Develop Reference

Can I modify a Strings.xml file programmatically in Android? [duplicate]

I have declared a string in my strings.xml file , and using it in my activity as R.string.compose_title. (setting it as title i.e. setTitle(R.id.compose_title)). Now in some case I want to edit the string and then use it to set the title . How can I do this ?
P.S. I need to change value of a single string only , So declaring a new strings.xml for each case(which are variable depending upon the user) using localization seems to be a lil inefficient .

One thing what you have to understand here is that, when you provide a data as a Resource, it can't be modified during run time. For example, the drawables what you have in your drawable folder can't be modified at run time. To be precise, the "res" folder can't be modified programatically.
This applies to Strings.xml also, i.e "Values" folder. If at all you want a String which has to be modified at runtime, create a separate class and have your strings placed in this Class and access during run time. This is the best solution what I have found.

example howto:
how? by changing one variable reference to other reference
usage:
setRColor(pl.mylib.R.class,"endColor",pl.myapp.R.color.startColor);
// override app_name in lib R class
setRString(pl.mylib.R.class,"app_name",pl.myapp.R.string.app_name);
base methods:
public static void setRColor(Class rClass, String rFieldName, Object newValue) {
setR(rClass, "color", rFieldName, newValue);
}
public static void setRString(Class rClass, String rFieldName, Object newValue) {
setR(rClass, "string", rFieldName, newValue);
}
// AsciiStrings.STRING_DOLAR = "$";
public static void setR(Class rClass, String innerClassName, String rFieldName, Object newValue) {
setStatic(rClass.getName() + AsciiStrings.STRING_DOLAR + innerClassName, rFieldName, newValue);
}
helper methods :
public static boolean setStatic(String aClassName, String staticFieldName, Object toSet) {
try {
return setStatic(Class.forName(aClassName), staticFieldName, toSet);
} catch (ClassNotFoundException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
return false;
}
}
public static boolean setStatic(Class<?> aClass, String staticFieldName, Object toSet) {
try {
Field declaredField = aClass.getDeclaredField(staticFieldName);
declaredField.setAccessible(true);
declaredField.set(null, toSet);
return true;
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
return false;
}
}
#bradenV2 My app is supporting many languages , so I wanted to take a
string from my strings.xml that's currently in use and change that ,
and then use that one – atuljangra Mar 12 '12 at 22:04
ps the above solution is good for example when u want to inject some data in already compiled lib/jar. But if u want localize strings just make folder under res per LANG CODE like values-CC where cc is lang code (values-de,values-cs) etc
then u have 2 choices:
"build in" system dependent language selection - based on device selected lang
via create resources for configuration - you decide which lang show
like this:
configuration = new Configuration(resources.getConfiguration());
configuration.setLocale(targetLocale);
String localized = Context.createConfigurationContext(configuration)
.getResources()
.getString(resourceId);

I don't think you can programmatically customize the R class as it is built by ADT automatically.

I had a situation like this, where one of my strings.xml values had some dynamic piece of it. I set up the strings.xml with a "replacement text" (something like %%REPLACEMENT_EMAIL%%), and when I wanted to use that string programatically, I retrieved the string value of the resource, and replaced instances of that replacement text with the dynamic value (e.g. input by the user).
To be honest, my app has not been localized yet, but I'm still attempting to follow best practices w.r.t. not hardcoding any strings.

Use SharedPreferences instead of a Java class. It will give you more versatility if you decide to take values from the outside (web). Filling Java class in runtime can be useless offline. In case of SharedPreferences you have to ensure they are loaded only once, during app's first start, and then updated only by manual request, as previous import will be used.
myActivity.getSharedPreferences("com.example.imported",0)
.edit()
.putString("The news",getTheNews())
.apply();

Maybe you want to "modify" the string.xml so when it is required by the activity again it uses the new value, for example to keep a new dynamic title after screen rotation.
First, you can't modify the resource. It's already compiled. You can't modify the R class (what for?) all it's atributes are "final".
So, for the example above you can use onSaveInstanceState() and onRestoreInstanceState() for those properties you wanna keep on display.

