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

For EditTextPreference:

I came to this solution, of course, just if you need particular edittextpreference but you could do this with every Preference:

............

private static final String KEY_EDIT_TEXT_PREFERENCE2 = "on_a1";
public static  String value = "";

............

private void updatePreference(Preference preference, String key) {

            if (key.equals(KEY_EDIT_TEXT_PREFERENCE2)) {
                preference = findPreference(key);
                if (preference instanceof EditTextPreference) {
                    editTextPreference = (EditTextPreference) preference;
                    editTextPreference.setSummary(editTextPreference.getText());
                    value = editTextPreference.getText().toString();
                    return;
                }
                SharedPreferences sharedPrefs = getPreferenceManager().getSharedPreferences();
                preference.setSummary(sharedPrefs.getString(KEY_EDIT_TEXT_PREFERENCE2, ""));

            }
}

Then in onResume();

@Override
        public void onResume() {
            super.onResume();

            SharedPreferences etext = getPreferenceManager().getSharedPreferences();
            String str = etext.getString("value", "");
            editTextPreference = (EditTextPreference) findPreference(KEY_EDIT_TEXT_PREFERENCE2);
            editTextPreference.setText(str);
            editTextPreference.setSummary(editTextPreference.getText());

            getPreferenceScreen().getSharedPreferences()
                    .registerOnSharedPreferenceChangeListener(this);
        }

In:

@Override
        public void onSharedPreferenceChanged(SharedPreferences sharedPreferences, String key) {
            updatePreference(findPreference(key), key);
}

Answer 2

Thanks, Reto, for the detailed explanation!

In case this is of any help to anyone, I had to change the code proposed by Reto Meier to make it work with the SDK for Android 1.5

@Override
protected void onResume() {
    super.onResume();

    // Setup the initial values
    mListPreference.setSummary("Current value is " + mListPreference.getEntry().toString()); 

    // Set up a listener whenever a key changes            
    ...
}

The same change applies for the callback function onSharedPreferenceChanged(SharedPreferences sharedPreferences, String key)

Cheers,

Chris

Answer 3

Here's my solution:

Build a preference type 'getter' method.

protected String getPreference(Preference x) {
    // http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3993982/how-to-check-type-of-variable-in-java
    if (x instanceof CheckBoxPreference)
        return "CheckBoxPreference";
    else if (x instanceof EditTextPreference)
        return "EditTextPreference";
    else if (x instanceof ListPreference)
        return "ListPreference";
    else if (x instanceof MultiSelectListPreference)
        return "MultiSelectListPreference";
    else if (x instanceof RingtonePreference)
        return "RingtonePreference";
    else if (x instanceof SwitchPreference)
        return "SwitchPreference";
    else if (x instanceof TwoStatePreference)
        return "TwoStatePreference";
    else if (x instanceof DialogPreference) // Needs to be after ListPreference
        return "DialogPreference";
    else
        return "undefined";
}

Build a 'setSummaryInit' method.

public void onSharedPreferenceChanged(SharedPreferences prefs, String key) {
        Log.i(TAG, "+ onSharedPreferenceChanged(prefs:" + prefs + ", key:" + key + ")");
        if( key != null ) {
            updatePreference(prefs, key);
            setSummary(key);
        } else {
            Log.e(TAG, "Preference without key!");
        }
        Log.i(TAG, "- onSharedPreferenceChanged()");
    }

    protected boolean setSummary() {
        return _setSummary(null);
    }

    protected boolean setSummary(String sKey) {
        return _setSummary(sKey);
    }

    private boolean _setSummary(String sKey) {
        if (sKey == null) Log.i(TAG, "Initializing");
        else Log.i(TAG, sKey);

        // Get Preferences
        SharedPreferences sharedPrefs = PreferenceManager
                .getDefaultSharedPreferences(this);

        // Iterate through all Shared Preferences
        // http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9310479/how-to-iterate-through-all-keys-of-shared-preferences
        Map<String, ?> keys = sharedPrefs.getAll();
        for (Map.Entry<String, ?> entry : keys.entrySet()) {
            String key = entry.getKey();
            // Do work only if initializing (null) or updating specific preference key
            if ( (sKey == null) || (sKey.equals(key)) ) {
                String value = entry.getValue().toString();
                Preference pref = findPreference(key);
                String preference = getPreference(pref);
                Log.d("map values", key + " | " + value + " | " + preference);
                pref.setSummary(key + " | " + value + " | " + preference);
                if (sKey != null) return true;
            }
        }
        return false;
    }

    private void updatePreference(SharedPreferences prefs, String key) {
        Log.i(TAG, "+ updatePreference(prefs:" + prefs + ", key:" + key + ")");
        Preference pref = findPreference(key);
        String preferenceType = getPreference(pref);
        Log.i(TAG, "preferenceType = " + preferenceType);
        Log.i(TAG, "- updatePreference()");
    }

Initialize

Create public class that PreferenceActivity and implements OnSharedPreferenceChangeListener

protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    PreferenceManager.setDefaultValues(this, R.xml.global_preferences,
    false);
    this.addPreferencesFromResource(R.xml.global_preferences);
    this.getPreferenceScreen().getSharedPreferences()
        .registerOnSharedPreferenceChangeListener(this);
}

protected void onResume() {
    super.onResume();
    setSummary();
}

Answer 4

If you use PreferenceFragment, this is how I solved it. It's self explanatory.

public static class SettingsFragment extends PreferenceFragment implements OnSharedPreferenceChangeListener {
    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
      super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
      addPreferencesFromResource(R.xml.settings);
      getPreferenceScreen().getSharedPreferences().registerOnSharedPreferenceChangeListener(this);
    }

    @Override
    public void onResume() {
      super.onResume();
      for (int i = 0; i < getPreferenceScreen().getPreferenceCount(); ++i) {
        Preference preference = getPreferenceScreen().getPreference(i);
        if (preference instanceof PreferenceGroup) {
          PreferenceGroup preferenceGroup = (PreferenceGroup) preference;
          for (int j = 0; j < preferenceGroup.getPreferenceCount(); ++j) {
            Preference singlePref = preferenceGroup.getPreference(j);
            updatePreference(singlePref, singlePref.getKey());
          }
        } else {
          updatePreference(preference, preference.getKey());
        }
      }
    }

    @Override
    public void onSharedPreferenceChanged(SharedPreferences sharedPreferences, String key) {
      updatePreference(findPreference(key), key);
    }

    private void updatePreference(Preference preference, String key) {
      if (preference == null) return;
      if (preference instanceof ListPreference) {
        ListPreference listPreference = (ListPreference) preference;
        listPreference.setSummary(listPreference.getEntry());
        return;
      }
      SharedPreferences sharedPrefs = getPreferenceManager().getSharedPreferences();
      preference.setSummary(sharedPrefs.getString(key, "Default"));
    }
  }

Answer 5

For EditTextPreference:

public class MyEditTextPreference extends EditTextPreference {
    public MyEditTextPreference(Context context, AttributeSet attrs, int defStyle) {
        super(context, attrs, defStyle);
    }

    public MyEditTextPreference(Context context, AttributeSet attrs) {
        super(context, attrs);
    }

    @Override
    public void setText(String text) {
        super.setText(text);
        setSummary(text);
    }
}

Answer 6

Simply:

listPreference.setSummary("%s");