Android PreferenceScreen - Can I use it without saving preferences to SharedPreferences?

Question

I'm trying to use the Android PreferenceScreen as a convenient way to layout my user settings, but I don't want to save the preferences to the device shared preferences. Is this possible, or should I be using a different mechanism such as ListView?

It seems really convenient to use the PreferenceScreen type because I require different widgets (ie. switches, edit text). But I'm already running into problems with persistence, ie. anything I enter is persisted even across sessions when I don't want it to be.

settings.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<PreferenceScreen xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent" >

    <Preference
        android:key="settings_type"
        android:title="@string/label_type" />

    <EditTextPreference
        android:key="settings_edit_name"
        android:title="@string/label_name"
        android:dialogTitle="Enter a name"
        android:singleLine="true" />

    <SwitchPreference
        android:key="settings_edit_state"
        android:title="@string/label_state"
        android:summary="Enable or disable the state" />

</PreferenceScreen>

Answer 1

I know that's an old question but I find it quite interesting. Just set this attribute to your preference and it won't be saved:

android:persistent="false"

Answer 2

I re-read the appropriate docs and determined how to prevent saving preferences by implementing the Preference.OnPreferenceChangeListener interface.

public static interface Preference.OnPreferenceChangeListener

Interface definition for a callback to be invoked when the value of this Preference has been changed by the user and is about to be set and/or persisted. This gives the client a chance to prevent setting and/or persisting the value.

Example:

public class SettingsFragment extends PreferenceFragment {

    public static SettingsFragment newInstance(int index) {
        SettingsFragment f = new SettingsFragment();

        Bundle args = new Bundle();
        args.putInt("index", index);
        f.setArguments(args);

        return f;
    }

    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

        addPreferencesFromResource(R.layout.settings);

        // getArguments().getInt("index");

        EditTextPreference namePreference = (EditTextPreference) findPreference("settings_edit_name");
        namePreference.setOnPreferenceChangeListener(new NamePreferenceChangeListener());

    }

    private class NamePreferenceChangeListener implements Preference.OnPreferenceChangeListener {

    @Override
    public boolean onPreferenceChange(Preference preference, Object newValue) {
        // Do something else presumably and then return false to avoid saving the pref.
        return false;
    }

}