Question

My users can change the Locale within the app (they may want to keep their phone settings in English but read the content of my app in French, Dutch or any other language …)

Why is this working perfectly fine in 1.5/1.6 but NOT in 2.0 anymore ???

@Override
public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item) {
    switch(item.getItemId()) {
    case 201:
        Locale locale2 = new Locale("fr"); 
        Locale.setDefault(locale2);
        Configuration config2 = new Configuration();
        config2.locale = locale2;
        getBaseContext().getResources().updateConfiguration(
            config2, getBaseContext().getResources().getDisplayMetrics());
        // loading data ...
        refresh();
        // refresh the tabs and their content
        refresh_Tab ();   
     break;
     case 201: etc...

The problem is that the MENU “shrinks” more and more everytime the user is going through the lines of code above …

This is the Menu that gets shrunk:

@Override
public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
    menu.add(0, 100, 1, "REFRESH").setIcon(android.R.drawable.ic_menu_compass);
    SubMenu langMenu = menu.addSubMenu(0, 200, 2, "NL-FR").setIcon(android.R.drawable.ic_menu_rotate);
        langMenu.add(1, 201, 0, "Nederlands");
        langMenu.add(1, 202, 0, "Français");
    menu.add(0, 250, 4, R.string.OptionMenu2).setIcon(android.R.drawable.ic_menu_send);
    menu.add(0, 300, 5, R.string.OptionMenu3).setIcon(android.R.drawable.ic_menu_preferences);
    menu.add(0, 350, 3, R.string.OptionMenu4).setIcon(android.R.drawable.ic_menu_more);
    menu.add(0, 400, 6, "Exit").setIcon(android.R.drawable.ic_menu_delete);

    return super.onCreateOptionsMenu(menu);
}

What should I do in API Level 5 to make this work again ?

HERE IS THE FULL CODE IF YOU WANT TO TEST THIS :

import java.util.Locale;

import android.app.Activity;
import android.content.res.Configuration;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.view.Menu;
import android.view.MenuItem;
import android.view.SubMenu;
import android.widget.Toast;

public class Main extends Activity {
    /** Called when the activity is first created. */


    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.main);

    }

    @Override
    public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {

        SubMenu langMenu = menu.addSubMenu(0, 200, 2, "NL-FR").setIcon(android.R.drawable.ic_menu_rotate);
            langMenu.add(1, 201, 0, "Nederlands");
            langMenu.add(1, 202, 0, "Français");

        return super.onCreateOptionsMenu(menu);
    }

    @Override
    public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item) {
        switch(item.getItemId()){

        case 201:

            Locale locale = new Locale("nl"); 
            Locale.setDefault(locale);
            Configuration config = new Configuration();
            config.locale = locale;
            getBaseContext().getResources().updateConfiguration(config, getBaseContext().getResources().getDisplayMetrics());
            Toast.makeText(this, "Locale in Nederlands !", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
            break;

        case 202:

            Locale locale2 = new Locale("fr"); 
            Locale.setDefault(locale2);
            Configuration config2 = new Configuration();
            config2.locale = locale2;
            getBaseContext().getResources().updateConfiguration(config2, getBaseContext().getResources().getDisplayMetrics());

            Toast.makeText(this, "Locale en Français !", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
            break;  

        }
        return super.onOptionsItemSelected(item);
    }
}

AND HERE IS THE MANIFEST :

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
    <manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
          package="com.cousinHub.ChangeLocale"
          android:versionCode="1"
          android:versionName="1.0">
        <application android:icon="@drawable/icon" android:label="@string/app_name">
            <activity android:name=".Main"
                      android:label="@string/app_name">
                <intent-filter>
                    <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
                    <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
                </intent-filter>
            </activity>
        </application>
        <uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="3" /> 
    </manifest>

THIS IS WHAT I FOUND :

<uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="5" />

=> IT WORKS JUST FINE …

<uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="3" />

=> Menu shrinks every time you change the locale !!!

as I want to keep my application accessible for users on 1.5, what should I do ??

Answer 1

After a good night of sleep, I found the answer on the Web (a simple Google search on the following line “getBaseContext().getResources().updateConfiguration(mConfig, getBaseContext().getResources().getDisplayMetrics());“), here it is :

link text
=> this link also shows screenshots of what is happening !

Density was the issue here, I needed to have this in the AndroidManifest.xml

<supports-screens
android:smallScreens="true"
android:normalScreens="true"
android:largeScreens="true"
android:anyDensity="true"
/>

The most important is the android:anyDensity =” true “.

Don’t forget to add the following in the AndroidManifest.xml for every activity (for Android 4.1 and below):

android:configChanges="locale"

This version is needed when you build for Android 4.2 (API level 17) explanation here:

android:configChanges="locale|layoutDirection"