I have a preference screen where I can change some settings.
In the code I can edit them via the shared preferences without a problem.
I have 2 questions:
- do these settings stay saved somewhere when the phone restarts?
- can I insert other settings into the sharedprefs. I mean settings that are not declared in the preference screen.
do these settings stay saved somewhere when the phone restarts?
Yes they are persisted in an xml file on the device.
can I insert other settings into the sharedprefs?
Yes you can have lots of settings in sharedprefs, the only ones that are displayed or modified through the PreferenceActivity are those you set in your layout file and their keys will be the keys specified in the layout file.
As stated before, SharedPreferences are persisted (written into an xml file) so they will always be available even if you restart (so long as you call commit() on the Editor belonging to the SharedPreference).
As far as inserting other settings into the sharedprefs,
You can actually have multiple SharedPreferences (in different files) if you want to be more organized, but you can definitely save anything you want in them.
To get the default shared preference for the activities context:
SharedPreferences prefs = PreferenceManager.getDefaultSharedPreferences(context);
To get one of many SharedPreference that you created, use this:
SharedPreferences prefs = context.getSharedPreferences(String name, int mode)
name being the name of the file
mode being MODE_PRIVATE, MODE_WORLD_READABLE, MODE_WORLD_WRITEABLE, MODE_MULTI_PROCESS depending on how you want other applications to be able to access your apps prefs which can be useful
Related
1) What is the difference between
PreferenceManager.getDefaultSharedPreferences(context)
and
getSharedPreferences(name, mode)
2) And what does each of them do?
3) And how can I make a setting screen (Activity)?
1) You can have multiple SharedPreference files (so they are called SharedPreferences). The argument name of method getSharedPreferences(name, mode) specifies the the name of SharedPreference file to handle.
PreferenceManager.getDefaultSharedPreferences(context) returns the default SharedPreference file having default name and mode. Default name is based on your app's package name (as packagename_preferences.xml) and default mode is MODE_PRIVATE.
If you just want to use a single SharedPreferences file, PreferenceManager.getDefaultSharedPreferences(context) is concise to use.
2) With SharedPreferences you can save some key-value data.
3) Your last question: how to make a setting screen? is too wide topic to answer here. However, I suggest that using PreferenceActivity or PreferenceFragment you can manage a SharedPreferences without handling SharedPreferences directly.
In my app, preferences are organized by SharedPreferences. I need to perform reset to application defaults.
I know how to reset all values for particular SharedPreferences:
SharedPreferences prefs = getSharedPreferences(
"name_of_the_preferences_file",
MODE_PRIVATE
);
SharedPreferences.Editor editor = prefs.edit();
editor.clear();
editor.commit();
But the problem is that only preferences for one particular preferences "name_of_the_preferences_file" is reset. Of course, all the rest preferences are not affected.
So, how to achieve full defauls reset?
It would be good to get names of all the preferences files, to reset it one-by-one.
But ideally, I want programmatically destroy all application data. This could be the best variant.
Original answer : see Deleting shared preferences
Edit : You stated "I need to perform reset to application defaults." and that link provides the solution: you didn't mention resetting all preferences of all apps.
You cannot erase preferences from other apps from your own app because sharedpreferences are stored in a file and your app won't have write rights to directories that contain these files
I need a database in which I can store data and get data whenever I need.
Is this possible with android.preference package.
I do not want to use sqlite database
regards
According to Shared Preferences | Android Developer Tutorial (Part 13) by Sai Geetha M N,
Many applications may provide a way to capture user preferences on the
settings of a specific application or an activity. For supporting
this, Android provides a simple set of APIs.
Preferences are typically name value pairs. They can be stored as
“Shared Preferences” across various activities in an application (note
currently it cannot be shared across processes). Or it can be
something that needs to be stored specific to an activity.
Shared Preferences: The shared preferences can be used by all the components (activities, services etc) off the applications.
Activity handled preferences: These preferences can only be used with in the activity and can not be used by other components of the application.
Shared Preferences:
The shared preferences are managed with the help of getSharedPreferences method of the Context class. The preferences are stored in a default file(1) or you can specify a file name(2) to be used to refer to the preferences.
(1) Here is how you get the instance when you specify the file name
public static final String PREF_FILE_NAME = "PrefFile";
SharedPreferences preferences = getSharedPreferences(PREF_FILE_NAME, MODE_PRIVATE);
MODE_PRIVATE is the operating mode for the preferences. It is the default mode and means the created file will be accessed by only the calling application. Other two mode supported are MODE_WORLD_READABLE and MODE_WORLD_WRITEABLE. In MODE_WORLD_READABLE other application can read the created file but can not modify it. In case of MODE_WORLD_WRITEABLE other applications also have write permissions for the created file.
