Develop Reference

Simple but serious issue with Tablet programming for android

So I'm taking the course by Google "Developing Android Apps" and I am stuck since I ran into a serious problem I can't explain:
See,their idea is to have a different layout file for tablets under the folder res\layout-sw600dp so that if the minimum height/width of the device is 600dips then there will be a different layout inflated.
The only problem is that for some reason that assertion doesn't work, not for their code nor for the simple code i added here,at least not for an AVD tablet (I've used Nexus 10 with api 21).
For example the following code shows "Phone!" on the toast rather than "Tablet!":
public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {
static final String TABLET="Tablet!";
static final String PHONE="Phone!";
#Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
String foundDeviceStr;
if(findViewById(R.id.weather_detail_container)==null){
foundDeviceStr=PHONE;
} else{
foundDeviceStr=TABLET;
}
Toast toast=Toast.makeText(this,foundDeviceStr,Toast.LENGTH_LONG);
toast.show();
}
}
When the xml file under the folder layout-sw600dp does have a frame with the id weather_detail_container.
I will add both xml files that I created at the bottom of the email, but you can also try out branch 5.10 from the following Google project- it doesn't load a two panes as it should:
https://github.com/udacity/Sunshine-Version-2/tree/5.10_selected_item, again at least not for any AVD devices (I have a physical android phone but not a physical tablet).
For the question to be complete here are the two xml files:
under the folder layout this is activity_main.xml:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:orientation="vertical" android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent">
<TextView
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:text="Whatever"/>
</LinearLayout>
and under the folder layout-sw600dp this is activity_main.xml:
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:baselineAligned="false"
android:divider="?android:attr/dividerHorizontal"
android:orientation="horizontal"
tools:context="com.example.android.sunshine.app.MainActivity">
<!--
This layout is a two-pane layout for the Items master/detail flow.
-->
<TextView
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:layout_weight="2"
android:text="Whatever" />
<FrameLayout
android:id="#+id/weather_detail_container"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:layout_weight="4" />
</LinearLayout>

You need to ask/get the SCREENLAYOUT_SIZE_MASK that is the key...
I have tried ONLY on samsung devices but it was pretty accurate....
Example:
Context myAppContext = ...//load the context here...;
boolean amATablet = (myAppContext.getResources().getConfiguration().screenLayout & Configuration.SCREENLAYOUT_SIZE_MASK) >= Configuration.SCREENLAYOUT_SIZE_LARGE;
if (amATablet) {
//Hello Tablet
}else{
//hello Phone
}

OK guys,so I just got a viable answer to my question:
Simply uncheck "enable device frame" in emulator settings!
If you need further assistance you can use this link:
How to remove the device's frame on Android Studio's emulators
Having said all that, I am not sure WHY that works. After all,the definition of this setting is: "Enable a frame around the Android emulator window that mimics the look of a real android device", so that SHOULD change only the looks according to my understanding. So if anyone knows why, please do post a further answer or comment :)

