getWindowVisibleDisplayFrame() gives different values in Android 2.2, 2.3 (but not 2.3.3)

Question

I've got an Activity which uses

getWindow().getDecorView().getWindowVisibleDisplayFrame(rectangle);

to determine the useable screen space and decide where to place images.

Returning to the Activity after I click the hardware "back" button to leave the Activity, the rectangle values are

(0,0,800,480)

However, returning to the Activity after I click the hardware "home" button to leave the Activity, the rectangle values are

(0,38,800,480)

which throws off the display and the image placement.

How can I ensure I get a consistent values when calling

getWindow().getDecorView().getWindowVisibleDisplayFrame(rectangle);

no matter how I left the app?

UPDATE: Thanks to @Reno for helping test; it seems to be dependent on Android version than the device.

Answer 1

Welp, if you read the comments in the source, it admits that this method is kind of broken

    public void getWindowVisibleDisplayFrame(Rect outRect) {
    if (mAttachInfo != null) {
        try {
            mAttachInfo.mSession.getDisplayFrame(mAttachInfo.mWindow, outRect);
        } catch (RemoteException e) {
            return;
        }
        // XXX This is really broken, and probably all needs to be done
        // in the window manager, and we need to know more about whether
        // we want the area behind or in front of the IME.
        final Rect insets = mAttachInfo.mVisibleInsets;
        outRect.left += insets.left;
        outRect.top += insets.top;
        outRect.right -= insets.right;
        outRect.bottom -= insets.bottom;
        return;
    }

You will have to ignore the outRect.top value for versions < 2.3.3

Answer 2

here is a link to get status bar directly instead of calculate it. It will avoid any issue of getWindowVisibleDisplayFrame which is really inconsistent through platforms and devices.

Answer 3

There are times when you need to know the precise dimensions of the available space for a layout when in an activity's onCreate. After some thought I worked out this way of doing it: https://stackoverflow.com/a/16691531/2202013 It does not use getWindowVisibleDisplayFrame and is hopefully future proof.