Android – the status of Right To Left languages on Android

androidlocaleresourcesright-to-left

I need to create an application that has strings of many languages, including RTL (right-to-left ) languages. I want to know what is the current status of RTL (Right To Left) support on Android (even on latest API), for example:

is it possible to dynamically/statically check if the device's current language is RTL type? I know that it is possible to get the current locale, but i need a more general way to check if the current language is RTL. For example, for English and French it will return false, but for Arabic and Hebrew it will return true.
is it possible to set a layout to automatically be mirrored for RTL languages ?
For example, if a linearLayout (with horizontal orientation) had its children 1->2, now it will have 2<-1, and new children will be created on the left.
is there a qualifier to add to the resources folders that will handle all RTL languages? For example, "res/layout" is for LTR (Left To Right), and "res/layout-rtl" is for RTL languages.
it seems that eclipse's content assist suggests "android:layoutDirection" for linearLayout and "android:textDirection" for textView, but when I choose them, I get a compilation error that it doesn't recognize them. I also can't find out more information on the internet about those attributes. What do they mean, and how come I can't use them?

EDIT: seems that Android 4.1 has some improvement on RTL languages. Wonder what are they and where I can read about them.

Best Answer

Starting with android 4.2 , there is a little more info known about the special RTL attributes , and there is even an option to mirror layouts automatically for RTL languages .

More info can be found here .

Hopefully , they will add more information about how to use it , including some sample code and maybe even a support library on this matter.

EDIT: now they've added some more information of how to use the new RTL support:

http://android-developers.blogspot.co.il/2013/03/native-rtl-support-in-android-42.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+blogspot/hsDu+(Android+Developers+Blog)

I wonder though if the NIKUD ( Hebrew equivalent to vowels, except that they are optional and they are shown as dots instead of letters) works fine now .

EDIT: Now i've tested it, and it actually works really well (this is the first chapter of the holy bible) :

enter image description here

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Android – How to close/hide the Android soft keyboard programmatically

You can force Android to hide the virtual keyboard using the InputMethodManager, calling hideSoftInputFromWindow, passing in the token of the window containing your focused view.

// Check if no view has focus:
View view = this.getCurrentFocus();
if (view != null) {  
    InputMethodManager imm = (InputMethodManager)getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE);
    imm.hideSoftInputFromWindow(view.getWindowToken(), 0);
}

This will force the keyboard to be hidden in all situations. In some cases, you will want to pass in InputMethodManager.HIDE_IMPLICIT_ONLY as the second parameter to ensure you only hide the keyboard when the user didn't explicitly force it to appear (by holding down the menu).

Note: If you want to do this in Kotlin, use: context?.getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE) as InputMethodManager

Kotlin Syntax

// Only runs if there is a view that is currently focused
this.currentFocus?.let { view ->
    val imm = getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE) as? InputMethodManager
    imm?.hideSoftInputFromWindow(view.windowToken, 0)
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Android – the difference between “px”, “dip”, “dp” and “sp”

From the Android Developer Documentation:

px
> Pixels - corresponds to actual pixels on the screen.
in
> Inches - based on the physical size of the screen.
> 1 Inch = 2.54 centimeters
mm
> Millimeters - based on the physical size of the screen.
pt
> Points - 1/72 of an inch based on the physical size of the screen.
dp or dip
> Density-independent Pixels - an abstract unit that is based on the physical density of the screen. These units are relative to a 160 dpi screen, so one dp is one pixel on a 160 dpi screen. The ratio of dp-to-pixel will change with the screen density, but not necessarily in direct proportion. Note: The compiler accepts both "dip" and "dp", though "dp" is more consistent with "sp".
sp
> Scaleable Pixels OR scale-independent pixels - this is like the dp unit, but it is also scaled by the user's font size preference. It is recommended you use this unit when specifying font sizes, so they will be adjusted for both the screen density and the user's preference. Note, the Android documentation is inconsistent on what sp actually stands for, one doc says "scale-independent pixels", the other says "scaleable pixels".

From Understanding Density Independence In Android:

Density Bucket	Screen Density	Physical Size	Pixel Size
ldpi	120 dpi	0.5 x 0.5 in	0.5 in * 120 dpi = 60x60 px
mdpi	160 dpi	0.5 x 0.5 in	0.5 in * 160 dpi = 80x80 px
hdpi	240 dpi	0.5 x 0.5 in	0.5 in * 240 dpi = 120x120 px
xhdpi	320 dpi	0.5 x 0.5 in	0.5 in * 320 dpi = 160x160 px
xxhdpi	480 dpi	0.5 x 0.5 in	0.5 in * 480 dpi = 240x240 px
xxxhdpi	640 dpi	0.5 x 0.5 in	0.5 in * 640 dpi = 320x320 px

Unit	Description	Units Per Physical Inch	Density Independent?	Same Physical Size On Every Screen?
px	Pixels	Varies	No	No
in	Inches	1	Yes	Yes
mm	Millimeters	25.4	Yes	Yes
pt	Points	72	Yes	Yes
dp	Density Independent Pixels	~160	Yes	No
sp	Scale Independent Pixels	~160	Yes	No

More info can be also be found in the Google Design Documentation.

Best Answer

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