According to my knowledge, you can't change resource value(R class value) while app running. why don't try to store on shared preference? I recommend you to use shared preference

I used below method to get the key-value pairs from the API and storing it in HashMap globally. If the key value is not found in HashMap then I will search that key in strings.xml file. It will achieve the purpose of dynamically changing the value of key.
public String getAppropriateLangText(String key) {
String value = "";
try {
HashMap<String, String> HashMapLanguageData HashMapLanguageData = gv.getHashMapLanguageData();
value = HashMapLanguageData.get(key);//Fetching the value of key from API
if (value == null || value.length() == 0) { //If Key value not found, search in strings.xml file
String packageName = getPackageName();
int resId = getResources().getIdentifier(key, "string", packageName);
value = getString(resId);
}
} catch (Exception e) {
value = "";
}
return value;
}

Firestore - How to update a field that contains period(.) in it's key from Android?

Updating a field contains period (.) is not working as expected.
In docs, nested fields can be updated by providing dot-seperated filed path strings or by providing FieldPath objects.
So if I have a field and it's key is "com.example.android" how I can update this field (from Android)?
In my scenario I've to set the document if it's not exists otherwise update the document. So first set is creating filed contains periods like above and then trying update same field it's creating new field with nested fields because it contains periods.
db.collection(id).document(uid).update(pkg, score)

What you want to do is possible:
FieldPath field = FieldPath.of("com.example.android");
db.collection(collection).document(id).update(field, value);

This is happening because the . (dot) symbol is used as a separator between objects that exist within Cloud Firestore documents. That's why you have this behaviour. To solve this, please avoid using the . symbol inside the key of the object. So in order to solve this, you need to change the way you are setting that key. So please change the following key:
com.example.android
with
com_example_android
And you'll be able to update your property without any issue. This can be done in a very simple way, by encoding the key when you are adding data to the database. So please use the following method to encode the key:
private String encodeKey(String key) {
return key.replace(".", "_");
}
And this method, to decode the key:
private String decodeKey(String key) {
return key.replace("_", ".");
}
Edit:
Acording to your comment, if you have a key that looks like this:
com.social.game_1
This case can be solved in a very simple way, by encoding/decoding the key twice. First econde the _ to #, second encode . to _. When decoding, first decode _ to . and second, decode # to _. Let's take a very simple example:
String s = "com.social.game_1";
String s1 = encodeKeyOne(s);
String s2 = encodeKeyTwo(s1);
System.out.println(s2);
String s3 = decodeKeyOne(s2);
String s4 = decodeKeyTwo(s3);
System.out.println(s4);
Here are the corresponding methods:
private static String encodeKeyOne(String key) {
return key.replace("_", "#");
}
private static String encodeKeyTwo(String key) {
return key.replace(".", "_");
}
private static String decodeKeyOne(String key) {
return key.replace("_", ".");
}
private static String decodeKeyTwo(String key) {
return key.replace("#", "_");
}
The output will be:
com_social_game#1
com.social.game_1 //The exact same String as the initial one
But note, this is only an example, you can encode/decode this key according to the use-case of your app. This a very common practice when it comes to encoding/decoding strings.

Best way to overcome this behavior is to use the set method with a merge: true parameter.
Example:
db.collection(id).document(uid).set(new HashMap<>() {{
put(pkg, score);
}}, SetOptions.merge())

for the js version
firestore schema:
cars: {
toyota.rav4: $25k
}
js code
const price = '$25k'
const model = 'toyota.rav4'
const field = new firebase.firestore.FieldPath('cars', model)
return await firebase
.firestore()
.collection('teams')
.doc(teamId)
.update(field, price)

Key should not contains periods (.), since it's conflicting with nested fields. An ideal solution is don't make keys are dynamic, those can not be determined. Then you have full control over how the keys should be.