Getting black ImageView using Picasso and Glide

The problem
I'm writing an Android app that's supposed to have a "Slideshow" feature on it. I've found this nice library, based on Picasso, that does exactly what I wanted, and it worked just fine most of the times.
Problem is, sometimes my images are not loaded into the slide ImageView... It only shows a "black canvas" as you can see on the screenshot below.
I am loading the image from a local resource from my drawables. Sometimes it happens on Portrait mode, sometimes on Landscape mode. It doesn't matter which image I use, sometimes that "blackness" happens.
EDIT:
I'm using Android 5.0.2 and 4.4.2 - It doesn't seem to happen on 4.4.2. Only on 5.0.2.
It happened on a Moto X 2014 with android 5.1.
The images I'm trying to load have 45KB on disk with a resolution of 900x445.
I've turned on the layout rects as suggested, and these were the results:
And it keep like that on scroll.
And sometimes, it gets white instead of black (Or white, then black).
Something else I tried: My drawables were located on the res/drawable folder, when I've changed the files from that folder to the res/drawable-xxxhdpi the slider worked on the 5.0.2 device. wtf???
What have I tried so far
I've tried different images, to load multiple images on the slide, and even this pull request that changes Picasso to Glide on the lib. Nothing seems to work and the error seems random.
Once I've tried to use URLs from the web instead of the actual drawables on the local storage, it worked. With the exact same images.
Here's how I'm loading the images:
Fragment.java
private SliderLayout slider;
private PagerIndicator indicator;
// ...
private void setupSlider() {
HashMap<String,Integer> file_maps = new HashMap<>();
file_maps.put("Blah",R.drawable.banner_1);
file_maps.put("Bleh",R.drawable.banner_2);
file_maps.put("Blih",R.drawable.banner_3);
file_maps.put("Bloh",R.drawable.banner_4);
for (String name : file_maps.keySet()) {
DefaultSliderView dsv = new DefaultSliderView(getActivity());
dsv.description(name)
.image(file_maps.get(name))
.error(R.drawable.banner_error)
.empty(R.drawable.empty)
.setScaleType(BaseSliderView.ScaleType.Fit)
.setOnSliderClickListener(this);
//add your extra information
dsv.bundle(new Bundle());
dsv.getBundle()
.putString("extra",name);
slider.addSlider(dsv);
}
slider.setPresetTransformer(SliderLayout.Transformer.Default);
slider.setCustomIndicator(indicator);
slider.setCustomAnimation(new DescriptionAnimation());
slider.setDuration(4000);
slider.addOnPageChangeListener(this);
}
fragment.xml
<RelativeLayout
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
xmlns:custom="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
tools:context="com.example.fragments.Fragment"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content">
<ScrollView
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:id="#+id/sv_main">
<RelativeLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:id="#+id/rl_main">
<com.daimajia.slider.library.SliderLayout
android:id="#+id/slider"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="200dp"
/>
<com.daimajia.slider.library.Indicators.PagerIndicator
android:id="#+id/custom_indicator"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignParentEnd="true"
android:layout_alignParentRight="true"
android:layout_below="#+id/slider"
custom:shape="oval"
custom:selected_color="#00BFA5"
custom:unselected_color="#55333333"
custom:selected_padding_left="#dimen/spacing_medium"
custom:selected_padding_right="#dimen/spacing_medium"
custom:selected_padding_top="3dp"
custom:selected_padding_bottom="#dimen/spacing_small"
custom:unselected_padding_left="#dimen/spacing_medium"
custom:unselected_padding_right="#dimen/spacing_medium"
custom:unselected_padding_top="#dimen/spacing_small"
custom:unselected_padding_bottom="4dp"
custom:selected_width="#dimen/spacing_medium"
custom:selected_height="#dimen/spacing_medium"
custom:unselected_width="6dp"
custom:unselected_height="6dp"
/>
<LinearLayout
android:orientation="vertical"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:layout_below="#+id/custom_indicator"
android:id="#+id/ll_main_body">
</LinearLayout>
</RelativeLayout>
</ScrollView>
<!-- Other stuff -->
</RelativeLayout>
I'm following the tutorial from the libs wiki page. And no errors are being thrown on the LogCat, which is making this a lot harder to solve.
Any ideas?

Create A Resource Folder Named drawable-nodpi in that folder put your images instead of different folders or drawable folder.

Have you tried using a ViewPager with an ImageView and passing an array of image URIs to the adapter? I think you would be able to avoid/debug much better if you implement it yourself.

This library works fine for me, the very first time I used it. It's a really nice library.
First
SliderLayout is not being referenced by anything. That's where the magic happens. Make a xml layout and refer to it by SliderLayout. After that don't forget to call startAutoScroll() and in onPause() stopAutoScroll().
https://github.com/daimajia/AndroidImageSlider/wiki/Start-Using
The link above is basically all you need.
Second
The problem could also be that it's inside a scrollView. The scroll callbacks may be misbehaving.
Make a simple layout, start with a simple slider and work your way up with customizations.
Good luck.