(2) The recommended way is to use by the default mode, without specifying the file name
SharedPreferences preferences = PreferencesManager.getDefaultSharedPreferences(context);
Finally, once you have the preferences instance, here is how you can retrieve the stored values from the preferences:
int storedPreference = preferences.getInt("storedInt", 0);
To store values in the preference file SharedPreference.Editor object has to be used. Editor is the nested interface of the SharedPreference class.
SharedPreferences.Editor editor = preferences.edit();
editor.putInt("storedInt", storedPreference); // value to store
editor.commit();
Editor also support methods like remove() and clear() to delete the preference value from the file.
Activity Preferences:
The shared preferences can be used by other application components. But if you do not need to share the preferences with other components and want to have activities private preferences. You can do that with the help of getPreferences() method of the activity. The getPreference method uses the getSharedPreferences() method with the name of the activity class for the preference file name.
Following is the code to get preferences
SharedPreferences preferences = getPreferences(MODE_PRIVATE);
int storedPreference = preferences.getInt("storedInt", 0);
The code to store values is also same as in case of shared preferences.
SharedPreferences preferences = getPreference(MODE_PRIVATE);
SharedPreferences.Editor editor = preferences.edit();
editor.putInt("storedInt", storedPreference); // value to store
editor.commit();
You can also use other methods like storing the activity state in database. Note Android also contains a package called android.preference. The package defines classes to implement application preferences UI.
To see some more examples check Android's Data Storage post on developers site.
Which of the following is/are appropriate for saving the state of an Android application?
a. Activity.onFreeze()
b. Activity.onPause()
c. Activity.onStop()
d. Activity.onDestroy()
e. Activity.onFinish()
Many applications may provide a way to capture user preferences on the settings of a specific application or an activity. For supporting this, Android provides a simple set of APIs.
Preferences are typically name value pairs. They can be stored as “Shared Preferences” across various activities in an application (note currently it cannot be shared across processes). Or it can be something that needs to be stored specific to an activity.
Shared Preferences: The shared preferences can be used by all the components (activities, services etc) off the applications.
Activity handled preferences: These preferences can only be used with in the activity and can not be used by other components of the application.
Shared Preferences:
The shared preferences are managed with the help of getSharedPreferences method of the Context class. The preferences are stored in a default file(1) or you can specify a file name(2) to be used to refer to the preferences.
(1) Here is how you get the instance when you specify the file name
public static final String PREF_FILE_NAME = "PrefFile";
SharedPreferences preferences = getSharedPreferences(PREF_FILE_NAME, MODE_PRIVATE);
MODE_PRIVATE is the operating mode for the preferences. It is the default mode and means the created file will be accessed by only the calling application. Other two mode supported are MODE_WORLD_READABLE and MODE_WORLD_WRITEABLE. In MODE_WORLD_READABLE other application can read the created file but can not modify it. In case of MODE_WORLD_WRITEABLE other applications also have write permissions for the created file.
(2) The recommended way is to use by the default mode, without specifying the file name
SharedPreferences preferences = PreferencesManager.getDefaultSharedPreferences(context);
Finally, once you have the preferences instance, here is how you can retrieve the stored values from the preferences:
int storedPreference = preferences.getInt("storedInt", 0);
To store values in the preference file SharedPreference.Editor object has to be used. Editor is the nested interface of the SharedPreference class.
SharedPreferences.Editor editor = preferences.edit();
editor.putInt("storedInt", storedPreference); // value to store
editor.commit();
Editor also support methods like remove() and clear() to delete the preference value from the file.
Activity Preferences:
The shared preferences can be used by other application components. But if you do not need to share the preferences with other components and want to have activities private preferences. You can do that with the help of getPreferences() method of the activity. The getPreference method uses the getSharedPreferences() method with the name of the activity class for the preference file name.
Following is the code to get preferences
SharedPreferences preferences = getPreferences(MODE_PRIVATE);
int storedPreference = preferences.getInt("storedInt", 0);
The code to store values is also same as in case of shared preferences.
SharedPreferences preferences = getPreference(MODE_PRIVATE);
SharedPreferences.Editor editor = preferences.edit();
editor.putInt("storedInt", storedPreference); // value to store
editor.commit();
You can also use other methods like storing the activity state in database. Note Android also contains a package called android.preference. The package defines classes to implement application preferences UI.
To see some more examples check Android's Data Storage post on developers site.
Why won't you just use SharedPreferences?
