03 April 2023

What’s new in WindowManager 1.1.0-beta01

Posted by Jon Eckenrode, Technical Writer, Software Engineering

The 1.1.0-beta01 release of Jetpack WindowManager continues the library’s steady progress toward stable release of version 1.1.0. The beta adds an assortment of new features and capabilities, which are ready for testing and early adoption today!

We need your feedback so we can make WindowManager work best for you. Add the 1.1.0-beta01 dependency to your app, follow the migration steps below (if you’re already using a previous version of the library), and let us know what you think!

Activity embedding

androidx.window.embedding

Activity embedding enables you to optimize your multi-activity apps for large screens. The 1.1.0-beta01 release augments and refactors the APIs to provide greater versatility, capability, and control in managing task window splits. We started with experimental APIs in 1.0.0 and are promoting them ultimately to stable in 1.1.0.

tl;dr

Added a manifest setting so you can inform the system your app has implemented activity embedding. Refactored SplitController to be more focused on split properties; extracted split rule APIs to RuleController and activity embedding APIs to ActivityEmbeddingController. Added the SplitAttributes class to describe embedding splits. Added the EmbeddingAspectRatio class to set a minimum ratio for applying activity embedding rules. Changed pixels units to display-independent pixels (dp). Enabled customization of split layouts. Added a tag to rules so that developers can identify and manage specific rules.

What’s new

PROPERTY_ACTIVITY_EMBEDDING_SPLITS_ENABLED

Added as a boolean property of the <application> tag in the app manifest.

ActivityEmbeddingController

Added class for operations related to the Activity or ActivityStack classes.

Includes isActivityEmbedded() to replace the API in SplitController.

RuleController

Added class for operations related to the EmbeddingRule class and subclasses.
Includes the following APIs to replace APIs in SplitController:

addRule() — Adds a rule or updates the rule that has the same tag.
removeRule() — Removes a rule from the collection of registered rules.
setRules() — Establishes a collection of rules.
clearRules() — Removes all registered rules.
parseRules() — Parses rules from XML rule definitions.

SplitAttributes

Added class to define the split layout.

EmbeddingAspectRatio

Added class to define enum-like behavior constants related to display aspect ratio. Lets you specify when splits are enabled based on the parent window’s aspect ratio.

See SplitRule for properties that use the constants.

What’s changed

EmbeddingRule

Added tag field for identification of split rules.

SplitController

Refactored APIs to the following modules:

ActivityEmbeddingController

Moved isActivityEmbedded() to ActivityEmbeddingController.

RuleController

Removed the following APIs and replaced their functionality with RuleController APIs:

clearRegisteredRules()
getSplitRules()
initialize()
registerRule()
unregisterRule()

Deprecated isSplitSupported() method and replaced with splitSupportStatus property to provide more detailed information about why the split feature is not available.

The getInstance() method now has a Context parameter.

Note: The getInstance() methods of ActivityEmbeddingController and RuleController also have a Context parameter.

Added SplitAttributes calculator functions to customize split layouts:

setSplitAttributesCalculator()
clearSplitAttributesCalculator()
isSplitAttributesCalculatorSupported() to check whether the SplitAttributesCalculator APIs are supported on the device.

Defined SplitSupportStatus nested class to provide state constants for the splitSupportStatus property. Enables you to modify app behavior based on whether activity embedding splits are supported in the current app environment.

SplitRule

Added defaultSplitAttributes property which defines the default layout of a split; replaces splitRatio and layoutDirection.

Added translation of the XML properties splitRatio and splitLayoutDirection to defaultSplitAttributes.

Changed minimum dimension definitions to use density-independent pixels (dp) instead of pixels.

Changed minWidth to minWidthDp with default value 600dp.

Changed minSmallestWidth to minSmallestWidthDp with default value 600dp.

Added minHeightDp property with default value 600dp.

Added maxAspectRatioInHorizontal with default value ALWAYS_ALLOW.

Added maxAspectRatioInPortrait with default value 1.4.

Defined FinishBehavior nested class to replace finish behavior constants.

Applied the property changes to the Builder nested class of SplitPairRule and SplitPlaceholderRule.

SplitInfo

Replaced getSplitRatio() with getSplitAttributes() to provide additional split-related information.

Window layout

androidx.window.layout

The window layout library lets you determine features of app display windows. With the 1.1.0-beta01 release, you can now work in contexts other than just activities.

What’s changed

WindowInfoTracker

Added non-activity UI context support in experimental.

WindowMetricsCalculator

Added non-activity UI context support.

Migration steps

Take the next step and upgrade your app from a previous alpha version. And please let us know how we can further facilitate the upgrade process.