Firebase Database change node ID

How can I change the naming of the nodes of my children in the image below?
questions_stats is a List<Integer>, I'm aware that I get integers as nodes Id because this is a List. I create each of the children randomly with a number between 0 and 1000. I set this ID as part of the object and to find it I loop trough the list. What I want is to set the "0671" as the Key of the Object at the moment I create it.
How should I define my object in order to access each child with an Id that I define as a String.
Each of the questions_stats is an object.
This is my UserProfile Class definition.
public class UserProfile implements Parcelable {
private List<Integer> questions_list;
private List<QuestionsStats> questions_stats;
private String country_name, share_code, user_name;
private int token_count;
private Boolean is_guest;
public UserProfile() {
}
public UserProfile(List<Integer> questions_list, List<QuestionsStats> questions_stats, String country_name, String share_code, String user_name, int token_count, Boolean is_guest) {
this.questions_list = questions_list;
this.questions_stats = questions_stats;
this.country_name = country_name;
this.share_code = share_code;
this.user_name = user_name;
this.token_count = token_count;
this.is_guest = is_guest;
}
}
I know I can set them using the child("0159").setValue(QuestionStats) individually.
But for my purpose I need to retrieve the data of the "user" as a whole and then iterate whithin questions_stats like it is a List.
How should I define my UserProfile class in order to achieve what I want?
Anybody could give me a hint?

How can I change the node names of my children in the image below?
Answer: There is no way in which you can change the names of the nodes from your Firebase database. There is no API for doing that. What can you do instead is to attach a listener on that node and get the dataSnapshot object. Having that data, you can write it in another place using other names. You cannot simply rename them from 0 to 0000, 1 to 0001 and so on.

Perhaps I should have asked for How to "Set" the node Id instead of "Change"
What I have is an List<QuestionsStats>, but when using an List<QuestionsStats> you get indexes as Keys, What I want is to have the same List<QuestionsStats> but instead of indexes, String Keys for each of my items.
So I changed my List for a Map<String, QuestionsStats>. Now the tricky part is when parceling the Object. You can use readMap() or writeMap() to parcel as shown here in this answer by #David Wasser, but it gives a warning:
Please use writeBundle(Bundle) instead. Flattens a Map into the parcel
at the current dataPosition(), growing dataCapacity() if needed. The
Map keys must be String objects. The Map values are written using
writeValue(Object) and must follow the specification there. It is
strongly recommended to use writeBundle(Bundle) instead of this
method, since the Bundle class provides a type-safe API that allows
you to avoid mysterious type errors at the point of marshalling.
So with the help of the comments in This Question I parceled using this code, note that I'm leaving the "easy" way commented in case somebody find it useful or have any comment on that :
protected UserProfile(Parcel in) {
// in.readMap(myMap, Object.class.getClassLoader());
myMap = new HashMap<>();
String[] array = in.createStringArray();
Bundle bundle = in.readBundle(Object.class.getClassLoader());
for (String s : array) {
myMap.put(s, (Object) bundle.getParcelable(s));
}
}
#Override
public void writeToParcel(Parcel dest, int flags) {
// dest.writeMap(myMap);
Bundle bundle = new Bundle();
for (Map.Entry<String, Object> entry : myMap.entrySet()) {
bundle.putParcelable(entry.getKey(), entry.getValue());
}
Set<String> keySet = myMap.keySet();
String[] array = keySet.toArray(new String[keySet.size()]);
dest.writeStringArray(array);
dest.writeBundle(bundle);
}
Why I want this, well at the moment my list contains less than 100 items but it could grow up to a 1000, I'm no Pro, but I believe that if I already know the key of the item I'm interested in will be always better than having to iterate over the list to find it. In the end my main problem was the usage of a Map, I did not know howto.

Need to get all sharedPreferences but in correct order of insertion

I need some help in getting all sharedPreferences (keys & values) from my custom preference, but in order that they were originally inserted in the preference file. I currently have the below code but the problem is because getAll() returns a map the order changes.
public List<String> getPrefValues(String pref, Context context) {
Map<String, ?> allEntries = context.getSharedPreferences(pref,
Context.MODE_PRIVATE).getAll();
List<String> command = new ArrayList<String>();
for (Map.Entry<String, ?> entry : allEntries.entrySet()) {
command.add(new StringBuilder(entry.getKey())
.append(":")
.append(entry.getValue()).toString());
}
if (command.isEmpty()) {
return null;
} else {
return command;
}
}

You can store your desired attributes in a LinkedHashSet, because there,
The iteration order is the order in which entries were inserted
Sets are stored in preferences with:
Set<String> mySet = new LinkedHashSet();
insertAttributes(mySet);
SharedPreferences myprefs = getPrefs();
myprefs.edit().putStringSet("myKey", mySet).commit();
This is also applicable to a map structure: simply create one set, that contains all keys, and one, that contains the values.

