howdy, Ben!

how can I help you today?

I have a couple questions, first is one about the Menu. Is there a way to hide the menu for a particular screen in Honeycomb and above, I know it's deprecated

Or changed to action bar

I am confused

what do you mean by "hide the menu"?

Well make it so the action bar isn't visible at all

oh

well, you would do that the same way that you hide the title bar in pre-Honeycomb

e.g., use Theme.NoTitleBar (or, I guess, Theme.Holo.NoTitleBar)

Ok I see.

I don't know if that's available in 2.2?

Theme.NoTitleBar is

Ok thanks

it's actually Theme.Holo.NoActionBar for API Level 11+

Ok thanks! My second question is about drawables.. I'm using a FrameLayout to overlay one drawable on top of another, but the drawables stretch in some cases.

are you putting the drawables in ImageViews, or are you doing something else?

Yes

how are you specifying the sizes of the ImageViews?

I'll check

layout_width is warp_content and layout_height is match_parent

OK

Maybe layout_height should be wrap_content now that I'm looking at the code

either that, or provide an appropriate scaleType

The ImageView is part of a ListView item.

e.g., android:scaleType="center"

that should not matter

though then your problem is how you are specifying the size of the FrameLayout

I'll check

regardless, if an image is being stretched, it's because that's what Android thinks you want

if you do not want it stretched, you either need to use android:scaleType to control that behavior, or get the sizes right

Ok

I guess I am using a layer-list, not a FrameLayout, sorry

OK

a layer-list is designed for images with the same size AFAIK

(leastways, that's how I see it used)

I see

so, then the issue is what you are putting the layer-list into, and whether it is the right size, etc.

it's conceivable that layer-list works for disparate sizes

but I have no idea what to expect there off the cuff

It works but when I offset one image the other stretches

yeah, beats me

I'll see what I can do given what you've told me.

My third (and final I think) question is: Is there a way to query the Play Store for an application that can open a particular mime-type?

alas, no

I've toyed with trying to build my own database for that, culled from developer submissions

It would be nice to query that and display a list of applications that can open a file, with a link to them

absolutely

my vision was to tie the database to an improved "chooser" dialog

one that would show installed apps *and* matches from the Play Store (or whereever)

Yeah that would be great

I may give it a shot someday -- getting enough developers to join would be the challenge

I'd think they would want to because it would give them wider distribution

agreed

Well thanks for your time, are these transcripts still being sent out?

visit http://commonsware.com/office-hours for the roster of transcripts

Ok, thank you

happy to help!

howdy, Pedro!

how can I help you today?

Hi!

how can I help you today?

I'm relatively new to Android and I'm starting developing on a project using the Android.media.facedetector library, to isolate the face and replace it on a template image

I have never used that particular library

so, i was thinking on approachs to isolate the face

the library allows me to calculate the position of the eyes throught the library

that comes with google 4.0.4

and the nose can be calculated to

so I was looking for ideas to work on in order to process the bitMap to isolate the face or at least the most of the face

I am sorry, but I have no experience in this area

hooo, so sad!!

I have never done anything much with image processing, unless it was *completely* done by a library

and I have never tried doing image processing on Android

hoo I see

hello, again, Ben!

Hello

Pedro: do you have another question, perhaps one that I can answer? :-)

Bye mark I'll see on another office hour chat byee

thanks for your help

OK

Ben: do you have another question?

for now no... maybe when i get further on the book

Yes, I checked and I have the Theme.NoTitleBar set in the application tag in the manifest. I'm trying to get rid of the action bar (three dots in a vertical line) soft key. Is this possible?

that is the menu overflow affordance

what is your android:targetSdkVersion set to?

8

that's your problem

you will need at least 11

and probably all the way to 14

Ok

Great!

What are the implications of raising the target sdk?

ummm... well...

11 and higher gives you the holographic widget theme by default

(though Theme.NoTitleBar will probably turn that off and give you the legacy widget theme)

you would ordinarily have an action bar with 11 or higher, but you are disabling that

your AsyncTasks will be single-threaded on Android 3.2 and higher devices if you use 14

(use 14 for your targetSdkVersion, that is)

Ok

It won't affect compatibility with 2.2 devices

?

no

2.2 will see a targetSdkVersion of 14, shrug its shoulders, and ignore it

targetSdkVersion opts you into some changed behavior on newer devices, but does not affect older devices

I see

Ok well that's great, thanks!

Have a good evening.

you too!

Pedro: if you come up with another question, feel free to ask