android Change orientation removing button

Question

I've set android:configChanges="orientation|screenSize" on an activity to stop it restarting the activity everytime the orientation changes. Now this works fine but I think it's stopping the correct layouts from being used.

E.G. I have different layout folders for different orientations and sizes of screen. So if I start the activity in portrait, when I change the orientation to landscape, it's not using my landscape layout.

Also if I start the activity in landscape, when I change the orientation to portrait, it's not using my portrait layout.

Basically what I want the app to do is not start the activity again once the orientation changes, but use the correct layout when the orientation is changed!

I was thinking I could use the onConfigurationChanged method to explicitly change the layout in code?

Thanks for any input

Answer 1

So What I've ended up doing is keeping android:configChanges="orientation|screenSize" in the manifest file. Doing it this way stops me being able to use my correct layout folders for portrait and landscape.

To overcome this issue, I override the onConfigurationChange method to set the correct information I needed for the activity to run as expected once the orientation changes. below is the code I've used:

@Override
public void onConfigurationChanged(Configuration newConfig){
    super.onConfigurationChanged(newConfig);
    setContentView(R.layout.hearing_test);
    //Any other information needed for the activity to work correctly
}

Thanks for the help and guidance @mihail, helped me get to the bottom of the issue.

Answer 2

when you use android:configChanges="orientation|screenSize" this tells to Android that you will maintain these changes by yourself - this means you have to change your layout (setContentView) and initialize it manually (set values of controls - EditTexts, Spinners etc.)

Answer 3

That is exactly why the Activity is destroyed and recreated: to apply new resources.
Do not use android:configChanges="orientation" if you have different layouts for portrait and landscape mode.