Android: Creating custom preference

Question

Is it possible to create an individual preference in an PreferenceScreen?

I would like to code color settings like that:

I know that choosing the color is easy realizable with the ListPreference, but it would be awesome with that kind of "checkboxes".

Answer 1

The Android Developer page only shows how to make a DialogFragment. It's still possible to customise the appearance of a Preference item though. In your XML you have to declare the root element as android:id="@android:id/widget_frame, and then declare TextView as android:title and android:summary. You can then declare other elements you want to appear in the layout. Here's an example showing a SeekBar which you could easily adapt to a multi-checkbox colour chooser.

seekbar_preference.xml

<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"     android:id="@android:id/widget_frame"     android:layout_width="match_parent"     android:layout_height="match_parent"     android:orientation="vertical" >      <TextView         android:id="@android:id/title"         style="@android:style/TextAppearance.DeviceDefault.SearchResult.Title"         android:layout_width="wrap_content"         android:layout_height="wrap_content"         android:text="Title" />      <TextView         android:id="@android:id/summary"         style="@android:style/TextAppearance.DeviceDefault.SearchResult.Subtitle"         android:layout_width="wrap_content"         android:layout_height="wrap_content"         android:text="Summary" />      <SeekBar         android:id="@+id/seekbar"         android:layout_width="match_parent"         android:layout_height="wrap_content" />  </LinearLayout> 

Then, in a class that derives from Preference, override the onCreateView() method:

SeekbarPreference.java

@Override protected View onCreateView( ViewGroup parent ) {   LayoutInflater li = (LayoutInflater)getContext().getSystemService( Context.LAYOUT_INFLATER_SERVICE );   return li.inflate( R.layout.seekbar_preference, parent, false); } 

Then in the preferences.xml file use the preference:

preferences.xml

<PreferenceScreen xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" >      <com.example.SeekbarPreference         android:key="pref_max_volume"         android:title="@string/max_volume" />     <com.example.SeekbarPreference         android:key="pref_balance"         android:title="@string/balance" />  </PreferenceScreen> 

This gives a preference that looks as follows:

You can easily adapt this method to show multiple checkboxes on a row as was in the original question.

Answer 2

This is how I do it, using support library preference-v7.

• Extend Preference and override onBindViewHolder(). This method allows you to get references to your preference's view via the ViewHolder object.
• Inflate your custom view using either setWidgetLayoutResource() or setLayoutResource() in constructor.
• Disable the default click behaviour of the whole preference view, and only allow custom views inside to be clickable.

layout/preference_theme.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"     android:orientation="horizontal"     android:layout_width="match_parent"     android:layout_height="wrap_content">     <Button android:id="@+id/theme_light" ... />     <Button android:id="@+id/theme_dark"... />     <Button android:id="@+id/theme_sepia"... />     <Button android:id="@+id/theme_green"... /> </LinearLayout> 

PreferenceTheme.java (custom Preference class)

import android.support.v7.preference.Preference; import android.support.v7.preference.PreferenceViewHolder;  public class PreferenceTheme extends Preference {      public PreferenceTheme(Context context, AttributeSet attrs) {         this(context, attrs, 0);     }      public PreferenceTheme(Context context, AttributeSet attrs, int defStyleAttr) {         super(context, attrs, defStyleAttr);         setWidgetLayoutResource(R.layout.preference_theme);     }      @Override     public void onBindViewHolder(PreferenceViewHolder holder) {         super.onBindViewHolder(holder);         holder.itemView.setClickable(false); // disable parent click         View button = holder.findViewById(R.id.theme_dark);         button.setClickable(true); // enable custom view click         button.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {             @Override             public void onClick(View v) {                 // persist your value here             }         });         // the rest of the click binding     } } 

preferences.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <android.support.v7.preference.PreferenceScreen xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"     xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"     android:layout_width="match_parent"     android:layout_height="match_parent">     <android.support.v7.preference.PreferenceCategory         android:title="Reading">         <example.com.preference.PreferenceTheme             android:key="pref_theme"             android:title="Theme"             android:defaultValue="light" />         ...     </android.support.v7.preference.PreferenceCategory> </android.support.v7.preference.PreferenceScreen>