Wish B4A and Split Screen, Multi Screen and Foldable Devices

agraham

Expert
Licensed User
Longtime User
I may be displaying my ignorance here as I know that I do not fully understand how B4A layouts work and respond to configuration changes But hey, lets jump in with both feet and get duly corrected where I am wrong - and perhaps learn something in the process.

Since Android 7 we have had split screen which B4A apps do not seem to be capable of being aware of and responding to. With Android 10 we have foldable and multi-screen capabilities added to cope with the few existing, and many more forthcoming, foldable and multi-screen devices. On such devices the Activity life-cycle appears to be more complex than on older versions of Android.

The new simplification of B4XPages is welcome but seems incompatible with these capabilities. Even with 'traditional' Activities B4A does not seem to be able to exploit these capabilities. If I am wrong then I am sure it is worth while to create a tutorial that demystifies the process of exploiting these capabilities with B4A. If I am correct then it would seem that B4A needs to implement some extensions to its layout handling so as not to lag behind other Android development tools. I declare an interest here as I intend to purchase a Surface Duo as soon as they are available unless the asking price is too astronomical (a little astronomical we can probably cope with :)).
 

Erel

B4X founder
Staff member
Licensed User
Longtime User
If I am correct then it would seem that B4A needs to implement some extensions to its layout handling so as not to lag behind other Android development tools.
You are not correct.
Everything possible in Android can be done in B4A as well. New features might require a new library.
The new simplification of B4XPages is welcome but seems incompatible with these capabilities.
You are not forced to use B4XPages.

It is very simple to make your activity resizable:
B4X:
SetActivityAttribute(main, resizeableActivity, "true")
Android will recreate the activity whenever its size changes.

For further discussion please start a new thread in the questions forum.
 
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