There is NO facility in SharedPreferences for tracking insertion time. It would be better if you can figure another way (external to SP) to track this value.
Bottom line, there is no way within the current SP structure to understand 'insertion time'.

You can use the prefix as numbers for the keys when you put in the order you want to get them out.
For example: 00data, 01foo, 02cree.
Then put the Set<String> returned from getStringSet in an Array<Set> and sort it -
Set<String> set = prefs.getStringSet(key, new HashSet<String>());
Array<String> a = set.toArray();
java.util.Arrays.sort(a);

Boolean Logical Syntax and MYSQL syntax Issue

Am not a learner to boolean expressions but this seems to be giving me a bit of an headache.
In my app when i search for a user,I am recieving certain values from my datase using this MYSQL statement.
SELECT `u3`.`username`,
CASE WHEN `u3`.`username` IS NULL THEN 'Not Existing'
ELSE 'Existing' END is_following
FROM `userinfo` `u3` WHERE `u3`.`username` LIKE '%".mysql_real_escape_string($data)."%' OR `u3`.`email` LIKE '%".mysql_real_escape_string($data)."%'
UNION
SELECT `u2`.`username`,
CASE WHEN `u2`.`username` IS NULL THEN 'Follow'
ELSE 'Following' END is_following
FROM
`userinfo` `u1` LEFT JOIN `followers` `f`
ON `u1`.`username` = `f`.`source_id`
LEFT JOIN `userinfo` `u2`
ON `f`.`destination_id` = `u2`.`username`
AND (`u2`.`username` LIKE '%".mysql_real_escape_string($data)."%' OR `u2`.`email` LIKE '%".mysql_real_escape_string($data)."%')
WHERE
`u1`.`username` = '$name'
Now the syntax above would return these set of values, a username and My own metadata. For example it would return
set of values 1: (davies and Existing)[if davies is in the userinfo table] AND (davies and Following)[if davies is following halex in the followers table]
OR
set of values 2: (null and Not Existing)[if davies is not in the userinfo table] AND (null and not followed)[davies does not exist]
OR
set of values 3: (davies and Existing)[if davies is in the userinfo table] AND (null and Not Following)[if davies is not following halex]
These are the set of values i recieve and i need an if statement to sieve through so i can display to my users this simple information
davies and Following OR davies and Follow[if davies is not following halex] OR User Does not Exist
Now am not sure if i should change the structure of my SOL statement or i could get a better way of handling this logic with if and else statements
This was the structure of my if else statement but it doesn't seem to work the way i want it to
if(username != null && metadata.contains("Existing"))//user exist
{
value = username;
//user exists but skip
}else
{
if(username != null)
{
map = new HashMap<String, String>();
map.put(TAG_USERNAME, value);
map.put(TAG_METADATA, metadata);
listvalue.add(map);
}else
{
//user does not exist
Log.i("search ", "user does not exist");
}
}
The codes above belongs to android.
Thanks any suggestion is appreciated. Thanks again in Advance.

What if you split your query into two parts? Querying for one set of information at a time will make things simpler and easier to debug.
I could imagine doing something that looks like this (in pseudo-code):
query = "SELECT username
FROM `userinfo` `u3`
WHERE `u3`.`username` LIKE '%".mysql_real_escape_string($data)."%'
OR `u3`.`email` LIKE '%".mysql_real_escape_string($data)."%'"
var result = db.execute(query);
// set to true if the above query returns at least one row
bool user_exists = (result.RowCount() > 0)
var username = (user_exists)? result.GetRow().GetField("username") : null;
if(user_exists)//user exist
{
value = username;
//user exists but skip
} // ....
(I've only replicated the functionality pertaining to your UNION's first SELECT statement; the logic associated with the second statement can be similarly rewritten.)