Can a single Ubuntu SDK target touch and desktop with separate layouts?

I know that touch apps will run on the desktop with the same UI, but I was wondering if it will be possible for a single Ubuntu SDK app to have a multi-window UI with desktop style UI elements when running in desktop mode, while also providing a separate touch UI when running on touch platforms.

Solution 1:

Changing aspects of the layout depending on the size of the window can be accomplished in a number of ways. At the most basic level, you can just set properties to different values based on the dimensions. Here is a minimal example that draws a grey square that turns orange if you make the window bigger:

Run with qmlscene path/to/file.qml

import QtQuick 2.0
import Ubuntu.Components 0.1

MainView {
    id: root
    width: units.gu(50)
    height: units.gu(50)

    Rectangle {
        id: hello
        color: parent.width > units.gu(60) ? UbuntuColors.orange : UbuntuColors.warmGrey
        anchors.fill: parent
    }
}

Of course, if you have more complex elements to your application this can get a bit tedious. To help with this, the Ubuntu Toolkit provides a ConditionalLayout component where you can define different layouts that will be activated when a condition is met. This happens dynamically, and you can see the changes as you resize the window.

Here is a more complex example using ConditionalLayout:

import QtQuick 2.0
import Ubuntu.Components 0.1
import Ubuntu.Components.ListItems 0.1 as ListItem
import Ubuntu.Layouts 0.1

MainView {
    id: root
    width: units.gu(50)
    height: units.gu(75)

    Page {
        anchors.fill: parent

        Layouts {
            id: layouts
            anchors.fill: parent
            layouts: [

                ConditionalLayout {
                    name: "flow"
                    when: layouts.width > units.gu(60)

                    Flow {
                        anchors.fill: parent
                        flow: Flow.LeftToRight

                        ItemLayout {
                            item: "sidebar"
                            id: sidebar
                            anchors {
                                top: parent.top
                                bottom: parent.bottom
                            }
                            width: parent.width / 3
                        }

                        ItemLayout {
                            item: "colors"
                            anchors {
                                top: parent.top
                                bottom: parent.bottom
                                right: parent.right
                                left: sidebar.right
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
            ]

            Column {
                id: sidebar
                anchors {
                    left: parent.left
                    top: parent.top
                    right: parent.right
                }
                Layouts.item: "sidebar"

                ListItem.Header {
                    text: "Ubuntu Color Palette"
                }

                ListItem.Standard {
                    id: orangeBtn
                    text: "Ubuntu Orange"
                    control: Button {
                        text: "Click me"
                        onClicked: {
                            hello.color = UbuntuColors.orange
                        }
                    }
                }

                ListItem.Standard {
                    id: auberBtn
                    text: "Canonical Aubergine"
                    control: Button {
                        text: "Click me"
                        onClicked: {
                            hello.color = UbuntuColors.lightAubergine
                        }
                    }
                }

                ListItem.Standard {
                    id: grayBtn
                    text: "Warm Grey"
                    control: Button {
                        text: "Click me"
                        onClicked: {
                            hello.color = UbuntuColors.warmGrey
                        }
                    }
                }
            } // Column

            Rectangle {
                id: hello
                Layouts.item: "colors"
                color: UbuntuColors.warmGrey
                anchors {
                    top: sidebar.bottom
                    bottom: parent.bottom
                    left: parent.left
                    right: parent.right
                }

                Label {
                    anchors.centerIn: parent
                    text: "Hello (ConditionalLayout) World!"
                    color: "black"
                    fontSize: "large"
                }
            }
        } // Layouts
    } // Page
} // Main View

When in the default phone-like size, it looks like:

When it is expanded to a tablet or desktop-like size, it looks like: