Android: how to get list of all preference xml'

Question

how to get list of all application preferences for application,

1. I am saving shared preference in this manner

2. I know that they are in data/data/app_packagename/shared_prefs

---

3. THE PROBLEM: But how to get list of all preference xml files in a spinner

and read each preference, i searched in SO, but i did not found any help regarding this, how to do read all preference xml files in my application directory and access the preferences?

P.S: I am aware of SharedPreference.getAll();, will be enough to read once i get the file?

I have wrote in bits(Rough Code), it give error when tried to run, here is the implemented method

void getList()
{
  //will be invoked from onCreate to populate spinner,yes spinner is already binded
   PackageManager m = getPackageManager();
        String s = getPackageName();
        try {
            PackageInfo p = m.getPackageInfo(s, 0);
            s = p.applicationInfo.dataDir;
        } catch (NameNotFoundException e) {
            Log.w("yourtag", "Error Package name not found ", e);
        }
        Log.i("dir", s=s+"/shared_prefs");
     //is this write way, how to proceed from here
}

Answer 1

Try this

    File prefsdir = new File(getApplicationInfo().dataDir,"shared_prefs");

    if(prefsdir.exists() && prefsdir.isDirectory()){
        String[] list = prefsdir.list();
        ArrayAdapter<String> adapter = new ArrayAdapter<String>(this, android.R.layout.simple_expandable_list_item_1, android.R.id.text1,list);
        Spinner sp = (Spinner) findViewById(R.id.spinner1);
        sp.setAdapter(adapter);

    }

//To get the selected item

String item = (String) sp.getSelectedItem();
    //remove .xml from the file name
    String preffile = item.substring(0, item.length()-4);

    SharedPreferences sp2 = getSharedPreferences(preffile, MODE_PRIVATE);
    Map<String, ?> map = sp2.getAll();          

    for (Entry<String, ?> entry : map.entrySet()){
        System.out.println("key is "+ entry.getKey() + " and value is " + entry.getValue());
    }

Answer 2

If you want to use reflection, there is an @hide function Context#getSharedPrefsFile(String name)

So you would call

Context#getSharedPrefsFile(String name).getParentFile() to get a reference to the shared_prefs dir

Answer 3

public class Preferences extends PreferenceActivity {

    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

        // load the XML preferences file
        addPreferencesFromResource(R.xml.preferences);
    }
}

Then in your main class, you can refer to the preferences

public class DrinkingBuddy extends Activity 
                           implements OnSharedPreferenceChangeListener {

    private int weight;

    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

        SharedPreferences prefs = PreferenceManager.getDefaultSharedPreferences(this);

        // register preference change listener
        prefs.registerOnSharedPreferenceChangeListener(this);

        // and set remembered preferences
        weight = Integer.parseInt((prefs.getString("weightPref", "120");
        // etc
    }

    // handle updates to preferences
    public void onSharedPreferenceChanged(SharedPreferences prefs, String key) {
        if (key.equals("weightValues")) {
            weight = Integer.parseInt((prefs.getString("weightPref", "120");
        }
        // etc
    }
}

The saving of preference updates is handled for you.

(Not too sure about public/private declarations!).