Develop Reference

Keep button placed relative to background image

Im trying to make a Flashlight app for android (being an absolute beginner)
The concept is to make IronMan's chest light as the toggle button for the flash light UI.
I set Iron Man as a background ImageView. And set the chest light photo as the button's image src.
The problem is that, in different screen sizes, the alignment of the button gets changed as you can see in the screenshots below.
This is what it has to look like:
Button displaced when screensize changed:
If someone could help me out on how I could solve this problem, it would be great.
My XML code if that would be of any help:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
xmlns:ads="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:background="#000000"
tools:context="example.flash.flash">
<!-- view for AdMob Interstitial Ad -->
<TextView
android:id="#+id/app_title"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
android:layout_marginTop="50dp"
android:text="#string/interstitial_ad_sample"
android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceLarge" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/level"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_below="#+id/app_title"
android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
android:text="#string/start_level"
android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceLarge" />
<Button
android:id="#+id/next_level_button"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
android:layout_centerVertical="true"
android:text="#string/next_level" />
<ImageView
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:background="#drawable/iron"
android:id="#+id/imageView"
android:layout_alignParentTop="true"
android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"
android:layout_alignParentStart="true" />
<ImageButton
android:id="#+id/imageButton"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:background="#color/colorBackground"
android:src="#drawable/onn"
android:scaleType="fitCenter"
android:layout_marginBottom="57dp"
android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"
android:layout_centerHorizontal="true" />
<com.google.android.gms.ads.AdView
android:id="#+id/adView"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"
android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
ads:adSize="BANNER"
ads:adUnitId="#string/banner_home_footer"></com.google.android.gms.ads.AdView>
</RelativeLayout>

The problem is that you are designing the layout specific to one device/screen.
From the docs-
Android supports several configuration qualifiers that allow you to
control how the system selects your alternative resources based on the
characteristics of the current device screen. A configuration
qualifier is a string that you can append to a resource directory in
your Android project and specifies the configuration for which the
resources inside are designed.
See Different values folders in android as to how you can make different values/dimens.xml to suit different screens.
So create different values folder and check the docs - link

What parent layout are you using?
If RelativeLayout then you have to make buttons relative to each other.

