android screen size,values-v11,values-v14

Question

I found several values folders in my res folder:

xlarge screens are at least 960dp x 720dp
large screens are at least 640dp x 480dp
normal screens are at least 470dp x 320dp
small screens are at least 426dp x 320dp  
res/values-normal/ ==    res/values-v11/ ???
res/values-xlarge/ ==   res/values-v14/  ???

Am I right? Or do I need to create another folder called values-xlarge, values-normal?

Solution 1

values-v11 is the values of the API version 11, and values-v14 is the values of the API version 14.

It's worth indicating that i.e. values-v11 will be used for API 11 and higher, unless there's another folder that got higher version. For example if you got values-v11 and values-v14 folders, then values-v11 and will be used on APIs 11, 12, 13 but on API 14 and higher, content of values-v14 will be used

Solution 2

No, this "equation" is not correct:

res/values-normal/ == res/values-v11/ ???
res/values-xlarge/ == res/values-v14/ ???

xlarge defines screen size (so these values will be used on device with display matching xlarge requirements) while v14 determines API version (Ice Cream Sandwitch - see here). It is not guaranteed (or even assumed) that every xlarge devices have to be running v14 API or that every ICS device features xlarge screen.

Solution 3

v11 in values-v11 is a qualifier for Android sdk version v11.

Take a look at http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/resources/providing-resources.html for a detailed description about how Android supports resources for different sdk versions, screen, languages or other device configurations.

http://developer.android.com/guide/practices/screens_support.html contains a more detailed explanation about supporting multiple screen dimensions.

Comments

[Cat]

Case in point: Galaxy S II is a large screen, and can have v9, v10, v14, or v15.

[Marcin Orlowski]

In general if you can plant custom firmware, API version it can be anything you can use, however you cannot change hardware specs that easily.

[Eduard Luca]

And if I were to have values, values-v11 and values-v16, and if I were to delete all except values, would it result in an error, or would all API versions take the same styles folder?

[Frederic Yesid Peña Sánchez]

How do I can define values for pre-ICS and values for ICS+ ??? Do i have to specify each platform indepently? or values-v10 will work from GB onwars?

[userM1433372]

Put all your pre-ICS resources in the 'values' directory and put all your ICS+ resources in the 'values-v14' directory. v1-v13 will map to the 'values' directory and v14+ will map to the 'values-v14' directory. You can use the version qualifier in all resource directories. So layout-v14 will contain all v14+ layout files.

[userM1433372]

In that case all API versions will take the 'values' directory.

[Frederic Yesid Peña Sánchez]

I should asked this on a Independent question, so you can mark you as valid answer!!!!

[Uipko]

This is not totally accurate. It should be values-v11 is values for >= API version 11, until a next defined version. In this example values-v11 will match API 11-15 and values-v16 wil match >= API 16

[Marcin Orlowski]

Yep, that's important note. I edited my answer, thanks for pointing that out.