Android application preferences

Question : how to access/set preferences of an Android application ?

Answer :
- think about the MENU_SETUP of the onOptionsItemSelected method (override)
- from there, start a specialized PreferenceActivity


Details :

Step #1 : MENU_SETUP press handling :

@Override
public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item)
{
    switch (item.getItemId())
    {
        case MENU_SETUP:
            showPreferences();
            break;

        default:
            break;
    }

    return true;
}

Step #2 : an Android intent allows to start a to-be-specialized PreferenceActivity, named here : Prefs

/**
 * Dialog box display of the preferences setting window
 */
private void showPreferences()
{
    Intent prefs = null; // Preferences activity display intent

    prefs = new Intent(getApplicationContext(), Prefs.class);
    startActivity(prefs);
}

Step #3 : specialized Prefs class body

public final class Prefs extends PreferenceActivity
{
    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState)
    {
        // Setting activity content
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        addPreferencesFromResource(R.layout.prefs);
    }
}

The 'R.layout.prefs' being given by a './res/layout/Prefs.xml' resource file ; here is such a resource contents in case just 2 edit text components are needed :

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<PreferenceScreen xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:title="Preferences">
    <EditTextPreference
        // ...
    />
    <EditTextPreference
        // ...
    />
</PreferenceScreen>

Step #4 : finally, add this entry into the AndroidManifest.xml :

<activity android:name=".Prefs" android:label="Configuration"/>