How to achieve this kind of layout in Android

I'm new to Android development and I'm trying to achieve a layout for my app that is capable of handling different screen resolutions/ratios.
I've been reading a lot of the documentation and questions on this site to try to understand the basics and concepts.
First I went through:
developer.android.com/guide/practices/screens_support.html
And questions like:
stackoverflow.com/questions/6403619/how-to-support-all-the-different-resolutions-of-android-products
I've got a pretty basic idea on how to handle things out. But still, its pretty difficult for a starter to get going, and I found myself stucked trying to achieve the solution I came up with.
I designed my app to a target resolution of 480x800, and set it up to always show in portrait mode.
This is how it looks like and how I understand it should work (I used Waldo for the sake of example haha):
(sorry for the link, I need 10 rep to post images)
http://i.imgur.com/KXTAXir.jpg
My root Layout is a LinearLayout, wich contains 3 other Layouts being A and C set up to a weight of 0.8 while B is at 8.4. This is all fine, but the contents of B are set up to DP units at the moment just to be able to test.
B consists of a frame Layout who has 3 other Layouts inside, where 2 of them are working fine, and shown only when needed. The problem is that I need B to be able to adapt based on the contents of it first child: a LinearLayout wich contains 2 ImageView and 1 ProgressBar. I need that those ImageView always keep their ratio.
Here is an example of how it should work:
http://i.imgur.com/cH7fUze.jpg
Imagine those 4 are real screens, wich vary in ratio and size. So my app should only adapt B (from my first image) to keep the images original ratio.
Here is the layout code:
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:background="#color/darkgray"
android:orientation="vertical" >
<RelativeLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="0dp"
android:layout_weight="0.8"
android:background="#666666" >
<TextView
android:id="#+id/level_text_name"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"
android:layout_centerVertical="true"
android:text="LEVEL"
android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceSmall" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/level_text_score"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
android:layout_centerVertical="true"
android:text="SCORE"
android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/level_text_clock"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignParentRight="true"
android:layout_centerVertical="true"
android:text="01:59"
android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceSmall" />
</RelativeLayout>
<FrameLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="0dp"
android:layout_weight="8.4" >
<LinearLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:orientation="vertical" >
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/imageView1"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="200dp"
android:adjustViewBounds="true" />
<ProgressBar
android:id="#+id/progressBar1"
style="?android:attr/progressBarStyleHorizontal"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:max="1000"
android:progress="0" />
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/imageView2"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="200dp"
android:adjustViewBounds="true" />
</LinearLayout>
<RelativeLayout
android:id="#+id/pauseMask"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:background="#000000"
android:visibility="gone" >
</RelativeLayout>
<RelativeLayout
android:id="#+id/gameoverMask"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:background="#FFFFFF"
android:visibility="gone" >
</RelativeLayout>
</FrameLayout>
<RelativeLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="0dp"
android:layout_weight="0.8"
android:background="#666666" >
<TextView
android:id="#+id/level_text_status"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"
android:layout_centerVertical="true"
android:text="0/0"
android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium" />
<Button
android:id="#+id/button1"
style="?android:attr/buttonStyleSmall"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignParentRight="true"
android:layout_centerVertical="true"
android:text="Button"
android:onClick="useHint" />
<Button
android:id="#+id/button2"
style="?android:attr/buttonStyleSmall"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_toLeftOf="#+id/button1"
android:layout_centerVertical="true"
android:text="Button"
android:onClick="toggleSound" />
<Button
android:id="#+id/button3"
style="?android:attr/buttonStyleSmall"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_toLeftOf="#+id/button2"
android:layout_centerVertical="true"
android:text="Button"
android:onClick="togglePause" />
</RelativeLayout>
The last thing that stays unclear to me is how to handle the text and button sizes. Should I set them in DPs? How do I get them to scale accordingly like it can be seen on the bottom of my second picture.
Thank you for your help, I also want this to serve as an example to others that are having trouble to understand how to handle this kind of scenarios.

I'm not sure, if I got your question right.
However, you can specify different layouts for different screen sizes and orientations, as described here: http://developer.android.com/guide/practices/screens_support.html
Just give the respective suffix in the name of your layout XML file.

I ended up creating a custom View for my images. The view calculates the space thats left on its parent, scales the images manually and then resizes itself to the same size of the resulting image.
To resize the progress bar to have the same width as the images, I used a custom listener that gets triggered when my custom views get resized. Then I resize the progressbar to match their width.
With this I achieved what I wanted, a layout that will work perfectly in all screen sizes.

Scaleable size of application with non 9-patch buttons

I'm currently learning android development, and before I get too stuck in to a large project, I decided I would need to learn about making an application accessible from as many devices as possible.
So I have a test application using RelativeLayout. The top-level activity has 6 large menu buttons on it. These buttons are square graphical images (not 9-patch buttons as they are - to my knowledge - too graphically primitive). On the device I'm using for testing, these buttons appear in a perfect 2x3 arrangement like such:
However, when I try and run this application on a larger device, the buttons will appear like so:
Is there a way to scale non-9-patch buttons based on the size of the screen, so that they will always appear like the first image? Is this recommended? If not, is there an alternative way of doing such a layout for different screen sizes?
My ideal layout would be scalable across different devices, like so:

