Android: Creating custom preference

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

@Overrideprotected 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.

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>

Creating a custom preference is similar to creating a fragment or other UI components, by defining views and actions.

Android developers has a good guide on creating settings, which includes a section for creating custom preferences: http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/ui/settings.html#Custom