targetSdkVersion vs. minSdkVersion：configChanges

Question

I want to avoid Activity restarts when screen orientation changes. In older sdk versions it was done by configChanges="orientation" (in the manifest). In newer versions screenSize was added.

My minSdk is 8, the targetSdk is 17 and I find myself in a weird situation: I cannot put screenSize into configChanges (because of the minSdk) but my phone (4.1) will then destroy any activity on orientation change (because of the targetSdk).

Is there any way out? Can I somehow prevent this destruction without having to target an outdated Sdk (but still keeping it as an option in the minSdk)?

Answer 1

You may leave your android:minSdkVersion and android:targetSdkVersion as you currently have them (8 and 17 in your example).

In order to be able to put screenSize into configChanges , change this line

target=android-someapinumber

in the project.properties file. Choose someapinumber as the android version where screenSize first appeared (eg, API 13).

Although you asked for a specific "screenSize" problem, this solution applies to all similar situations where you want to support older devices, but at the same time you must use newer features. In this particular case, "screenSize" will be ignored by older devices that do not know this property, so you don't have to worry about backward compatibility. In other cases, you may have to add conditions in your source code like shown below to ensure in runtime that your app will not use features that are not available in a given (older) android version.

if (android.os.Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= android.os.Build.VERSION_CODES.LOLLIPOP) 
{
    // Code that uses features available in LOLLIPOP and newer
    // versions of android, while the app also runs on older versions
    // and supports them because of android:minSdkVersion.
}

Answer 2

Ah I finally figured out solution:

As far as we cant affect "known suggested solution" with screenSize property as eclipse fires xml parse error on screenSize when we specify android:configChanges="screenSize", if we specify in targetSdkVersion 12 or less android os will not restart activity on orientation change. (Also I did now know and was using targetSdkVersion for identifying maximum supported sdk version. But as I researched again for this there is maxSdkVersion.)

So by this settings:

uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="10" android:targetSdkVersion="12" 
android:maxSdkVersion="17"

...

android:configChanges="orientation|..."

Os will not restart activity on orientation change and application will still support minimum and maximum sdk versions but will run in compatibility mode with sdk 12 which is highest version of sdk not restarting activity which will solve the problem above.