Android Developer Fundamentals V2

Preferences
and settings
Lesson 9

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9.2 App settings

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Contents
● What are settings?
● Setting screens
● Implement settings
● Default settings
● Save and retrieve settings
● Respond to changes in settings
● Summaries for settings
● Settings Activity template
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Settings

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What are app settings?

● Users can set features and behaviors of app

Examples:
○ Home location, defaults units of measurement
○ Notification behavior for specific app

● For values that change infrequently and are relevant to

most users
● If values change often, use options menu or nav drawer
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The initial default value for settings
Represent the value most users would choose, such as All contacts for "Contacts to
display" in the Contacts app.
Use less battery power. For example, in the Android Settings app, Bluetooth is set to off
until the user turns it on.

Pose the least risk to security and data loss. For example, the default setting for the Gmail
app's default action is to archive rather than delete messages.

Interrupt only when important. For example, the default setting for when calls and
notifications arrive is to interrupt only when important

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Example settings

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Accessing settings
Users access settings
through:
1. Navigation drawer
2. Options menu

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Design guidelines for navigating to settings
If your app offers side navigation such as a navigation drawer, include Settings below all
other items (except Help and Send Feedback).
If your app doesn't offer side navigation, place Settings in the app bar menu's options menu
below all other items (except Help and Send Feedback).

Note: Use the word Settings in the app's navigation to access the settings. Do not use
synonyms such as "Options" or "Preferences."

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Setting screens

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Organize your settings

● Predictable, manageable number of

options
● 7 or less: arrange according to priority
with most important at top
● 7-15 settings: group related settings
under section dividers

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16+ Settings

● Group into screens

opened from main
Settings screen

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Building the settings
Build an app's settings using various subclasses of the Preference class rather than using View objects. This class
provides the View to be displayed for each setting, and associates with it a SharedPreferences interface to store/retrieve
the preference data.

Each Preference appears as an item in a list. Direct subclasses provide containers for layouts involving multiple settings.
For example:

PreferenceGroup: Represents a group of settings (Preference objects).

PreferenceCategory: Provides a disabled title above a group as a section divider.

PreferenceScreen: Represents a top-level Preference that is the root of a Preference hierarchy. Use a PreferenceScreen in
a layout at the top of each screen of settings.

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View versus Preference
● Use Preference objects instead of View objects in your
Settings screens
● Design and edit Preference objects in the layout editor
just like you do for View objects

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Define Settings in a Preference Screen
● Define settings in a
preferences screen
● It is like a layout
● define in:
res > xml > preferences.xml

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Preference Screen example
<PreferenceScreen>
<PreferenceCategory
android:title="Flight Preferences">
<CheckBoxPreference
android:title="Wake for meals"
... />
<EditTextPreference
android:title="Favorite city"
.../>
</PreferenceCategory>
</PreferenceScreen>
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Every Preference must have a key
● Every preference must have a key
● Android uses the key to save the setting value
<EditTextPreference
android:title="Favorite city"
android:key="fav_city"
… />
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SwitchPreference
<PreferenceScreen
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">

<SwitchPreference
android:defaultValue="true"
android:title="@string/pref_title_social"
android:key="switch"
android:summary="@string/pref_sum_social" />
</PreferenceScreen>

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SwitchPreference attributes

● android:defaultValue—true by default
● android:summary—text underneath setting, for some
settings, should change to reflect value
● android:title—title/name
● android:key—key for storing value in SharedPreferences

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 EditTextPreference

<EditTextPreference
android:capitalize="words"
android:inputType="textCapWords"
android:key="user_display_name"
android:maxLines="1"
android:defaultValue="@string/pref_default_display_name"
android:title="@string/pref_title_display_name" />

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 ListPreference

<ListPreference
android:defaultValue="-1"
android:key="add_friends_key"
android:entries="@array/pref_example_list_titles"
android:entryValues="@array/pref_example_list_values"
android:title="@string/pref_title_add_friends_to_messages" />

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ListPreference

● Default value of -1 for no choice

● android:entries—Array of labels for radio buttons
● android:entryValues —Array of values radio button

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Preference class

● Preference class provides View for each kind of setting

● associates View with SharedPreferences interface to
store/retrieve the preference data
● Uses key in the Preference to store the setting value

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Preference subclasses

● CheckBoxPreference—list item that shows a checkbox

● ListPreference—opens a dialog with a list of radio buttons
● SwitchPreference—two-state toggleable option
● EditTextPreference—that opens a dialog with an EditText
● RingtonePreference—lets user to choose a ringtone

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Classes for grouping
● PreferenceScreen
○ root of a Preference layout hierarchy
○ at the top of each screen of settings

● PreferenceGroup
○ for a group of settings (Preference objects).

● PreferenceCategory
○ title above a group as a section divider
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Implement
settings

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Settings UI uses fragments
● Use an Activity with a Fragment to display the Settings
screen
● Use specialized Activity and Fragment subclasses that
handle the work of saving settings

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Activities and fragments for settings
● Android 3.0 and newer: Lesson
focusses
○ AppCompatActivity with PreferenceFragmentCompat on this!
○ OR use Activity with PreferenceFragment

● Android older than 3.0 (API level 10 and lower):

○ build a special settings activity as an extension of the
PreferenceActivity class (use the template!)

