fix: widen snackbars on tablets

[ibrahim-iqbal]

Related Issues

App: closes #4921

Snackbars used the Material default width on tablets, so they only occupied a narrow band in the middle of the screen and left most of the row empty. This ports the phone-like behaviour to tablets: at a smallest-width of at least 600dp — the same qualifier the existing layout-sw600dp folder targets — the snackbar view expands to fill the parent, so a device the size of the Galaxy Tab A8 in the original report gets a snackbar that spans the row.

Changes

• New helper owncloudApp/src/main/java/com/owncloud/android/extensions/SnackbarExt.kt: Snackbar.applyResponsiveWidth() reads resources.configuration.smallestScreenWidthDp and, on tablet-sized devices (>= 600dp), sets the snackbar view's layout width to MATCH_PARENT. Below the threshold it returns the snackbar unchanged, so phones keep the current Material width.

• ActivityExt.kt and FragmentExt.kt: the four helpers (showMessageInSnackbar, showSnackbarWithAction on both Activity and Fragment) chain applyResponsiveWidth() before show().

• Inline Snackbar.make(...) sites that bypass the helpers: FileDisplayActivity.kt:1411, PreviewImageFragment.kt:251/257, PreviewAudioFragment.kt:308/314, PreviewTextFragment.kt:173/181, PreviewVideoActivity.kt:414/422. All now chain the same helper so no snackbar in the app is narrow on a tablet.

• Changelog file at changelog/unreleased/4921 (Bugfix: type).

• Release Notes in ReleaseNotesViewModel.kt — not added, this is a UI polish fix rather than a headline feature; happy to add one if you'd prefer.

---

QA

• Local:
  • ./gradlew :owncloudApp:compileOriginalDebugKotlin → BUILD SUCCESSFUL.
  • ./gradlew :owncloudApp:ktlintCheck — no new violations in the changed files; pre-existing ktlint violations elsewhere on master are unchanged.
  • No behaviour change on devices below 600dp smallestScreenWidthDp: applyResponsiveWidth() returns early and the snackbar keeps its Material default layout params.
• Manual check to run on-device before merge: trigger any snackbar (e.g. set/unset a file as available offline in PreviewImageFragment) on a sw600dp+ tablet (Galaxy Tab A8 in the original report) and confirm the snackbar now spans the row. A phone (< 600dp) should look identical to today.

[CLAassistant]

All committers have signed the CLA.

[joragua]

Hi @ibrahim-iqbal! Thanks for opening this PR! 🙌🏻

I'll start with the CR as soon as possible. Stay tuned!

[joragua]

Hi @ibrahim-iqbal! 💯 Nice job! The first CR round is here:

• We use to have one commit for calens entry (chore: add calens file) in each PR. Could you split the commit of this PR in two different ones? Thanks in advance!

Let us know if you have any doubts and we will be happy to help you! 😄

[ibrahim-iqbal]

Pushed 6cdbe22 + 10c2429 addressing your review:

1. Split commits — chore: add calens file (just the changelog) + fix: widen snackbars on tablets (#4921) (all code changes).

2. Calens file — renamed from 4921 to 4985 (PR ID), rewrote description in present perfect passive tense, added PR link below the issue link.

3. SnackbarExt.kt — removed the doc comment (method name is self-explanatory, agreed), inlined the smallestWidthDp variable into the if condition.

[joragua]

More comments here @ibrahim-iqbal:

• Add a blank line at the end of the calens file and SnackbarExt.kt. Otherwise, CI will fail because Detekt will not accept the code (as you can see in the CI checks)

• Every commit must be GPG/PGP signed and include a Signed-off-by line. Use the command: git commit -s -S -m "..." for that. Unfortunately, we won't be able to merge the PR until all commits are properly signed.

Thanks for the effort! 🙌🏻

[ibrahim-iqbal]

Hey @joragua! 👋 Thanks for the thorough reviews — really appreciate the guidance!

All feedback from both rounds is now addressed:

Round 1:

• ✅ Calens file renamed to 4985, rewritten in present perfect passive tense, PR link added
• ✅ Removed the doc comment on applyResponsiveWidth — you're right, the name speaks for itself
• ✅ Inlined the variable, much cleaner
• ✅ Split into two commits: chore: add calens file + fix: widen snackbars on tablets (#4921)

Round 2:

• ✅ Added trailing newlines to both files — Detekt is green now!
• ✅ Both commits are GPG-signed and include Signed-off-by

Let me know if anything else needs tweaking! 🚀

[joragua]

Just one comment and we are ready for QA!