Anyways: i'd store the data in onPause(), depending on what these data items are. You probably already know that all items that have an id assigned in the R.java are automatically saved onPause() and restored onResume()? - but this is more or less useless anyways since this data is lost after the app dies completely...
assuming that you want so save other stuff that you might want to write to an DB or file, onPause() might be a good choice. as you can see in http://xenonite.net/news/android-activity-lifecycle, after onPause() is called, the OS might kill the app if there's memory needed for other things. so the data will be lost if you'd try to save it somewhere else (e.g. onStop())
but: make sure, that this saving produces not too much overhead, since onPause() is called on several occasions (e.g. screen rotates...)
i am trying to store the user preference of whether the checkbox is clicked or not in an Activity , but when i shutdown and restart the app, i don't get the desired result . i.e if the user had checked the checkbox then on restarting i am not getting it as checked.
here's what i have tried:
public void onCreate()
{
....
checkbox=(CheckBox)findViewById(R.id.checkbox);
// storing the user preference
SharedPreferences sharedpref = getSharedPreferences(MYPREF,Activity.MODE_PRIVATE); //here MYPREF is the name of the file storing the preference
SharedPreferences.Editor e = sharedpref.edit();
e.putBoolean("checkboxvalue", checkbox.isChecked());
e.commit();
//retrieving the preference set
SharedPreferences mysharedpref = getSharedPreferences(TextSpeaker.MYPREF,Activity.MODE_PRIVATE);
checked=mysharedpref.getBoolean("checkboxvalue", false);
if(checked)checkbox.setChecked(true);
Many applications may provide a way to capture user preferences on the settings of a specific application or an activity. For supporting this, Android provides a simple set of APIs.
Preferences are typically name value pairs. They can be stored as “Shared Preferences” across various activities in an application (note currently it cannot be shared across processes). Or it can be something that needs to be stored specific to an activity.
Shared Preferences: The shared preferences can be used by all the components (activities, services etc) off the applications.
Activity handled preferences: These preferences can only be used with in the activity and can not be used by other components of the application.
Shared Preferences:
The shared preferences are managed with the help of getSharedPreferences method of the Context class. The preferences are stored in a default file(1) or you can specify a file name(2) to be used to refer to the preferences.
(1) Here is how you get the instance when you specify the file name
public static final String PREF_FILE_NAME = "PrefFile";
SharedPreferences preferences = getSharedPreferences(PREF_FILE_NAME, MODE_PRIVATE);
MODE_PRIVATE is the operating mode for the preferences. It is the default mode and means the created file will be accessed by only the calling application. Other two mode supported are MODE_WORLD_READABLE and MODE_WORLD_WRITEABLE. In MODE_WORLD_READABLE other application can read the created file but can not modify it. In case of MODE_WORLD_WRITEABLE other applications also have write permissions for the created file.
(2) The recommended way is to use by the default mode, without specifying the file name
SharedPreferences preferences = PreferencesManager.getDefaultSharedPreferences(context);
Finally, once you have the preferences instance, here is how you can retrieve the stored values from the preferences:
int storedPreference = preferences.getInt("storedInt", 0);
To store values in the preference file SharedPreference.Editor object has to be used. Editor is the nested interface of the SharedPreference class.
SharedPreferences.Editor editor = preferences.edit();
editor.putInt("storedInt", storedPreference); // value to store
editor.commit();
Editor also support methods like remove() and clear() to delete the preference value from the file.
Activity Preferences:
The shared preferences can be used by other application components. But if you do not need to share the preferences with other components and want to have activities private preferences. You can do that with the help of getPreferences() method of the activity. The getPreference method uses the getSharedPreferences() method with the name of the activity class for the preference file name.
Following is the code to get preferences
SharedPreferences preferences = getPreferences(MODE_PRIVATE);
int storedPreference = preferences.getInt("storedInt", 0);
The code to store values is also same as in case of shared preferences.
SharedPreferences preferences = getPreference(MODE_PRIVATE);
SharedPreferences.Editor editor = preferences.edit();
editor.putInt("storedInt", storedPreference); // value to store
editor.commit();
You can also use other methods like storing the activity state in database. Note Android also contains a package called android.preference. The package defines classes to implement application preferences UI.
To see some more examples check Android's Data Storage post on developers site.
You are working with two separate preference data files, in all likelihood, since it would appear that you have two different components (e.g., activities).
Try switching to using getDefaultSharedPreferences() (available on PreferenceManager) instead of getSharedPreferences(), and see if that helps.
Hi Pranay if you created before your preference with the same name in other activity or app you will have problems reading the same preference change to MODE_WORLD_READABLE
getSharedPreferences(MYPREF,Activity.MODE_WORLD_READABLE);
or
getSharedPreferences(MYPREF,1);