I am using similar menu. And here is first row of it. The buttons in this menu has labels too.
<LinearLayout
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_marginLeft="20dip"
android:layout_marginRight="20dip"
android:gravity="center" >
<RelativeLayout
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_margin="5dip" >
<Button
android:id="#+id/screen_home_btn_profile"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:background="#drawable/selector_ic_my_profile" />
<LinearLayout
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"
android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
android:paddingBottom="5dip" >
<TextView
style="#style/label_text_style_home_screen"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="#string/screen_home_label_my" />
<TextView
style="#style/label_text_style_home_screen"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="#string/screen_home_label_profile"
android:textStyle="bold" />
</LinearLayout>
</RelativeLayout>
<RelativeLayout
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_margin="5dip" >
<Button
android:id="#+id/screen_home_btn_application"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:background="#drawable/selector_ic_my_application" />
<LinearLayout
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"
android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
android:paddingBottom="5dip" >
<TextView
style="#style/label_text_style_home_screen"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="#string/screen_home_label_my" />
<TextView
style="#style/label_text_style_home_screen"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="#string/screen_home_label_application"
android:textStyle="bold" />
</LinearLayout>
</RelativeLayout>
</LinearLayout>
It seems you are giving outer margins to the buttons. Align them in center and give spaces between 2 buttons and not the screen border & buttons.

Same layout looks different on a Samsung Galaxy Tab

I'm developing an Android 2.2.2 application which will support multiple screens sizes and all screens will be portrait. I won't support landscape.
I have test the following layout on an HTC Desire and on a Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:id="#+id/mainLayout"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:background="#drawable/no_conectado"
android:orientation="vertical" >
<TextView
android:id="#+id/labelSelGateName"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:gravity="center_horizontal"
android:layout_marginTop="80dp" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/labelSelOpened"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal" />
<ProgressBar
android:id="#+id/indicatorActivityView"
android:layout_width="20dp"
android:layout_height="20dp"
android:layout_marginTop="22dp"
android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal" />
<LinearLayout
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="110dp"
android:layout_marginTop="60dp"
android:orientation="horizontal" >
<ImageButton
android:id="#+id/btnMyGates"
android:layout_width="50dp"
android:layout_height="110dp"
android:layout_marginLeft="20dp"
android:layout_weight=".33"
android:background="#null"
android:contentDescription="#string/layout_empty"
android:onClick="onGateClick" />
<LinearLayout
android:layout_width="90dp"
android:layout_height="110dp"
android:layout_weight=".33"
android:orientation="vertical" >
<ImageButton
android:id="#+id/btnOpen"
android:layout_width="90dp"
android:layout_height="55dp"
android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal"
android:layout_marginLeft="10dp"
android:layout_marginRight="10dp"
android:background="#null"
android:contentDescription="#string/layout_empty"
android:onClick="onOpenDoorClick" />
<ImageButton
android:id="#+id/btnClose"
android:layout_width="90dp"
android:layout_height="50dp"
android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal"
android:layout_marginTop="10dp"
android:layout_marginLeft="10dp"
android:layout_marginRight="10dp"
android:background="#null"
android:contentDescription="#string/layout_empty"
android:onClick="onCloseDoorClick" />
</LinearLayout>
<ImageButton
android:id="#+id/btnOptions"
android:layout_width="50dp"
android:layout_height="110dp"
android:layout_marginRight="20dp"
android:layout_weight=".33"
android:background="#null"
android:contentDescription="#string/layout_empty"
android:onClick="onOptionClick" />
</LinearLayout>
<ImageButton
android:id="#+id/btnFaqs"
android:layout_width="110dp"
android:layout_height="60dp"
android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal"
android:layout_marginTop="10dp"
android:background="#null"
android:contentDescription="#string/layout_empty"
android:onClick="onFAQClick" />
<ImageButton
android:id="#+id/btnInfo"
android:layout_width="110dp"
android:layout_height="60dp"
android:layout_gravity="right"
android:layout_marginTop="20dp"
android:background="#null"
android:contentDescription="#string/layout_empty"
android:onClick="onInfoClick" />
</LinearLayout>
I have images for ldpi, mdpi, hdpi and x-hdpi.
Background image looks great, but all widgets (TextView, ProgressBar, ImageButton, etc) aren't in the right position when I test it on Samsung Galaxy Tab.
I have designed this layout on Eclipse using 'Nexus One` as a model.
Here people are recommend me that use only one layout for every screen size and densitiy, but it doesn't work. I'm using dp units and fill_parent, etc. but it is different on Galaxy Tab.
Do I need a layout for x-large screen sizes?

