Planning for localization Add RTL support in Layouts

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Starting SDK 17 (Android 4.2), RTL support was added in Android layouts and is an essential part of localization. Going forward, the left/right notation in layouts should be replaced by start/end notation. If, however, your project has a minSdk value less than 17, then both left/right and start/end notation should be used in layouts.

For relative layouts, alignParentStart and alignParentEnd should be used, like so:

<RelativeLayout
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent">
    <TextView
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_alignParentTop="true"
        android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"
        android:layout_alignParentStart="true"/>
    <TextView
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_alignParentTop="true"
        android:layout_alignParentRight="true"
        android:layout_alignParentEnd="true"/>
</RelativeLayout>

For specifying gravity and layout gravity, similar notation should be used, like so :

<TextView
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_gravity="left|start"
    android:gravity="left|start"/>
<TextView
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_gravity="right|end"
    android:gravity="right|end"/>

Paddings and margins should also be specified accordingly, like so :

<include layout="@layout/notification"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_marginLeft="12dp"
    android:layout_marginStart="12dp"
    android:paddingLeft="128dp"
    android:paddingStart="128dp"
    android:layout_toLeftOf="@id/cancel_action"
    android:layout_toStartOf="@id/cancel_action"/>
<include layout="@layout/notification2"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_marginRight="12dp"
    android:layout_marginEnd="12dp"
    android:paddingRight="128dp"
    android:paddingEnd="128dp"
    android:layout_toRightOf="@id/cancel_action"
    android:layout_toEndOf="@id/cancel_action"/>

Found a mistake? Have a question or improvement idea? Let me know.

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