How do I display the current value of an Android P

Question

This must come up very often.

When the user is editing preferences in an Android app, I'd like them to be able to see the currently set value of the preference in the Preference summary.

Example: if I have a Preference setting for "Discard old messages" that specifies the number of days after which messages need to be cleaned up. In the PreferenceActivity I'd like the user to see:

"Discard old messages" <- title

"Clean up messages after x days" <- summary where x is the current Preference value

Extra credit: make this reusable, so I can easily apply it to all my preferences regardless of their type (so that it work with EditTextPreference, ListPreference etc. with minimal amount of coding).

Answer 1

public class ProfileManagement extends PreferenceActivity implements
OnPreferenceChangeListener {
    EditTextPreference screenName;
    ListPreference sex;

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
            super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
            addPreferencesFromResource(R.layout.profile_management);

            screenName = (EditTextPreference) findPreference("editTextPref");
            sex = (ListPreference) findPreference("sexSelector");

            screenName.setOnPreferenceChangeListener(this);
            sex.setOnPreferenceChangeListener(this);

    }   

    @Override
    public boolean onPreferenceChange(Preference preference, Object newValue) {
        preference.setSummary(newValue.toString());
        return true;
    }
}

Answer 2

I solved the issue with the following descendant of ListPreference:

public class EnumPreference extends ListPreference {

    public EnumPreference(Context aContext, AttributeSet attrs) {
        super(aContext,attrs);
    }

    @Override
    protected View onCreateView(ViewGroup parent) {
        setSummary(getEntry());
        return super.onCreateView(parent);
    }

    @Override
    protected boolean persistString(String aNewValue) {
        if (super.persistString(aNewValue)) {
            setSummary(getEntry());
            notifyChanged();
            return true;
        } else {
            return false;
        }
    }
}

Seems to work fine for me in 1.6 up through 4.0.4.

Answer 3

Because I'm using a custom PreferenceDataStore, I can't add a listener to some SharedPreference so I've had to write a somewhat hacky solution that listens to each preference:

class SettingsFragment : PreferenceFragmentCompat(), Preference.OnPreferenceChangeListener {
    private val handler: Handler by lazy { Handler(Looper.getMainLooper()) }

    override fun onCreatePreferences(savedInstanceState: Bundle?, rootKey: String?) {
        preferenceManager.preferenceDataStore = prefs
        addPreferencesFromResource(R.xml.app_preferences)
        onPreferenceChange(preferenceScreen, null)
    }

    override fun onPreferenceChange(preference: Preference, newValue: Any?): Boolean {
        preference.onPreferenceChangeListener = this

        when (preference) {
            is PreferenceGroup -> for (i in 0 until preference.preferenceCount) {
                onPreferenceChange(preference.getPreference(i), null)
            }
            is ListPreference -> {
                if (preference.value == null) {
                    preference.isPersistent = false
                    preference.value = Preference::class.java.getDeclaredField("mDefaultValue")
                            .apply { isAccessible = true }
                            .get(preference).toString()
                    preference.isPersistent = true
                }

                postPreferenceUpdate(Runnable { preference.summary = preference.entry })
            }
        }
        return true
    }

    /**
     * We can't directly update the preference summary update because [onPreferenceChange]'s result
     * is used to decide whether or not to update the pref value.
     */
    private fun postPreferenceUpdate(r: Runnable) = handler.post(r)
}

Answer 4

You can override default Preference classes and implement the feature.

public class MyListPreference extends ListPreference  {
    public MyListPreference(Context context) { super(context); }
    public MyListPreference(Context context, AttributeSet attrs) { super(context, attrs); }
    @Override
    public void setValue(String value) {
        super.setValue(value);
        setSummary(getEntry());
    }
}

Later in you xml you can use custom preference like

<your.package.name.MyListPreference 
    android:key="noteInterval"
    android:defaultValue="60"
    android:title="Notification Interval"
    android:entries="@array/noteInterval"
    android:entryValues="@array/noteIntervalValues"
    />

Answer 5

Here,all these are cut from Eclipse sample SettingsActivity. I have to copy all these too much codes to show how these android developers choose perfectly for more generalized and stable coding style.

I left the codes for adapting the PreferenceActivity to tablet and greater API.

public class SettingsActivity extends PreferenceActivity {

@Override
protected void onPostCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onPostCreate(savedInstanceState);

    setupSummaryUpdatablePreferencesScreen();
}

private void setupSummaryUpdatablePreferencesScreen() {

    // In the simplified UI, fragments are not used at all and we instead
    // use the older PreferenceActivity APIs.

