Making a Settings Screen in Android app

Every app in android requires certain settings for user choose and modify the way it works. The best way or the android way to handle this is using a PreferenceActivity.

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Layout Code:
For making a PreferenceActivity you first have to define a layout of it. Let’s call the layout settings.xml

/xml/settings.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<PreferenceScreen xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"

    android:layout_width="match_parent"

    android:layout_height="match_parent" >

    <EditTextPreference

        android:defaultValue="YOUR NAME"

        android:key="namePref"

        android:summary="Tell us your name"

        android:title="Name" />

    <CheckBoxPreference

        android:defaultValue="true"

        android:key="morePref"

        android:title="Enable More Settings" />

    <PreferenceScreen

        android:dependency="morePref"

        android:key="moreScreen"

        android:title="More Settings" >

        <ListPreference

            android:defaultValue="GRN"

            android:entries="@array/color_names"

            android:entryValues="@array/color_values"

            android:key="colorPref"

            android:summary="Choose your favorite color"

            android:title="Favorite Color" />

        <PreferenceCategory android:title="Location Settings" >

            <CheckBoxPreference

                android:defaultValue="true"

                android:key="gpsPref"

                android:summary="Use GPS to find you"

                android:title="Use GPS Location" />

        </PreferenceCategory>

    </PreferenceScreen>

</PreferenceScreen>

As the ListPreference colorPref uses the array list color_names to give the user to choose from one of the colors given we need to create a string-array to give all the possible values a user may choose:

/values/arrays.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<resources>

    <string-array name="color_names">

        <item>Black</item>

        <item>Red</item>

        <item>Yellow</item>

        <item>Green</item>

    </string-array>

    <string-array name="color_values">

        <item>BLK</item>

        <item>RED</item>

        <item>YEL</item>

        <item>GRN</item>

    </string-array>

</resources>

The layout formed above can be represented as:

Java Code:

For Making a PreferenceActivity you will first have to create a PreferenceFragment. Which is defined as follows:

/src/yourpackage/Prefs1Frag.java

public class Prefs1Frag extends PreferenceFragment

{

      Context c;

      public Prefs1Frag(Context x){c=x;}

      public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState)

    {

        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

  //setting default values as in settings.xml

        PreferenceManager.setDefaultValues(c, R.xml.settings, false);

        addPreferencesFromResource(R.xml.settings);

    }

}

Now that we have created a PreferenceFragment we need to create PreferenceActivity as follows:

/src/yourpackage/SettingsActivity.java

public class SettingsActivity extends PreferenceActivity {

      @Override

      protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {

            super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

            getFragmentManager().beginTransaction().replace(android.R.id.content, new Prefs1Frag(this)).commit();

      }

}

To get the preferences entered by the user you need this code in your Activity:

/src/yourpackage/MainActivity.java

//getting all the preferences

SharedPreferences settings=PreferenceManager.getDefaultSharedPreferences(this);

//getting the name preference

String name=settings.getString("namePref", "default value");

To start the PreferenceActivity use the following code on the place which will run your preference screen:

/src/yourpackage/MainActivity.java

public startPreferences()

{

      Intent i = new Intent(this,Prefrences.class);

      this.startActivity(i);

}

Add this activity to your AndroidManifest.xml file as follows:

/AndroidManifest.xml

<activity

android:name="yourpackage.MainActivity">

</activity>

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