How to right align PreferencesActivity in android?

Question

I have PreferencesActivity which I need it to be right aligned because I want to use Arabic language, I tried to use android:layout_gravity=\"right\"

Answer 1

In my point of view this can be the solution: Set each view's LayoutDirection to rtl;

public View onCreateView(LayoutInflater inflater, ViewGroup container, Bundle savedInstanceState) {
View view = super.onCreateView(inflater, container, savedInstanceState);

view.setLayoutDirection(View.LAYOUT_DIRECTION_RTL);

return view;}

Answer 2

Unfortunately the base Preference components (PreferenceScreen, Preference, etc.) are implemented in a fairly non-configurable way. They are designed to work in a specific way and are not terribly customizable.

In order to do what you want, you will probably have to implement your own version of PreferenceScreen (or possible just the Preference types you are using such as CheckBoxPreference). The way it is designed, when it inflates XML layouts it assumes a lot of things about them and handles it for you (text size, padding, layout, wrapping, etc). This is great if you want it to look like the default, but not so great if you need to tweak these configurations.

(note: if you don't want to implement preferencescreen you could just use a listview and treat it as a preference page. However, either way you basically have to implement your own version of preferences.)

(note2: based on other questions I've seen about arabic text, it's POSSIBLE android is smart enough to try to right align it by default. However, I would be surprised if this was the case. Still, it's worth a try.)

Sorry I don't have a better answer for you.

Answer 3

Alright, this might be quite late, but anyways if you are targeting Android 3.0 or higher, you should use PreferenceFragment with can be somehow made RTL.

So you should create a fragment in your code like this:

import android.os.Bundle;
import android.preference.PreferenceFragment;

public class SettingsFragment extends PreferenceFragment {

    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

        addPreferencesFromResource(R.xml.preferences);
    }
}

now you should create an Activity that adds this fragment to its layout. You can create a layout for your activity and put the fragment in it via xml element or using the FragmentManager class. But the key to make the preferences Right-To-Left is to put a layout_direction="rtl" attribute in the layout file for a parent element of the fragment. i.e.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<RelativeLayout
    android:id="@+id/rootView"
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:layoutDirection="rtl"
    android:orientation="vertical">

    <fragment
        class="blah.blah.SettingsFragment"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"/>
</RelativeLayout>

Notice the android:layoutDirection="rtl" on the RelativeLayout element that fixes the problem.

Now add the Activity Java code like any other activity and add to your manifest file.

Hope it's not too late :)

Answer 4

You could do that by using a custom layout with calling setLayoutResource(int layoutResId).

res/layout/preference_layout.xml: (Note that this is based on HoloEverywhere library org.holoeverywhere.preference.Preference)

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<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="?attr/listPreferredItemHeight"
    android:paddingRight="@dimen/preference_item_padding_side"
    android:paddingLeft="?android:attr/scrollbarSize" >

    <LinearLayout
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        android:gravity="center"
        android:minWidth="@dimen/preference_icon_minWidth"
        android:orientation="horizontal" >

        <ImageView
            android:id="@+id/icon"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:layout_gravity="center"
            android:minWidth="48dp"
            android:contentDescription="@string/emptyString"
            android:paddingRight="@dimen/preference_item_padding_inner" >
        </ImageView>
    </LinearLayout>

    <RelativeLayout
        android:layout_width="0dp"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_weight="1"
        android:paddingBottom="6dip"
        android:gravity="right"
        android:layout_gravity="right"
        android:paddingLeft="@dimen/preference_item_padding_inner"
        android:paddingTop="6dip" >

        <TextView
            android:id="@+id/title"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:ellipsize="marquee"
            android:fadingEdge="horizontal"
            android:gravity="right"
            android:singleLine="true"
            android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium" >
        </TextView>

        <TextView
            android:id="@+id/summary"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:layout_alignRight="@id/title"
            android:gravity="right"
            android:layout_below="@id/title"
            android:maxLines="10"
            android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceSmall"
            android:textColor="?android:attr/textColorSecondary" >
        </TextView>
    </RelativeLayout>

    <LinearLayout
        android:id="@+id/widget_frame"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        android:gravity="center"
        android:minWidth="@dimen/preference_widget_width"
        android:orientation="vertical" >
    </LinearLayout>

</LinearLayout>

In your custom Preference:

@Override
protected View onCreateView(ViewGroup parent)
{
    setLayoutResource(R.layout.preference_layout);

    return super.onCreateView(parent);
}

Answer 5

In your manifest file under application tag add this line,

android:supportsRtl="true"

Answer 6

After spending some time searching about our shared question, I found nothing useful. obviosly android api doesn't support RTL prefefrences. it means no support for persian/hebrew/arabic languages. But afterall I tried to find some way to right align an editText. I drived EditTextPreference class and implemented onCreateView method again. here is my code:

/**
 * Created by omid on 1/12/14.
 */
public class RtlTextPreference extends EditTextPreference {


    public RtlTextPreference(Context context, AttributeSet attrs) {
        super(context, attrs);
    }

    @Override
    protected View onCreateView(ViewGroup parent) {
        View view = super.onCreateView(parent);

        RelativeLayout layout = (RelativeLayout) ((LinearLayout) view).getChildAt(1);
        layout.setGravity(Gravity.RIGHT);
        return view;
    }
}

the rest of the preferences in the standard android api should be the same(btw I haven't tried yet). maybe someday we should fully implement rtl support in android preferences and host it on github. Hope this code snippet helps you.