padding, margin, width of items, etc...

The process of creating Android layout files

I am in the process of creating layouts for a new application and I am interested to know how you are usually approach this process.
Obviously it's a very general question, but I think we can get a lot of ideas from different developers' perspectives. As creating perfect layouts in Android, in my opinion, is one of the most difficult tasks in the app development process, I think the answers can be of value.
The assumption is that we want to support all device sizes with the least number of XML files, without compromising the application design quality.
In my case the designer of the app designed it with Galaxy S3 dimensions in mind (720 x 1280px).
Considering the 3:4:6:8 ratio -
What will be the base device you'll do the design for, so one layout file will look good on all normal size devices?
How would you handle the difference in device dimensions, thinking in dp -
Eg.
480 X 800 hdpi = 320 X 533dp
320 X 480 mdpi = 320 X 480dp
720 x 1280 xhdpi = 360 X 640dp
How will you still use the extra dp, so there won't be to many empty spaces, without making the layout not appropriate for 320 X 480 device?
When the designer marks a margin of 20px, how would you interpret it in the xml?
Taking into consideration he designed it on a 720 x 1280px canvas.
Start with some screen size as your base target device for e.g. 4.7 inch (hdpi) and create a single layout for default screens in layout folder and declare dimensions in dimens.xml in values folder.
Next, let's say you want your layouts for a 7" device, create values-sw320dp folder for 7" in portrait orientation and declare separate dimensions in dimens.xml in this folder.
Next, let's say you want your layouts for a 10" device, create values-sw720dp folder for 10" in portrait orientation and declare separate dimensions in dimens.xml in this folder.
PS: For landscape orientation, add -land in the end of folder names.
Next, let's say you have new devices such as xhdpi and xxhdpi devices, you can create values-xhdpi and values-xxhdpi folders.
Since you have defined dimensions in values folder, when you run the App, most of the dimensions will be used from here only. And you can add/update the dimensions in respective folders for screen-size and resolutions on which there is any mismatch.
Also, if you have got separate drawables for various size like mdpi, hdpi, etc you can place them under drawable-mdpi, drawable-hdpi, etc.
The Android system will take care of loading correct resources at run-time.
Note: On Android versions < 3.2, the folder naming was little different, you can refer that here.
Hope this helps.
Android automatically scales layouts to fit the current device. One way to make the solution more elegant would be to create separate folders drawable-ldpi, drawable-mdpi, drawable-hdpi, drawable-xhdpi and drawable-xxhdpi to hold the drawable resources - this is to make sure the same resource does not get used across all the different resolutions where it might not be so clear.
Do not use px (pixels) for measurements in the layout file - use dip (or density independent pixels) which allows to scale according to device pixel density.
The other extreme would be to have different layouts for different resolutions though this is is not advisable.

Different values folders in android

I am creating different values folders in my app (values, values-ldpi, values-mdpi, values-hdpi, values-xhdpi, values-nodpi, values-w360dp-mdpi). But some devices that belong same category. But having different screen sizes. But I see give font size according to device densities in this the answer provided by #PankajSharma suggest to create folders like-
res/values/dimens.xml
res/values-small/dimens.xml
res/values-normal/dimens.xml
res/values-xlarge/dimens.xml
I want to know what is the difference b/w my way and the other way? I think the answer provided by #PankajSharma is easy. I also want to know which way is better?
The approach you are using is a valid approach, but a little outdated. From HoneyComb, there is a new way to fix all of this. Your resources folder should now look like this:
Please refer to the link I have posted and familiarize yourself with Smallest Width concept.
Hope this helps :)
EDIT: Adding to this post, try to establish some kind of standardization in your dimens.xml, something like this:
Doing this makes it easier to maintain code, plus it reduces the number of dimen folders. Normally rather than having values-hdpi, values-xhdpi, etc. files like values-sw480dp-xhdpi might have more values to adjust, but then again all of this is contextual.
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-sw600dp folder for 7inch in Portrait 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 and similary add -land for landscape orientation..
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
To check from which folder your layouts, images are used, use my trick.
Create five same strings and put in it all the values folders like this :-
Default Screen
Screen 4.7
XHDPI Screen
MDPI Screen
Create five drawable folders, most of them will be already there : - drawable-hdpi, drawable-mdpi, drawable-xhdpi, drawable-xxhdpi, drawable-xxxhdpi
Put the screenshots below in their respective folder under the same name
This is how my res folder looks like and i am supporting all the devices from 4.7 screen and above :-

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