How to add a button to a PreferenceScreen?

I'm quite new to Android Development and just came across Preferences. I found PreferenceScreen and wanted to create a login functionality with it. The only problem I have is that I don't know how I could add a "Login" button to the PreferenceScreen.

Here's what my PreferenceScreen looks like:

<PreferenceScreen xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
...
    <PreferenceScreen android:title="@string/login" android:key="Login">
        <EditTextPreference android:persistent="true" android:title="@string/username" android:key="Username"></EditTextPreference>
        <EditTextPreference android:title="@string/password" android:persistent="true" android:password="true" android:key="Password"></EditTextPreference>
    </PreferenceScreen>
...
</PreferenceScreen>

The Button should be right under the two EditTextPreferences.

Is there a simple solution for this problem? The one solution I found was not working because I use sub PreferenceScreens.

Update:

I figured out that i can add buttons this way:

<PreferenceScreen android:title="@string/login" android:key="Login">
        <EditTextPreference android:persistent="true" android:title="@string/username" android:key="Username"></EditTextPreference>
        <EditTextPreference android:title="@string/password" android:persistent="true" android:password="true" android:key="Password"></EditTextPreference>
        <Preference android:layout="@layout/loginButtons" android:key="loginButtons"></Preference>
</PreferenceScreen>

and the layout file (loginButtons.xml) looks that way:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:weightSum="10" 
    android:baselineAligned="false" android:orientation="horizontal">
    <Button android:text="Login" android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_weight="5" android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:id="@+id/loginButton" android:layout_gravity="left"></Button>
    <Button android:text="Password?" android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_weight="5" android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:id="@+id/forgottenPasswordButton"></Button>
</LinearLayout>

So now the buttons appear but I can't access them in code. I tried it with findViewById() but this is returning null. Any ideas how I could access these buttons?

Solution 1:

For the xml:

<Preference
    android:title="Acts like a button"
    android:key="@string/myCoolButton"
    android:summary="This is a cool button"
/>

Then for the java in your onCreate()

Preference button = findPreference(getString(R.string.myCoolButton));
button.setOnPreferenceClickListener(new Preference.OnPreferenceClickListener() {
    @Override
    public boolean onPreferenceClick(Preference preference) { 
        //code for what you want it to do 
        return true;
    }
});

This will appear like a normal Preference, with just a title and a summary, so it will look like it belongs.

Solution 2:

I suppouse its too late. This is what i have done for a Button Preference.

The preference in preference.xml file in xml folder

....
    <Preference
        android:key="resetBD"
        android:title="@string/ajustes_almacenamiento"
        android:summary="@string/ajustes_almacenamiento_desc"
        android:widgetLayout="@layout/pref_reset_bd_button" 
    ></Preference>
  ...

and pref_reset_bd_button.xml in layout folder

 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
   <Button
       xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
        android:id="@+id/resetButton" 
        android:text="@string/ajustes_almacenamiento_bt" 
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:onClick="resetearBD">

   </Button>

Solution 3:

I wanted to add an Exit link to the preferences and was able to modify Jakar's code to make it work like this:

<PreferenceScreen xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" >   
   <PreferenceCategory android:title="Settings">
       <Preference android:title="Click to exit" android:key="exitlink"/>       
   </PreferenceCategory>    
</PreferenceScreen>

Originally the 'Preference' was a 'EditTextPreference' which I hand edited.

Then in the class:

public class MyPreferences extends PreferenceActivity {
@Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    addPreferencesFromResource(R.xml.mypreferences);

    Preference button = (Preference)getPreferenceManager().findPreference("exitlink");      
    if (button != null) {
        button.setOnPreferenceClickListener(new Preference.OnPreferenceClickListener() {
            @Override
            public boolean onPreferenceClick(Preference arg0) {
                finish();   
                return true;
            }
        });     
    }
}
}

Solution 4:

Add

setContentView(R.layout.buttonLayout);

Below

addPreferencesFromResource(R.xml.yourPreference);

buttonLayout:

<RelativeLayout
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent">

<RelativeLayout
        android:id="@+id/top_control_bar"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content">
</RelativeLayout>

<LinearLayout
        android:id="@+id/bottom_control_bar"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_alignParentBottom="true">

    <Button
            android:id="@+id/button"
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="70dp"
            android:text="@string/saveAlarm"/>
</LinearLayout>

<ListView
        android:id="@android:id/list"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="0dip"
        android:layout_above="@id/bottom_control_bar"
        android:layout_below="@id/top_control_bar"
        android:choiceMode="multipleChoice">
</ListView>

Access Button by:

Button button = (Button) findViewById(R.id.button);
button.setOnClickListener(new OnClickListener() {
    @Override
    public void onClick(View v) {
        //Your event
    }
});

You can get the button on top or on bottom of the screen by putting the button in RelativeLayout:

top_control_bar
bottom_control_bar

bottom_control_bar

This worked for me. I hope I can help someone with this piece of code.