Changing layout orientation only for large devices

Question

An android application I am working on needs to change screen layout only when the screen size is above 7''. I created different layouts for large and xlarge for both land and portrait modes. This seems to have worked well.

I used the following code to determine screen size and change layout accordingly:

public void onConfigurationChanged(Configuration newConfig) {
  super.onConfigurationChanged(newConfig);
  DisplayMetrics dm = new DisplayMetrics();
  getWindowManager().getDefaultDisplay().getMetrics(dm);

  int width = dm.widthPixels, height = dm.heightPixels;
  double dd = Math.sqrt(width * width + height * height)/dm.densityDpi;
  double diagonal = (dd >= (Math.floor(dd) + 0.5) ? Math.ceil(dd) : Math.floor(dd));

  if (diagonal < 7) {
    setRequestedOrientation(ActivityInfo.SCREEN_ORIENTATION_PORTRAIT);         
  }
}

The problem:
The layout for screens below 7'' is also changed to landscape mode. The above code could not stop the change. Keep in mind that the layout for below 7'' is also created.

What am I doing wrong here?

score 1 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:44

1

The Android docs have an excellent section on how to support different layouts by screen size

You can simply create a layout file with the same name in a new res folder. For example:

[If] your multi-pane tablet layout requires at least 600dp of screen width, you should place it in layout-sw600dp/

You should also check the docs for Declaring Tablet Layouts for Android 3.2+ as this describes the best practises for creating tablet layouts.

If you are wanting to lock the orientation I suggest checking out this answer which I summarise here:

Create a boolean value in res/bools.xml and then repeat this step in res/values-sw600dp and res/values-xlarge

After you change the values to false in the latter two folders, you can then simply call:

if(getResources().getBoolean(R.bool.my_boolean)){
    setRequestedOrientation(ActivityInfo.SCREEN_ORIENTATION_PORTRAIT);
}

This will only run the code on tablet devices

edited May 23 '17 at 11:44

Community

1
1

answered Aug 15 '16 at 08:33

Ed Holloway-George

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I have already created different layouts for different screen sizes. Instead of using `layout-sw600dp` approach, I used the old style `layout-large` approach. Why is the check `if(diagonal < 7)` not working? – birraa Aug 15 '16 at 08:42
I will check the link and your response and be back. – birraa Aug 15 '16 at 08:45
My problem is not determining the screen size, which your response solves, but `setRequestedOrientation(ActivityInfo.SCREEN_ORIENTATION_PORTRAIT);` not getting executed for some reason. – birraa Aug 15 '16 at 08:58
Any code relating to these changes should be placed within the `onCreate()` method of your Activity class. – Ed Holloway-George Aug 15 '16 at 10:14

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 15 '16 at 08:48

There are Two factors here, the first one is your layouts folders and the second one is your code, when you want to represent different layouts for different screens you should use layout, layout-sw600dp, and layout-sw720dp. In this case the layouts in the folder layout is the layouts for the device which is below 7in and thelayout-sw600dp' represent the layouts for devices with minimum size of 7'in and the folder layout-720dp' represents the layouts for the devices bigger that 7in and till the 10`in devices.

The second factor is applying orientation to these layouts, this can happen easily in your onCreate() method using Configuration.class:

    Configuration conf = getResources().getConfiguration();
    if (conf.smallestScreenWidthDp >= 600) { // now it is at least a tablet with 7'in
        if (conf.smallestScreenWidthDp >= 720) { // now it is a 10'in tablet
            setRequestedOrientation(ActivityInfo.SCREEN_ORIENTATION_SENSOR_LANDSCAPE); // Or portrait
        } else { // now it is a 7'in tablet
            setRequestedOrientation(ActivityInfo.SCREEN_ORIENTATION_SENSOR_LANDSCAPE);
        }
    } else { // now it is a regular device below 7`in
          setRequestedOrientation(ActivityInfo.SCREEN_ORIENTATION_SENSOR_PORTRAIT);
    }

Do you think I should put the code inside the `onConfigurationChanged(...)` inside `onCreate(...)` instead? Shouldn't `onConfigurationChanged(...)` get called ever time screen orientation changes? — birraa, Aug 15 '16 at 08:56
it will be called only after you already change the configuration, but in your case you want to change the configuration in a specific case not react to a configuration change, so you have to use it inside `onCreate()` method — Muhammed Refaat, Aug 15 '16 at 09:16
I moved the above code from `onConfigurationChanged(...)` to `onCreate()` and it is working now. — birraa, Aug 15 '16 at 09:18
Great, it should, and I'm happy i could be able to help you. — Muhammed Refaat, Aug 15 '16 at 09:19

Changing layout orientation only for large devices

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