page.title=UI Framework Changes in Android 1.5
@jd:body


<p>Android 1.5 offers a different default look for
the Android UI framework, in relation to Android 1.0 and 1.1. The
screenshots below show the same activity (creating a new contact) on
Android 1.1 and Android 1.5:</p>

<img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 277px;" src="images/android.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5323141124169754690" border="0">

<p>You
can see in this example that the buttons and checkboxes have a new
appearance. Even though these changes do not affect binary nor source
compatibility, they might still break the UI of your apps. As part of
the UI refresh, the minimum size of some of the widgets has changed.
For instance, Android 1.1 buttons have a minimum size of 44x48 pixels
whereas Android 1.5 buttons now have a minimum size of 24x48 pixels.
The image below compares the sizes of Android 1.1 buttons with Android
1.5 buttons:</p>

<img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 100px; height: 130px;" src="images/buttons.png" alt="" border="0">

<p>If you rely on the button's minimum size, then the layout of your application
may not be the same in Android 1.5 as it was in Android 1.1 because of this
change. This would happen for instance if you created a grid of buttons using
<code>LinearLayout</code> and relying on the minimum size yielded by
<code>wrap_content</code> to align the buttons properly:</p>

<img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 277px;" src="images/grid.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5323147943613255250" border="0">

<p>This layout could easily be fixed by using the
<code>android:layout_weight</code> attribute or by replacing the
<code>LinearLayout</code> containers with a <code>TableLayout</code>.</p>

<p>This example is probably the worst-case UI issue you may encounter when
running your application on Android 1.5. Other changes introduced in Android
1.5, especially bug fixes in the layout views, may also impact your
application—especially if it is relying on faulty/buggy behavior of the UI
framework.</p>

<p>If you encounter issues when running your application on Android 1.5, please
join us on the <a href="{@docRoot}resources/community-groups.html">Android
developer groups</a> or <a
href="{@docRoot}resources/community-more.html">IRC</a> so that we and the
Android community can help you fix your application.</p>

<p>Happy coding!</p>