Android: alternate layout xml for landscape mode

Asked 1/2, 2011 at 1:32 Answered 11/2, 2020 at 11:36

Solved android layout resources android-layout orientation

132

How can I have one layout for landscape and one for portrait? I want to assume extra width and conserve vertical space when the user rotates the phone over sideways.

Philosophize answered 1/2, 2011 at 1:32 Comment(0)

229

By default, the layouts in /res/layout are applied to both portrait and landscape.

If you have for example

/res/layout/main.xml

you can add a new folder /res/layout-land, copy main.xml into it and make the needed adjustments.

orientation

Amphigory answered 1/2, 2011 at 1:40 Comment(6)

should i have to keep the name layout-land or any other word @Amphigory – Blowtube 12/1, 2014 at 7:30

You can't use any other word – Hopefully 16/4, 2014 at 22:43

My background image stretches out on landscape.I have layout-land and drawable-land..still it stretches out..I've tried using same image,9-patch images,mdpi,hdpi n all..still issue persists :( – Edwinedwina 8/6, 2015 at 7:18

what is the word for portrait – Thanasi 11/5, 2016 at 13:52

@Thanasi according to Android studio it is layout-port – Madid 25/11, 2016 at 15:36

after i create layout-land, it was invisible then i had to right click on the layout folder and select show in folder then i copied and pasted the <layout>.xml file there. then it appered in the Project explorer. thanks – Cale 11/4, 2019 at 15:15

In the current version of Android Studio (v1.0.2) you can simply add a landscape layout by clicking on the button in the visual editor shown in the screenshot below. Select "Create Landscape Variation"

Android Studio add landscape layout

Dastardly answered 22/1, 2015 at 23:49 Comment(4)

Except it puts a new copy in your layout-land folder. Any idea how to call a layout from there? Can't use R.layout.layout_name. I'm trying to configure my own layouts manually upon configuration change, thanks. – Minnesinger 1/4, 2015 at 3:8

@NoniA. It should detect when the phone switch to landscape and call the one from layout-land automatically. – Bigeye 12/5, 2015 at 22:9

@Bigeye but the problem is, if app is running in portrait mode it will shut off, i have to keep using it in landscape to word, because there some elements I used in MainActivity.java when the class is created. People who actually made this Android are dumb founded, seriously – Schuman 17/1, 2022 at 13:0

You need to architect your view and models properly. Here is an article about preserving data across configuration changes. developer.android.com/guide/topics/resources/runtime-changes – Bigeye 18/1, 2022 at 18:17

The layouts in /res/layout are applied to both portrait and landscape, unless you specify otherwise. Let’s assume we have /res/layout/home.xml for our homepage and we want it to look differently in the 2 layout types.

create folder /res/layout-land (here you will keep your landscape adjusted layouts)
copy home.xml there
make necessary changes to it

Source

Hiers answered 1/2, 2011 at 1:38 Comment(2)

what about for 'portrait'? – Thanasi 11/5, 2016 at 13:53

What about with the new <sw> qualifiers? – Pullen 4/9, 2016 at 0:38

Fastest way for Android Studio 3.x.x and Android Studio 4.x.x

1.Go to the design tab of the activity layout

2.At the top you should press on the orientation for preview button, there is a option to create a landscape layout (check image), a new folder will be created as your xml layout file for that particular orientation

Swaziland answered 16/7, 2019 at 5:51 Comment(0)

You can group your specific layout under the correct folder structure as follows.

layout-land-target_version

layout-land-19 // target KitKat

likewise you can create your layouts.

Saffian answered 7/11, 2016 at 9:19 Comment(1)

Thanks for answering, but I don't see how your answer helps because this question was already answered. Maybe you could explain the benefit of the -19 suffix? Is that helpful in any way? – Philosophize 7/11, 2016 at 14:5

I will try to explain it shortly.

First, you may notice that now you should use ConstraintLayout as requested by google (see androix library).

In your android studio projet, you can provide screen-specific layouts by creating additional res/layout/ directories. One for each screen configuration that requires a different layout.

This means you have to use the directory qualifier in both cases :

Android device support
Android landscape or portrait mode

As a result, here is an exemple :

res/layout/main_activity.xml                # For handsets
res/layout-land/main_activity.xml           # For handsets in landscape
res/layout-sw600dp/main_activity.xml        # For 7” tablets
res/layout-sw600dp-land/main_activity.xml   # For 7” tablets in landscape

You can also use qualifier with res ressources files using dimens.xml.

res/values/dimens.xml                # For handsets
res/values-land/dimens.xml           # For handsets in landscape
res/values-sw600dp/dimens.xml        # For 7” tablets

res/values/dimens.xml

<resources>
    <dimen name="grid_view_item_height">70dp</dimen>
</resources>

res/values-land/dimens.xml

<resources>
    <dimen name="grid_view_item_height">150dp</dimen>
</resources>

your_item_grid_or_list_layout.xml

<androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout
        android:id="@+id/constraintlayout"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content

    <ImageView
            android:id="@+id/image"
            android:layout_width="0dp"
            android:layout_height="@dimen/grid_view_item_height"
            android:layout_marginEnd="8dp"
            android:layout_marginStart="8dp"
            android:layout_marginTop="8dp"
            android:background="@drawable/border"
            android:src="@drawable/ic_menu_slideshow">

</androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout>

Source : https://developer.android.com/training/multiscreen/screensizes

Yorkist answered 11/2, 2020 at 11:36 Comment(0)

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