Create an elegantly designed Reminder/Alarm clock application

2 « Prev Page

6. The Preferences screen

Android provides an easy means to implement preferences screen. Create a xml file (for ex. settings.xml) under res/xml directory using predefined preferences for ex. ListPreference, CheckBoxPreference, RingtonePreference.

	<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
	<PreferenceScreen xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" >
		
		<PreferenceCategory android:title="Display Settings">
			
			<ListPreference android:key="time_option"
				android:title="Display Time"
				android:summary="Actual"
				android:entries="@array/time_option_arr"
				android:entryValues="@array/val_arr"
				android:defaultValue="0" />
			
			<ListPreference android:key="date_range"
				android:title="Date Range"
				android:summary="Daily" 
				android:entries="@array/date_range_arr"
				android:entryValues="@array/val_arr"
				android:defaultValue="0" />
			
			<ListPreference android:key="date_format"
				android:title="Date Format"
				android:summary="yyyy-M-d" 
				android:entries="@array/date_format_arr"
				android:entryValues="@array/date_format_arr"
				android:defaultValue="yyyy-M-d" />		
			
			<CheckBoxPreference android:key="time_format"
				android:title="Time Format"
				android:summary="Use 24-hour format"
				android:defaultValue="true" />				
							
		</PreferenceCategory>    
		
		<PreferenceCategory android:title="Notification Settings">
							
			<CheckBoxPreference android:key="vibrate_pref"
				android:title="Vibrate" 
				android:summary="Vibrate on notification"
				android:defaultValue="true" />
			
			<RingtonePreference android:key="ringtone_pref"
				android:title="Set Ringtone"
				android:summary="Default"
				android:ringtoneType="all"
				android:showDefault="true"
				android:showSilent="false" />            
			
		</PreferenceCategory>
		
	</PreferenceScreen>
					

Next, create a new activity and make it extend PreferenceActivity. Additionally we will implement OnSharedPreferenceChangeListener interface to do our stuff when a preference value gets changed.

	public class SettingsActivity extends PreferenceActivity 
									implements OnSharedPreferenceChangeListener {

		@Override
		public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
			super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
			addPreferencesFromResource(R.xml.settings);
		}
		
		@Override
		protected void onResume(){
			super.onResume();
			getPreferenceScreen().getSharedPreferences()
									.registerOnSharedPreferenceChangeListener(this);
			// TODO update preferences
		}

		@Override
		protected void onPause() {
			super.onPause();
			getPreferenceScreen().getSharedPreferences()
									.unregisterOnSharedPreferenceChangeListener(this);
		}    

		@Override
		public void onSharedPreferenceChanged(SharedPreferences sharedPreferences, String key) {
			updatePreference(key);
		}	
		
	}			
					

We created a generic method to update the summary of a preference when its value is changed.

	private void updatePreference(String key){
		Preference pref = findPreference(key);

	    if (pref instanceof ListPreference) {
	        ListPreference listPref = (ListPreference) pref;
	        pref.setSummary(listPref.getEntry());
	        return;
	    }		
		
		if (pref instanceof EditTextPreference){
			EditTextPreference editPref =  (EditTextPreference) pref;
	        editPref.setSummary(editPref.getText());
	        return;
		}
		
	    if (pref instanceof RingtonePreference) {
	    	Uri ringtoneUri = Uri.parse(RemindMe.getRingtone());
	    	Ringtone ringtone = RingtoneManager.getRingtone(this, ringtoneUri);
	        if (ringtone != null) pref.setSummary(ringtone.getTitle(this));
	    }		
	}
					

7. The Alarm Service

It is a good practice to perform all time consuming tasks in a separate thread which is the secret behind responsive UI. Android provides an easy means to accomplish this through IntentService.

---

So we create a class which extends IntentService and override onHandleIntent(intent) method to do our stuff. We have already declared this component using <service> tag in the manifest file.

	public class AlarmService extends IntentService {
		
		public static final String CREATE = "CREATE";
		public static final String CANCEL = "CANCEL";
		
		private IntentFilter matcher;

		public AlarmService() {
			super(TAG);
			matcher = new IntentFilter();
			matcher.addAction(CREATE);
			matcher.addAction(CANCEL);
		}

		@Override
		protected void onHandleIntent(Intent intent) {
			String action = intent.getAction();
			String notificationId = intent.getStringExtra("notificationId");
			
			if (matcher.matchAction(action)) {			
				execute(action, notificationId);
			}
		}

	}
					

The actual logic to create or cancel alarm is done in a separate private method.

	private void execute(String action, String notificationId) {
		AlarmManager am = (AlarmManager) getSystemService(Context.ALARM_SERVICE);
		Cursor c = RemindMe.db.query(Notification.TABLE_NAME, null, "_id = ?", 
										new String[]{notificationId}, null, null, null);
		
		if (c.moveToFirst()) {
			Intent i = new Intent(this, AlarmReceiver.class);
			i.putExtra("id", c.getLong(c.getColumnIndex(Notification.COL_ID)));
			i.putExtra("msg", c.getString(c.getColumnIndex(Notification.COL_MSG)));
			
			PendingIntent pi = PendingIntent.getBroadcast(this, 0, i, 
															PendingIntent.FLAG_UPDATE_CURRENT);

			long time = c.getLong(c.getColumnIndex(Notification.COL_DATETIME));
			if (CREATE.equals(action)) {
				am.set(AlarmManager.RTC_WAKEUP, time, pi);
				
			} else if (CANCEL.equals(action)) {
				am.cancel(pi);
			}
		}
		c.close();		
	}
					

AlarmManager allows creation of repeating alarms using the method setRepeating(AlarmManager.RTC_WAKEUP, triggerAtTime, interval, operation)

---

We'll next implement the alarm receiver which creates notification when the alarm gets triggered. For this we use another system service provided by Android i.e. NOTIFICATION_SERVICE.

Next Page » 2