App doesn't loaded in mobile as do in eclipse emulator

I know that the question is rather rare, but also is rare what happens with my app...
I programmed yesterday a presentation activity for my app, which only appears 1,5 seconds before starting the main activity. The presentation activity just load the presentation.xml file in which there only are a LinearLayout with an ImageView and a TextView. This ImageView has attached an image with the logo of my app (.png) and the TextView is just below.
What happens is that when I run the app with the Eclipse emulator I can see perfectly just what I programmed. I see, for 1,5 seconds, a custom background with my logo in the center of the screen and the text below it, but things goes wrong when I try the app in my mobile: the logo is absolutely invisible! It just disappears.
Must say that before setting that image, there were the same logo with less resolution. Also I tried to set the image and the parameters from java code but happens the same and it's so disappointing...
Hope you know what is happening and bring me a good solution... Thank you!
Code affected:
JAVA
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.presentacion_act);
RelativeLayout lay = (RelativeLayout)findViewById(R.id.back);
lay.setBackgroundResource(R.drawable.back_presentacion);
XML
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:background="#android:color/darker_gray"
android:id="#+id/back"
tools:context=".Presentacion" >
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/lay_class"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:scaleType="centerInside"
android:layout_centerVertical="true"
android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
android:paddingBottom="70dp"
android:paddingLeft="15dp"
android:paddingRight="15dp"
android:src="#drawable/classmarks"/>

Done! Just making the image smaller it runs perfectly on my device.

xml / linearlayout not showing properly on device

I'm sorry if this question's been asked already but I wasn't able to find any answers. Here's some background context:
I was testing my app on my Nexus 4 to fix some minor bugs. However, just as eclipse was launching it, there was a powercut in the area, switching my computer off. Eventually, once the power restored, I thought I would set a font by .setTypeFace() before running my app again but this made my app crash when I did run it. So after fiddling around with the code and finding no fix, I decided to get rid of the whole font and just run the app with the bug fix. However, this made my app look like this.
Now on eclipse, the graphical layout is showing this. My app before today was showing like the graphical layout perfectly fine. No errors are showing up on eclipse.
Why has this happened and how do I fix this? Could I have corrupted the whole file?
Thanks.
EDIT: the xml file:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:background="#drawable/testbg"
android:orientation="vertical"
android:weightSum="100" >
<RelativeLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="0dp"
android:layout_weight="33" >
---- bunch of textviews ----
</RelativeLayout>
<RelativeLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="0dp"
android:layout_weight="57" >
---- More Textviews ----
</RelativeLayout>
<LinearLayout
android:id="#+id/linearLayout1"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="0dp"
android:layout_weight="10"
android:orientation="horizontal"
android:weightSum="3" >
---- three buttons ----
</LinearLayout>
</LinearLayout>

I finally figured it out - it was the background. I must've obviously messed up the 9.png somewhere because it fixed itself once I got rid of the background.

Normally this happens with my apps when i change the font , some fonts appears like this in the layouts , some play around i use is adding a character or a dot after tab space , and it works , however double check the font issue again ,try to set the font again or to set another font.

