Table Of Contents
In a previous post we shown how to create a custom dialog for an Android preference. This post shows how to change the summary color in an Android preference. The summary is the text appearing below the preference’s title.
Getting the default layout
To accomplish this task, first it is necessary to create a custom layout. Searching in the Android source code I found one in frameworks/base/core/res/res/layout/preference_child.xml. Lets remove unnecessary code:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!-- Layout for a visually child-like Preference in a PreferenceActivity. -->
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:baselineAligned="false"
android:gravity="center_vertical"
android:minHeight="?android:attr/listPreferredItemHeight"
android:paddingEnd="?android:attr/scrollbarSize"
android:paddingStart="16dip" >
<RelativeLayout
android:layout_width="0dip"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_marginBottom="6dip"
android:layout_marginEnd="6dip"
android:layout_marginTop="6dip"
android:layout_weight="1" >
<TextView
android:id="@+android:id/title"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:ellipsize="marquee"
android:fadingEdge="horizontal"
android:singleLine="true"
android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium" />
<TextView
android:id="@+android:id/summary"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignStart="@android:id/title"
android:layout_below="@android:id/title"
android:maxLines="4"
android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceSmall"
android:textColor="?android:attr/textColorSecondary" />
</RelativeLayout>
</LinearLayout>
Layout to show errors
The above layout would be used by default, when an error occurs and want to highlighted, a different layout would be used to indicate to the user where the error is. This layout is identical to the above except for the Summary color. The only necessary change to the previous layout is in the TextView with ID @android:id/summary:
preference_child_summary_error.xml
<!-- ... -->
android:textColor="@color/red"
<!-- ... -->
The color definition is created in ./res/values/colors.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
<color name="red">#ff0000</color>
</resources>
Changing color at runtime
With the layouts created, they can be used as required at runtime. In this example, when the user inputs a password that does not meet the security requirements, the summary color is changed:
if (newValue.toString().length() <= 8) {
mDialogoPersonalizado.setLayoutResource(R.layout.preference_child_summary_error);
mDialogoPersonalizado.setSummary("Mensaje de error");
} else {
mDialogoPersonalizado.setLayoutResource(R.layout.preference_child);
mDialogoPersonalizado.setSummary("********");
mEditorDialogoPerso.putString("diagPerso", passw);
mPasswordDialogoPerso = passw;
mEditorDialogoPerso.commit();
}
As seen in the previous post, mDialogoPersonalizado's type is Preference. When a password of length inferior to 8 characters is introduced by the user, the following message is shown:
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