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Steps to implement Settings
For AppCompatActivity with PreferenceFragmentCompat:
● Create the preferences screen
● Create an Activity for the settings
● Create a Fragment for the settings
● Add the preferenceTheme to the AppTheme
● Add code to invoke Settings UI
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Basic Activity template

● Basic Activity template

Includes options menu
● Settings menu item provided
for options menu

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Create a Settings Activity subclass
● Extends AppCompatActivity
● in onCreate() display the settings Fragment:
getSupportFragmentManager()
.beginTransaction()
.replace(android.R.id.content,
new MySettingsFragment())
.commit();
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Settings Activity example
public class MySettingsActivity extends AppCompatActivity {

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
getSupportFragmentManager().beginTransaction()
.replace(android.R.id.content, new MySettingsFragment())
.commit();
} This is the
} whole class!

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Create a Settings Fragment subclass
● Extends PreferenceFragmentCompat
● Implement methods:
○ onCreatePreferences() displays the settings
○ setOnPreferenceChangeListener() handles any
changes that need to happen when the user changes a
preference (optional)

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PreferenceFragment

public class MySettingsFragment

extends PreferenceFragmentCompat { …}

● Blank fragments include onCreateView() by default

● Replace onCreateView() with onCreatePreferences()
because this fragment displays a preferences screen

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Settings Fragment example
public class MySettingsFragment extends PreferenceFragmentCompat {
@Override
public void onCreatePreferences(Bundle savedInstanceState,
String rootKey) {
setPreferencesFromResource(R.xml.preferences, rootKey);
}
}

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Add PreferenceTheme to app's theme
If using PreferenceFragmentCompat, set preferenceTheme
in styles.xml:
<style name="AppTheme" parent="...">
...
<item name="preferenceTheme">
@style/PreferenceThemeOverlay
</item>
…
</style>

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Invoke Settings UI
Send the Intent to start the Settings Activity:
● From Options menu, update onOptionItemsSelected()
● From Navigation drawer, update onItemClick() on the
OnItemClickListener given to setOnItemClickListener

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Default Settings

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Default settings
● Set default to value most users would choose
○ All contacts
● Use less battery power
○ Bluetooth is off until the user turns it on
● Least risk to security and data loss
○ Archive rather than delete messages
● Interrupt only when important
○ When calls and notifications arrive
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Set default values
● Use android:defaultValue in Preference view in xml:
<EditTextPreference
android:defaultValue="London"
… />
● In onCreate() of MainActivity, save default values.

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Save default values in shared preferences

In onCreate() of MainActivity
PreferenceManager.setDefaultValues(
this, R.xml.preferences, false);
● App context, such as this
● Resource ID of XML resource file with settings
● false only calls method the first time the app starts

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Save and retrieve
settings

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Saving setting values
● No need to write code to save settings!
● If you use specialized Preference Activity and Fragment,
Android automatically saves setting values in shared
preferences

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Get settings from shared preferences
● In your code, get settings from default shared preferences
● Use key as specified in preference view in xml
SharedPreferences sharedPref =
PreferenceManager.getDefaultSharedPreferences(this);
String destinationPref =
sharedPref.getString("fav_city", "Jamaica");

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Get settings values from shared preferences

● In preference definition in xml: default setting value

<EditTextPreference is different than
android:defaultValue="London"
android:key="fav_city" /> default value returned by
pref.getString() if key is
● In code, get fav_city setting: not found in shared prefs

String destinationPref =
sharedPref.getString("fav_city", "Jamaica");
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Respond to
changes in
settings

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Listening to changes

● Display related follow-up settings

● Disable or enable related settings
● Change the summary to reflect current choice
● Act on the setting
For example, if the setting changes the screen
background, then change the background
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Listen for changes to settings
● Define setOnPreferenceChangeListener()
● in onCreatePreferences() in the Settings Fragment

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onCreatePreferences() example
@Override
public void onCreatePreferences(Bundle savedInstanceState,
String rootKey) {
setPreferencesFromResource(R.xml.preferences, rootKey);
ListPreference colorPref =
(ListPreference) findPreference("color_pref");
colorPref.setOnPreferenceChangeListener(
// see next slide
// ...);
}
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onPreferenceChangeListener() example
Example: change background color when setting changes
colorPref.setOnPreferenceChangeListener(
new Preference.OnPreferenceChangeListener(){
@Override
public boolean onPreferenceChange(
Preference preference, Object newValue){
setMyBackgroundColor(newValue);
return true;
}
});
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Summaries for
settings

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Summaries for true/false values
Set attributes to define
conditional summaries for
preferences that have
true/false values

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Summaries for other settings
For settings that have values other than true/false, update
the summary when the setting value changes
● Set the summary in onPreferenceChangeListener()

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 Set summary example
EditTextPreference cityPref = (EditTextPreference)
findPreference("fav_city");
cityPref.setOnPreferenceChangeListener(
new Preference.OnPreferenceChangeListener(){
@Override
public boolean onPreferenceChange(Preference pref, Object value){
String city = value.toString();
pref.setSummary("Your favorite city is " + city);
return true;
}
});
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 Activity
Template

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More complex?

For anything more complex

?
use the Settings Activity template!

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Settings Activity template
● Complex Settings
● Backwards
compatibility Phone
● Customize pre-
populated settings
● Adaptive layout for
phones and tablets Tablet
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Learn more

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Learn more
● Android Studio User Guide
● Settings (coding)
● Preference class
● PreferenceFragment
● Fragment
● SharedPreferences
● Saving Key-Value Sets
● Settings (design)
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What's Next?

● Concept Chapter: 9.2 App settings

● Practical: 9.2 App settings

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END

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