Indeed, the advice you received was good: it's possible to have only one layout file, but as it was already suggested in comments, it's not good to hardcode dimensions, even if you use dp or dip, specially when you are targeting all the screen sizes and densities available.
Instead, you should replace those values with links to dimensions values.
For example, instead of android:layout_marginLeft="10dp", you'll have something like
android:layout_marginLeft="#dimen/textview_margin_left"
where textview_margin_left is defined in the dimens.xml, having different values in different folders;
probably in folder values: <dimen name="textview_margin_left">10dp</dimen>,
in folder values-large: <dimen name="textview_margin_left">20dp</dimen>,
while in values-xlarge: <dimen name="textview_margin_left">30dp</dimen>
But this is just an example, you have to test on all dimensions and resolutions and find the best values for your layout. In Eclipse, in Graphical Layout mode, you can easily get an idea about how your layout looks on various devices, just by clicking on Nexus One, and choosing another model from the list, and the layout will automatically update.
Also, you can move in dimens.xml all the text sizes, and that will be very useful for x-large devices.
Using only one RelativeLayout instead many imbricated LinearLayouts might also be a good idea, and using relative positioning for your objects, instead some of the hardcoded values.

The Problem is following you use in your layout, static values (100dp, 60dp). Now the problem is on a higher resolution this dp isn't the same.
That means you should create a layout for x-large screens. Also I wouldn't use those static values. Than your application will behave good on many diffrent screensizes!
Have a great Day
safari

One game layout

I want to make a match game layout in android.
I'm having problem with making my layout compitable to all screen resolutions.
What I want, is an image icon of the home team on the left, a strechable home team image name, home team score text, seperator, away team score text, a strechable away team image name, an image icon of the away team on the right.
The score should be in the middle. I just can't get it right. before this try, I've tried to divide the main layout to 3 layouts: home team layout, score layout and away layout - with no success of getting the expected result.
Can someone please help ?
Here is my piece of code:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:orientation="horizontal"
android:background="#color/GamesBGColor" >
<LinearLayout
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:layout_gravity="center"
android:orientation="horizontal" >
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/homeTeamIcon"
android:layout_width="50dip"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_gravity="center"
android:src="#drawable/holonlogo" />
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/homeTeamText"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_gravity="center"
android:src="#drawable/holontext"
android:layout_width="115dip"
android:layout_marginLeft="3dip" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/homeTeamScore"
android:layout_width="25dip"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="123"
android:textColor = "#color/purple"
android:layout_gravity="center"
android:textStyle="bold"
android:layout_marginLeft="5dip" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/seperator"
android:layout_width="10dip"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="-"
android:layout_gravity="center"
android:layout_marginLeft="7dip" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/awayTeamScore"
android:layout_width="25dip"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="122"
android:textColor = "#color/red"
android:layout_gravity="center"
android:textStyle="bold"
android:layout_marginLeft="7dip" />
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/awayTeamText"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_gravity="center"
android:src="#drawable/jerusalemtext"
android:layout_width="115dip"
android:layout_marginLeft="3dip"/>
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/awayTeamIcon"
android:layout_width="50dip"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_gravity="center"
android:src="#drawable/jerusalemlogo" />
</LinearLayout>
</LinearLayout>

If you want your layouts to work on different resolution screens your should be sizing them using dip as the unit. For example:
android:layout_marginRight="10dip"
dip stands for Device Independent Pixel and using these in your layout means that Android will automatically scale your layout depending on which display the device running your application has.
You can read about these in the Supporting Multiple Screens page in the Android Developer Documentation. This document also has some other options for handling different displays but I think using dip is probably the easiest.