I've been having a tough time trying to make the transition from Xcode to Eclipse. Right now I'm trying to design a button menu with 9 buttons for the Android. Here's what's so confusing to me -- with iOS, "image name small device" applies to the iPhone and iPod, and "image name large device" applies to the iPad -- simple. How on earth does this logic carry over to Android? I guess, basically, I'm trying to figure out how Buzztouch works with Eclipse. My first instinct was to make 4 different icon sizes for the hdpi, ldpi, mdpi, and xhdpi - is this the way to go? With iOS I am able to customize exactly how I wanted my button menu to look on every device...is this an impossible goal with Android? If any of you guys have Android apps in the store that use button menus, I would really appreciate if you could walk me through your design steps. Also, if you could point me to your app in the store so I could check it out that would be awesome. Thanks!

Hey @Absentia, Yes it's difficult. I have an Android version 4.1.1 and it's considered a LDPI. The designing method is tricky on Android. I wish I could help. LA

Hi Absentia, Are you trying to use the same app in the control panel for both iOS and Android? If so, it probably won't work, especially with button menus. I tried, and ended up making two separate apps because the two platforms are just two different. I had to change the button layout for Android, which of course affected iOS. No way to make it look good on both with the default options. Mark

Hi @Absentia, I don't think I can give you a complete explanation, but I have faced this issue myself. The way I approached the problem was to firstly work with what Buzztouch offers and not try to second guess every possible screen size Android offers. So with button menus, that meant considering two sizes of buttons s specified in the plugin only, one for big, one for small screens. In my app that uses buttons, they all go in res/drawable. Between Android and Buzztouch magic, it seems something decides what is a big screen and what isn't, I try not to manage it beyond that. I decided to accept that because of the wide range of display sizes in Android, you can't control things down to the pixel. With the button menu, by tweaking margins and button sizes, I think I achieved a decent result. The app I created with button menus is free and for Android and Apple. It is built for a local pub and can be found in google play and the app store by searching for 'The Ewe'. Check 'em out. Alan

@LA - thanks..good to at least know I'm not the only one struggling with this @GoNorthWest - no I created a whole new app..I realized pretty quick that attempting to use the same app would create a ton of issues @AlanMac - cool, that actually helps me a lot when you put it that way - I guess I'll give it a go with the method you described and see where it takes me. If worse comes to worse I can always just default to a good old list menu

@AlanMac has great advice. There's literally no way you can design for all devices. I read an article where an Android developer literally tests on 400 devices. That's just plain nuts! So, try it out on a few phones, make sure you like the results, and call it an app. Mark

@Absentia - Mark's last comment is spot on. There are so many different devices with different resolutions, it's nearly impossible to properly test. I've pretty much drawn a line in the sand and just test on a few devices. I know some will not look exactly right, but it seems to be working without complaints. I don't design separate apps though. I've been able to mirror everything pretty much exactly. The only issues I really have run into are the rss plugin (I did a workaround cheat) and the image gallery which I use but it's really clunky on the Android. One of the tricks I found that works with button menus (and background images) is I change the definition within the source code of what's considered a large screen. Seems to help. I don't recall offhand what I change, but if you want to know, I'll look it up.

Building something similar. rewatch the BTU Android lessons and watch how David uses that Graphical Builder, esp in #2. That thing IS the Interface Builder for Eclipse. it works well and there are a ton of great vids out there to learn more about it. Yes, you do make 4 of the same button and each of those folders is the different resolutions. The RES folder is 'magic'. Android knows to seek images there based on device type IF it finds them...