Xamarin.Forms dynamic layout depending on screen orientation or size

Question

Did Xamarin.Forms already contain a control/layout which orders it's content depending on the screen orientation or size?

What I want: Two stacklayouts which are ordered horizontal, if the screen got enough space. When the Screen changes, so that the screen got not enough horizontal-space, the two stacklayouts should be ordered vertical.

I don't want to do it in code behind.

I search for an solution which only uses the xaml.

Answer 1

I guess you can't achieve this using ONLY XAML. Certainly, you will need some c# code. The XAML on Xamarin.Forms is designed to be responsive, and you often define the view properties in a relative mode (instead of absolute).

You can see an example of the behavior you want at this topic where we can see a screen changing the orientation of the StackLayout according to the device orientation (you can use it as your guideline to write your own layout component)

The screen on portrait mode:

The screen on landscape mode:

That is accomplished with the following XAML:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<ContentPage xmlns="http://xamarin.com/schemas/2014/forms"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2009/xaml"
x:Class="ResponsiveLayout.StackLayoutPageXaml"
Title="Stack Photo Editor - XAML">
    <ContentPage.Content>
        <StackLayout Spacing="10" Padding="5" Orientation="Vertical"
        x:Name="outerStack"> <!-- can change orientation to make responsive -->
            <ScrollView>
                <StackLayout Spacing="5" HorizontalOptions="FillAndExpand"
                    WidthRequest="1000">
                    <StackLayout Orientation="Horizontal">
                        <Label Text="Name: " WidthRequest="75"
                            HorizontalOptions="Start" />
                        <Entry Text="deer.jpg"
                            HorizontalOptions="FillAndExpand" />
                    </StackLayout>
                    <StackLayout Orientation="Horizontal">
                        <Label Text="Date: " WidthRequest="75"
                            HorizontalOptions="Start" />
                        <Entry Text="07/05/2015"
                            HorizontalOptions="FillAndExpand" />
                    </StackLayout>
                    <StackLayout Orientation="Horizontal">
                        <Label Text="Tags:" WidthRequest="75"
                            HorizontalOptions="Start" />
                        <Entry Text="deer, tiger"
                            HorizontalOptions="FillAndExpand" />
                    </StackLayout>
                    <StackLayout Orientation="Horizontal">
                        <Button Text="Save" HorizontalOptions="FillAndExpand" />
                    </StackLayout>
                </StackLayout>
            </ScrollView>
            <Image  Source="deer.jpg" />
        </StackLayout>
    </ContentPage.Content>
</ContentPage>

Some C# is used to change the orientation of outerStack based on the orientation of the device:

protected override void OnSizeAllocated (double width, double height){
    base.OnSizeAllocated (width, height);
    if (width != this.width || height != this.height) {
        this.width = width;
        this.height = height;
        if (width > height) {
            outerStack.Orientation = StackOrientation.Horizontal;
        } else {
            outerStack.Orientation = StackOrientation.Vertical;
        }
    }
}

I hope it help you.