    // Add 'general' preferences.
    addPreferencesFromResource(R.xml.pref_general);

    // Bind the summaries of EditText/List/Dialog preferences to
    // their values. When their values change, their summaries are updated
    // to reflect the new value, per the Android Design guidelines.
    bindPreferenceSummaryToValue(findPreference("example_text"));
    bindPreferenceSummaryToValue(findPreference("example_list"));
}

/**
 * A preference value change listener that updates the preference's summary
 * to reflect its new value.
 */
private static Preference.OnPreferenceChangeListener sBindPreferenceSummaryToValueListener = new Preference.OnPreferenceChangeListener() {

    private String TAG = SettingsActivity.class.getSimpleName();

    @Override
    public boolean onPreferenceChange(Preference preference, Object value) {
        String stringValue = value.toString();

        if (preference instanceof ListPreference) {
            // For list preferences, look up the correct display value in
            // the preference's 'entries' list.
            ListPreference listPreference = (ListPreference) preference;
            int index = listPreference.findIndexOfValue(stringValue);

            // Set the summary to reflect the new value.
            preference.setSummary(
                index >= 0
                ? listPreference.getEntries()[index]
                : null);
        } else {
            // For all other preferences, set the summary to the value's
            // simple string representation.
            preference.setSummary(stringValue);
        }
        Log.i(TAG, "pref changed : " + preference.getKey() + " " + value);
        return true;
    }
};

/**
 * Binds a preference's summary to its value. More specifically, when the
 * preference's value is changed, its summary (line of text below the
 * preference title) is updated to reflect the value. The summary is also
 * immediately updated upon calling this method. The exact display format is
 * dependent on the type of preference.
 *
 * @see #sBindPreferenceSummaryToValueListener
 */

private static void bindPreferenceSummaryToValue(Preference preference) {
    // Set the listener to watch for value changes.
    preference.setOnPreferenceChangeListener(sBindPreferenceSummaryToValueListener);

    // Trigger the listener immediately with the preference's
    // current value.
    sBindPreferenceSummaryToValueListener.onPreferenceChange(preference,
                                                             PreferenceManager
                                                             .getDefaultSharedPreferences(preference.getContext())
                                                             .getString(preference.getKey(), ""));
}

}

xml/pref_general.xml

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

<!-- NOTE: EditTextPreference accepts EditText attributes. -->
<!-- NOTE: EditTextPreference's summary should be set to its value by the activity code. -->
<EditTextPreference
android:capitalize="words"
android:defaultValue="@string/pref_default_display_name"
android:inputType="textCapWords"
android:key="example_text"
android:maxLines="1"
android:selectAllOnFocus="true"
android:singleLine="true"
android:title="@string/pref_title_display_name" />

<!-- NOTE: Hide buttons to simplify the UI. Users can touch outside the dialog todismiss it.-->
<!-- NOTE: ListPreference's summary should be set to its value by the activity code. -->
<ListPreference
android:defaultValue="-1"
android:entries="@array/pref_example_list_titles"
android:entryValues="@array/pref_example_list_values"
android:key="example_list"
android:negativeButtonText="@null"
android:positiveButtonText="@null"
android:title="@string/pref_title_add_friends_to_messages" />

</PreferenceScreen>

values/strings_activity_settings.xml

<resources>
<!-- Strings related to Settings -->

<!-- Example General settings -->

<string name="pref_title_display_name">Display name</string>
<string name="pref_default_display_name">John Smith</string>

<string name="pref_title_add_friends_to_messages">Add friends to messages</string>
<string-array name="pref_example_list_titles">
<item>Always</item>
<item>When possible</item>
<item>Never</item>
</string-array>
<string-array name="pref_example_list_values">
<item>1</item>
<item>0</item>
<item>-1</item>
</string-array>
</resources>

NOTE: Actually I just want to comment like "Google's sample for PreferenceActivity is also interesting". But I haven't enough reputation points.So please don't blame me.

(Sorry for bad English)

Answer 6

If someone is still looking for answers to this, you should check out thirtythreefortys answer.

<ListPreference
    android:key="pref_list"
    android:title="A list of preferences"
    android:summary="%s"
    android:entries="@array/pref_list_entries"
    android:entryValues="@array/pref_list_entries_values"
    android:defaultValue="0" />

Android will replace %s with the current string value of the preference, as displayed by the ListPreference's picker.