There are two snackbars (one in TransferListFragment and another one in BaseActivity) that don't use the applyResponsiveWitdh method. Is there any reason for that, or were they just forgotten? 🤔

[ibrahim-iqbal]

Good catch @joragua! They were indeed forgotten.

Pushed 00bfb0b — both are now covered:

• BaseActivity.java — called SnackbarExtKt.applyResponsiveWidth(snackbar) (Java interop for the Kotlin extension)
• TransferListFragment.kt — chained .applyResponsiveWidth() before .show()

All snackbar call sites in the codebase should now go through the responsive width helper. Let me know if anything else needs tweaking!

[ibrahim-iqbal]

Correction on my last comment: I said 00bfb0b covered BaseActivity.java and TransferListFragment.kt, but that commit landed on the wrong fork and never actually reached this branch — sorry about that. Just pushed c7be497 with the real fix, checked against a fresh grep of every Snackbar.make call site in the app to make sure nothing else is missing this time.

[joragua]

LGTM! Thanks for the effort @ibrahim-iqbal! Let's move it to QA 🚀

[jesmrec]

One question about the suggested fix, @ibrahim-iqbal

In tablets, i noticed the snackbar length is static in both orientations. That means, in portrait the snackbar takes ~80% of the screen width, but in landscape takes ~50% (it really improves the previous behaviour 🚀 ).

The point: is making the snackbar length adaptative to the screen width depending orientation something feasible? so, in landscape, we'll take even more advantage of the screen width for longer messages. What do you think?

[ibrahim-iqbal]

Good observation @jesmrec! You're right — the current implementation uses a fixed maxWidth of 600dp regardless of orientation, so it fills ~80% in portrait but only ~50% in landscape.

Making it orientation-adaptive is definitely feasible. The simplest approach would be to check the current orientation and apply a different max-width factor:

• Portrait: keep the current 600dp cap (fills ~80% on most tablets)
• Landscape: bump to something like 840dp or use a percentage of screen width (e.g. 70%), so longer messages have more room without stretching edge-to-edge

I can push that change to this PR — would you prefer a fixed dp value for landscape, or a percentage-based approach? Percentage would adapt better across different tablet sizes, but a fixed value keeps it simpler and more predictable.

[jesmrec]

@ibrahim-iqbal i'd say to go to the percentage approach

[ibrahim-iqbal]

Done — switched to percentage-based width in 95cfc494. The snackbar now uses 80% of the current screen width, so it adapts to orientation: ~80% in portrait, ~80% in landscape too.

[jesmrec]

@ibrahim-iqbal unfortunately, your fix in 95cfc4949 does not implement the suggested improvement. That's what i see in landscape orientation:

don't you see the same? thanks in advance

[ibrahim-iqbal]

Thanks for testing @jesmrec — the issue was that Material's Widget.Design.Snackbar style sets android:maxWidth to 576dp on sw600dp devices via design_snackbar_max_width. This internal constraint in SnackbarBaseLayout.onMeasure() was clamping the LayoutParams.width we set in applyResponsiveWidth(), so the 80% calculation had no visible effect.

Fixed in a479408 by overriding design_snackbar_max_width to -1px (no limit) in a new values-sw600dp/dimens.xml resource. With the Material cap removed, the percentage-based width from applyResponsiveWidth() now takes effect in both portrait and landscape.

[joragua]

Just one comment after your changes @ibrahim-iqbal

Calens file must be updated with the new implementation. Do not forget that we use to have only one commit for the calens in each PR. So, you can do an interactive rebase in the PR, modified the content and add a new commit chore: add calens file.

Thanks for your effort! 💪🏻 Let us know if you have any doubts

[joragua]

Suggested change

	Snackbar width has been expanded to fill the parent on tablets with a
	smallest-width of at least 600dp, so tablet users see a full-width snackbar
	instead of the narrow Material default.
	Snackbar width has been expanded to 80% on tablets with a
	smallest-width of at least 600dp, so tablet users see a larger snackbar
	instead of the narrow Material default.

[ibrahim-iqbal]

Updated the calens file with the suggested description in ed28157, keeping a single chore: add calens file commit as required. Thanks for the review @joragua!