PROPERTY_ACTIVITY_EMBEDDING_SPLITS_ENABLED

To enable activity embedding, apps must add the property to the <application> tag in the app manifest:

< property android:name="android.window.PROPERTY_ACTIVITY_EMBEDDING_SPLITS_ENABLED" android:value="true" />

When the property is set to true, the system can optimize split behavior for the app early.

SplitInfo

Check if the current split is stacked:

SplitInfo.splitAttributes.splitType is SplitAttributes.SplitType.ExpandContainersSplitType

Check the current ratio:

if (SplitInfo.splitAttributes.splitType is SplitAttributes.SplitType.RatioSplitType) { val ratio = splitInfo.splitAttributes.splitType.ratio } else { // Ratio is meaningless for other types. }

SplitController

SplitController.getInstance()

changes to

SplitController.getInstance(Context)

SplitController.initialize(Context, @ResId int)

changes to:

RuleController.getInstance(Context) .setRules(RuleController.parse(Context, @ResId int))

SplitController.getInstance().isActivityEmbedded(Activity)

changes to:

ActivityEmbeddingController.getInstance(Context) .isActivityEmbedded(Activity)

SplitController.getInstance().registerRule(rule)

changes to:

RuleController.getInstance(Context).addRule(rule)

SplitController.getInstance().unregisterRule(rule)

changes to:

RuleController.getInstance(Context).removeRule(rule)

SplitController.getInstance().clearRegisteredRules()

changes to:

RuleController.getInstance(Context).clearRules()

SplitController.getInstance().getSplitRules()

changes to:

RuleController.getInstance(Context).getRules()

SplitRule

Change minWidth to minWidthDp and minSmallestWidth to minSmallestWidthDp

minWidthDp and minSmallestWidthDp now use dp units instead of pixels

Apps can use the following call:
TypedValue.applyDimension( COMPLEX_UNIT_DIP, minWidthInPixels, resources.displayMetrics )
or simply divide minWithInPixels by displayMetrics#density.

SplitPairRule.Builder

SplitPairRule.Builder( filters, minWidth, minSmallestWidth )

changes to:

SplitPairRule.Builder(filters) // Optional if minWidthInDp argument is 600. .setMinWidthDp(minWidthInDp) // Optional if minSmallestWidthInDp argument is 600. .setMinSmallestWidthDp(minSmallestWidthInDp)

setLayoutDirection(layoutDirection) and setSplitRatio(ratio)

change to:

setDefaultSplitAttributes(SplitAttributes.Builder() .setLayoutDirection(layoutDirection) .setSplitType(SplitAttributes.SplitType.ratio(ratio)) .build() )

setFinishPrimaryWithSecondary and setFinishSecondaryWithPrimary take the FinishBehavior enum-like constants.

See SplitRule migrations for details.

Use:

setMaxAspectRatioInPortrait( EmbeddingAspectRatio.ALWAYS_ALLOW )

to show splits on portrait devices.

SplitPlaceholder.Builder

Has only filters and placeholderIntent parameters; other properties move to setters.

See SplitPairRule.Builder migrations for details.

setFinishPrimaryWithPlaceholder takes the FinishBehavior enum-like constants.

See finish behavior migrations for details.

setLayoutDirection(layoutDirection) and setSplitRatio(ratio)

change to

setDefaultSplitAttributes(SplitAttributes.Builder() .setLayoutDirection(layoutDirection) .setSplitType(SplitAttributes.SplitType.ratio(ratio)) .build() )
See layout direction migrations for details.

Use:

setMaxAspectRatioInPortrait( EmbeddingAspectRatio.ALWAYS_ALLOW )
to show splits on portrait devices.

Finish behavior

Finish behavior constants must be migrated to FinishBehavior enum-like class constants:

FINISH_NEVER changes to FinishBehavior.NEVER

FINISH_ALWAYS changes to FinishBehavior.ALWAYS

FINISH_ADJACENT changes to FinishBehavior.ADJACENT

Layout direction

Layout direction must be migrated to SplitAttributes.LayoutDirection:

ltr changes to SplitAttributes.LayoutDirection.LEFT_TO_RIGHT

rtl changes to SplitAttributes.LayoutDirection.RIGHT_TO_LEFT

locale changes to SplitAttributes.LayoutDirection.LOCALE

splitRatio migrates to SplitAttributes.SplitType.ratio(splitRatio)

Get started

To get started with WindowManager, add the Google Maven repository to your app’s settings.gradle or project-level build.gradle file:

dependencyResolutionManagement {

repositoriesMode.set(RepositoriesMode.FAIL_ON_PROJECT_REPOS)

repositories {

google()

}

Then add the 1.1.0-beta01 dependency to your app’s module-level build.gradle file:

dependencies {

implementation 'androidx.window:window:1.1.0-beta01'

. . .

}

Happy coding!

Beta Jetpack release windowmanager