Missing or Incorrect images and backgrounds randomly throughout app lifecycle

I was hoping someone here might have an idea what causes this sort of behaviour:
Throughout my application, in seemingly random places and in random conditions I'm observing this strange UI issue. Images are on occasion being loaded black (with the correct bounds) or with the incorrect image source (again, with the correct bounds). This effects ImageViews and has effected android:background tags with references to colour resources.
My application relies on 6 library projects, it runs Native Code via a Service and Activities in the App use GlSurfaceViews (although, not all Activities which display the problem contain OpenGL components). The problem could I suppose be from any of these places or a combination of them through using large amounts of memory.
You can see this behaviour in the following screen shots:
This is actually a 6 or so pixel wide column separator image which has been incorrectly drawn into my ImageView (the ImageView seems to have correctly sized itself).
When going out of the Application and then back in again (repeatedly) it instead appeared (and remained) like so:
After a Force Clear and a Clear App Data it returned to the correct format:
As you can also see the Magnifying Glass image next to it is displaying fine in each of these. The problems with these missing/incorrect images and backgrounds seems to happen randomly, throughout the application lifecycle, and I've been unable to find a way of reproducing it.
The layouts for these images are nothing special, I'm not doing anything funny during the rendering lifecycle (i'm not overriding onDraw() or onMeasure() or the like). The source of these images aren't being set dynamically but via the XML.
As you can see from the above example, it's not a build issue as it occurs between app lifecycles not between installs. It's also happening on different devices, Samsung 8.9, Acer Iconia Tab, Motarola XOOM,
It seems to me to be some sort of error with the reference table, could it perhaps have been nudged by my native code? Or is it an effect of me in some stages of the application using too much memory?
Here's the XML source for the above example:
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:id="#+id/browseProgressWrapper"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="#dimen/actionbar_compat_height"
android:orientation="horizontal">
<RelativeLayout android:layout_width="#dimen/search_bar_width"
android:layout_height="match_parent">
<EditText android:id="#+id/browseFilter"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:layout_marginTop="4dp"
android:layout_marginLeft="5dp"
android:imeOptions="actionSearch"
android:background="#drawable/edit_text_blue"
android:maxLength="30"/>
<ImageView android:id="#+id/clearSearch"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignParentRight="true"
android:layout_centerVertical="true"
android:src="#drawable/ic_input_delete"
android:layout_marginRight="5dp"/>
</RelativeLayout>
<ImageView android:id="#+id/browseFilterButton"
android:src="#drawable/ic_menu_search"
android:scaleType="center"
android:layout_width="#dimen/actionbar_compat_height"
android:layout_height="#dimen/actionbar_compat_height"
android:layout_gravity="center_vertical"
android:minWidth="#dimen/actionbar_compat_height"/>
</LinearLayout>
A more full description of the code / layout surrounding another such occurrence I happened to get the screenshot for:
I have a "Settings" Activity which restarts my app after saving new settings details. It does this by stopping a Service, calling a new Activity (the Splash Activity) and finishing itself:
mConfiguration.save();
mConfiguration = new Configuration(Configuration.getInstance());
getActivity().stopService(new Intent(getActivity(), NativeService.class));
getActivity().finish();
startActivity(new Intent(getActivity(), SplashActivity.class));
Most of the time (and on most devices) this works fine, the Splash Activity contains an image which loads correctly. Sometimes though on some devices the Splash Activity loads either an incorrect resource (what my testers refer as "an upside down Nike tick") or just a blank box (as seen below). Does anyone know why?
Here is the Layout for the Splash page, as you can see it's pretty simple, no surprises:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:background="#color/ContentBackgroundColor"
android:orientation="vertical" >
<View
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="0dp"
android:layout_weight="2" />
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/image"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal"
android:src="#drawable/manager_android_400" />
<View
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="0dp"
android:layout_weight="1" />
<ProgressBar
style="#android:style/Widget.ProgressBar.Large"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal" />
<View
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="0dp"
android:layout_weight="2" />
</LinearLayout>
Theory tested and debunct:
I've theorised that this could be a processor/memory issue where the Layout isn't being drawn fully before the Splash screen exits and moves onto the next Activity so I put in this piece of code:
image = (ImageView) findViewById(R.id.image);
image.getViewTreeObserver().addOnGlobalLayoutListener(new OnGlobalLayoutListener() {
#Override
public void onGlobalLayout() {
image.getViewTreeObserver().removeGlobalOnLayoutListener(this);
moveToStartScreen.start();
}
});
The hope was the code above would make sure the Image is definitely loaded before moving onto the Start page but seems to have had no observable effect.
Another Theory
I was also wondering if this could be being caused by the R.id / R.colour / R.drawable resources some how being currupted in program execution? Does anyone know why that might happen.
Could my native code be running rampant on some memory addresses that Android isn't correctly allocating?
Has anybody noticed this before - or perhaps know why this behaviour occurs?

Graeme, I had almost the same problem and found out that it was a reported bug of the android plattform. It was corrected in the 3.0 version I think. Which API are you compiling with? Try to build with the last available api and be sure to compile with JDK 1.6
If your problem is related to this bug, this should fix the problem.

This is a simple problem of refresh, clean, and rebuild.
Images in your various drawable folders or resource id indices are out of sequence because they were either changed outside of the eclipse IDE (via external source control such as GIT, SVN or other edits) and not refreshed in the eclipse navigator. Or, the files may have been updated in a library project upon which your UI Activity depends.
I have found that although .java file dependencies are propagated throughout the system, this is not always the case for resources such as images and .xml files.
The solution is fairly simple, clean everything, refresh all of your projects, and rebuild. The stretched or black edges should be gone.
Note: The predominant manifestation of this problem occurs when 9-patch images become treated like standard .png images. This means that they get stretched in a linear manner across the image instead of just at the edges. To me, this explains your 'Torn/Stretched' example. I have seen similar often. Another common manifestation is that text strings occasionally get displayed with the wrong resources!