Supporting multiple Android versions with different screen sizes

Question

I am writing an application which I intended to target starting from Android OS 2.3.3 to the latest release. I have to give support for multiple screen sizes.

I undrestand that I can provide multiple screen sizes support using drawable-hdpi, drawable-mdpi etc, however these were introduced in version 3.2. Before 3.2 it was somethign like drawable-small, drawable-normal etc.

If I create application which targets devices from os version 2.3.3, what kind of resources terminology should I use? If I use drawable-hdpi etc, would it work on the device having OS below than 3.2?

Thanks Bsengar

can I ask why this question got downvote? Is something wrong with it? I would appreciate if the person who downvoted added a comment with the reason so that I can keep that in mind while posting in future..thanks — Androidme, Aug 08 '13 at 23:04

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 08 '13 at 16:07

0

You can use the current version terminology, as it's based on the API you're compiling against.

You should compile with the 4.3 API (the latest as of this question), and to support earlier APIs, set your minSdkVersion appropriate in your <uses-sdk> section. You can use all the latest conventions for your folders this way and they will work across all versions.

answered Aug 08 '13 at 16:07

Will Eddins

13,628
5
51
85

Thanks Will for quick response. Do you mean if I put minSdkVersion to say 8, the System will automatically treat drawable-ldpi as drawable-small? – Androidme Aug 08 '13 at 16:18
@bsengar Yep. The documentation even says the old names are deprecated in favor of the new names, so you should never need to use them. – Will Eddins Aug 08 '13 at 16:32

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 08 '13 at 16:45

You can add this to manifest for different screen sizes. This will allow you to set your app GUI according to screen size of device.

<supports-screens android:smallScreens="true" 
          android:normalScreens="true" 
          android:largeScreens="true"
          android:xlargeScreens="true"
          android:anyDensity="true" />

Supporting multiple Android versions with different screen sizes

2 Answers2