Android: Limit title width in landscape - Possible?

Question

I want to restrict the title in my app in landscape to e.g. 50% of the area on the left side. Is it possible to have something like:

Title only on the right (resp. left) side

For the portrait modus the current situation is fine.

Currently the title is already a custom title, but would be great to give the user more space :)

create dimen.xml and set values for that http://stackoverflow.com/a/11686495/1012284 — Padma Kumar, Sep 05 '12 at 15:25
Thx for the hint, but I still don't know how to restrict the title width to the right/left side. I don't get a real clue how this might help to restrict the width, cause it's only about the height... — LeO, Sep 05 '12 at 20:08
do u know aboutEMS? try giving android:maxEms="10". you can give any integer values. — Padma Kumar, Sep 06 '12 at 06:09
No, I didn't know about the ems, but didn't change anything. I put them into the Style, but not recognized there. In the title.xml there was also no change for the components. But I guess its due to the fill of the title which covers the whole area... — LeO, Sep 06 '12 at 09:32
True ;) How to post the code properly? [main-landscape](https://code.google.com/p/cuckoochess/source/browse/trunk/DroidFish/res/layout-land/main.xml) with the corresponding title.xml [title-land and portrait](https://code.google.com/p/cuckoochess/source/browse/trunk/DroidFish/res/layout/title.xml) I tried some changes, but I didn't succeed... — LeO, Sep 06 '12 at 10:09

calsign · Answer 1 · 2012-09-05T15:50:44.620

1

That title is part of the View (or Fragment?) on the right side of the screen. To do the same, simply put your title in a View that resides on the left half of the screen. You can use your already-existing layout for portrait orientation.

EDIT: Based on the image provided, I think that the layout of that application looks something like this:

_______________________________
|              |--------------|
|              ||   Title    ||
|              |--------------|
|    View A    |    View B    |
|              |              |
|              |              |
|              |              |
-------------------------------

and in terms of hierarchical layout, something like this:

Layout
  View A
    Stuff
  View B
    Title
    More Stuff

edited Sep 05 '12 at 15:50

answered Sep 05 '12 at 15:22

calsign

341
3
12

The title is part of a View. But I don't understand it practically. To put the title in a View means, I have to disable it in the landscape-view. I guess via code and not via xml. But then how to add it on the right side? I thought the title spans over the complete main-screen. Sorry, but I am not THAT firm with the layout-ing. – LeO Sep 05 '12 at 15:39
@LeO: See my diagram. If this isn't what you want, that's fine. It's what I see in the picture in your question. – calsign Sep 05 '12 at 15:51
Generally speaking the idea looks fine. The screenshot is a fake one, that's the goal I wanna achieve. Currently it spans over the whole area cause it's the same from portrait. But thanks for the moment for the idea, I guesses now I need to fumble around ;-) – LeO Sep 05 '12 at 20:02
Sorry, but seems like I am still stuck. Although I like your idea, the question remains how to do it practically? I have my title.xml which defines the title and the components. I make a `setContentView(R.layout.main)` and then `getWindow().setFeatureInt(Window.FEATURE_CUSTOM_TITLE,title.xml)`. But to make it like you suggest, does it mean, to hide the application Title Bar? And how to specify for ViewB that it should use title.xml? Resp. set it? – LeO Sep 06 '12 at 09:45
Thx for support, especially for the drawing which gave me good overview in which direction to progress – LeO Sep 07 '12 at 09:57

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 05 '12 at 15:31

1

I suggest you set the Android Title bar to be hidden and add your own TextView as shorter TitleBar.
This way you have more possibilites desgining your layout.

answered Sep 05 '12 at 15:31

Thommy

5,070
2
28
51

If I follow your advice, I am curious if I can reuse the specification of title.xml (==> How?) OR do I need to specify it once more? I mean the advantage to have it in the title.xml would be to have it in portrait and landscape with the same code and I don't have to worry about redefinition. – LeO Sep 06 '12 at 09:49
And one more question that just came into my mind is about the background-color. Cause currently Android is responsible, IFF I redesign it, than I have to take care - also for future changes. Is there currently an easy way to retieve them from the defaults? – LeO Sep 06 '12 at 10:03
You can always inflate an xml. Just look for the InflaterService on the Android Homepage. Also you can use the Background-Color from the current Android-System by using "android.R." – Thommy Sep 06 '12 at 11:28
see my posted answer. Thx your hints helped me a lot. – LeO Sep 07 '12 at 09:56

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 07 '12 at 09:55

Based on the previous answer I found the solution with

_______________________________
|              |--------------|
|              || Title-View ||
|              |--------------|
|    View A    |    View B    |
|              |              |
|              |              |
|              |              |
-------------------------------

and a general Style which disables the app-title-header. Some side-effects are:

since the title-view-components are not persistent I need to reinitialize them as soon as the device is rotated (prior this was not necessary) [But this is a minor effort]
in the title-view I set android:background="@android:drawable/title_bar" which layouts the view the same style as a regular Android-title

I included hardcoded in the all layouts the Title-view with

    <include
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    layout="@layout/title_2_lines" />

which is also no big deal and works great.

Thx for support cause the two different ideas helped a lot to figure out a way how to make it properly :)

Android: Limit title width in landscape - Possible?

3 Answers3