Use PreferenceActivity to configure widget, how retrieve preference?

Question

i'm using PreferenceActivity class to configure my widget. PreferenceActivity class automatically saves user preferences, so in widget update service i can call context.getSharedPreferences() and i obtain user preferences. Problem is follow: if you have many widget of same type, how PreferenceActivity class saves prefs? how i can load appWidgetId specific prefs from sharedPreferences?

Answer 1

For AppWidgets and preferences I really liked this tutorial

http://www.helloandroid.com/tutorials/mastering-android-widget-development-part1
http://www.helloandroid.com/tutorials/mastering-android-widget-development-part2
http://www.helloandroid.com/tutorials/mastering-android-widget-development-part3

They give a tutorial where a preference is saved for jointly with the appwidget ID and it is shown how it is retrieved for updating the individual widgets.

Answer 2

Although this question has been asked a long time ago, here are a few thoughts. I am planning to do the same thing myself.

Premier's question brings two points:

1) the configuration activity is a PreferenceActivity, which means that the user input can't be recovered by using findViewById() on a layout. mportuesisf's answer explain how to use a key attribute.

2) the widget instance must save its own preferences. A way to do it is by using the widget ID in a prefix. See http://developer.android.com/resources/samples/ApiDemos/src/com/example/android/apis/appwidget/ExampleAppWidgetConfigure.html

Answer 3

I'm not entirely clear on what you're trying to do, but I'll take a stab at it. You use the id of your resource specified in the xml to call findPreference(CharSequence key).