In Part 2, I had presented one more example of widget: Broadcast Widget (which can update it's interface when clicked). Today, I would like to talk about a widget type that can be configurable at creation, this mean when you drag it to Home screen to use, a "configuration
In this sample project, we will allow users to choose a link and whenever it’s clicked we open this link on the browser.
The most important work of creating this type of widget is developing the configuration
Now, looking at this source code of
At the
The last thing we do is modify the XML of the widget. With that modification, Android OS will know this widget has a configuration
Before launching the app, make sure you add
After app installed, move to "WIDGETS" tab, you will see it:
And when you drag it to Home page to use, the configuration activity will be launched:
When click on it:
If you select other options at the configuration activity, the widget text will be different:
I've just provided one more example about Android widget, hope you can understand the way to configure widget before using it. Up to next part, I will talk about updating widget via a Service - the most popular and important feature of this topic! Coming soon!
Activity" will be launched and you will perform a setting for your widget.
In this sample project, we will allow users to choose a link and whenever it’s clicked we open this link on the browser.
Create layout for configuration Activity
Activity. Firstly, define a simple layout includes a Spinner to allow user selected one value from a set and a one value from a Button to confirm this work:
activity_config.xml
<?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="match_parent"
android:orientation="vertical"
android:padding="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin">
<Spinner
android:id="@+id/spinner"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content" />
<Button
android:id="@+id/btn_go"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_marginTop="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
android:text="@string/add" />
</LinearLayout>
Activity programmatically code
ConfigActivity:
ConfigActivity.java
In package info.devexchanges.configurablewidget;
import android.app.PendingIntent;
import android.appwidget.AppWidgetManager;
import android.content.Intent;
import android.net.Uri;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.support.annotation.Nullable;
import android.support.v7.app.AppCompatActivity;
import android.view.View;
import android.widget.ArrayAdapter;
import android.widget.RemoteViews;
import android.widget.Spinner;
import java.util.ArrayList;
public class ConfigActivity extends AppCompatActivity {
private int mAppWidgetId = AppWidgetManager.INVALID_APPWIDGET_ID;
private AppWidgetManager widgetManager;
private RemoteViews remoteViews;
@Override
protected void onCreate(@Nullable Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setResult(RESULT_CANCELED);
setContentView(R.layout.activity_config);
final Spinner spinner = (Spinner)findViewById(R.id.spinner);
View btnCreate = findViewById(R.id.btn_go);
//create data
ArrayList<String> spnOptions = new ArrayList<>();
spnOptions.add("Go to my site");
spnOptions.add("Go to Google page");
//set adapter for the spinner
ArrayAdapter<String> adapter = new ArrayAdapter<>(this, android.R.layout.simple_list_item_1, spnOptions);
spinner.setAdapter(adapter);
//initializing RemoteViews and AppWidgetManager
widgetManager = AppWidgetManager.getInstance(this);
remoteViews = new RemoteViews(this.getPackageName(), R.layout.widget_configurable);
// Find the widget id from the intent
Bundle extras = getIntent().getExtras();
if (extras != null) {
mAppWidgetId = extras.getInt(AppWidgetManager.EXTRA_APPWIDGET_ID, AppWidgetManager.INVALID_APPWIDGET_ID);
}
if (mAppWidgetId == AppWidgetManager.INVALID_APPWIDGET_ID) {
finish();
return;
}
btnCreate.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
@Override
public void onClick(View view) {
String selectedUrl;
if (spinner.getSelectedItemPosition() == 0) {
// Go to my website with this selection (position = 1)
selectedUrl = "http://www.devexchanges.info";
} else {
selectedUrl = "https://www.google.com";
}
Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW, Uri.parse(selectedUrl));
PendingIntent pending = PendingIntent.getActivity(ConfigActivity.this, 0, intent, 0);
remoteViews.setOnClickPendingIntent(R.id.text_view, pending);
if (spinner.getSelectedItemPosition() == 0) {
remoteViews.setTextViewText(R.id.text_view, "Click to visit my site");
} else {
remoteViews.setTextViewText(R.id.text_view, "Click to visit Google");
}
widgetManager.updateAppWidget(mAppWidgetId, remoteViews);
Intent resultValue = new Intent();
// Set the results as expected from a 'configure activity'.
resultValue.putExtra(AppWidgetManager.EXTRA_APPWIDGET_ID, mAppWidgetId);
setResult(RESULT_OK, resultValue);
finish();
}
});
}
}
onCreate() method, the first thing we do is setting setResult(RESULT_CANCELED). Why? Android triggers the configuration Activity that belongs to your widget and awaits result data. If the user did not configure as we expected, let’s say she pressed back button without entering a data, we don’t need to create a widget.At the
Spinner, we set data to make 2 options for user to choose (go to DevExchanges home page or Google), after click the Button, we update TextView content on the widget and set the Set the RemoteViews to based on appWidgetIds.
Modifying the widget xml
Activity. So before creating the widget, it will trigger the Activity:
res\xml\configurable_widget_info.xml
As you notice we didn’t talk about widget class yet. We do not need to add any code for widget class because all actions done by <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<appwidget-provider xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:configure="info.devexchanges.configurablewidget.ConfigActivity"
android:initialLayout="@layout/widget_configurable"
android:minHeight="40dp"
android:minWidth="40dp"
android:previewImage="@mipmap/ic_launcher"
android:resizeMode="horizontal|vertical"
android:updatePeriodMillis="86400000" />
ConfigActivity. But we have to create it anyway:
ConfigurableWidget.java
And this is the layout file for our widget:
package info.devexchanges.configurablewidget;
import android.appwidget.AppWidgetManager;
import android.appwidget.AppWidgetProvider;
import android.content.Context;
public class ConfigurableWidget extends AppWidgetProvider {
@Override
public void onUpdate(Context context, AppWidgetManager appWidgetManager, int[] appWidgetIds) {
}
}
res\layout\widget_configurable.xml
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:orientation="vertical">
<TextView
android:padding="8dp"
android:background="@color/colorPrimary"
android:id="@+id/text_view"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_centerInParent="true"
android:layout_gravity="center"
android:textColor="@android:color/white"
android:textStyle="bold" />
</RelativeLayout>
Running the application
ConfigurableWidget as a receiver to your AndroidManifest.xml like other previous examples:
<application
android:allowBackup="true"
....>
<activity android:name=".MainActivity">
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
</intent-filter>
</activity>
<receiver android:name=".ConfigurableWidget">
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.appwidget.action.APPWIDGET_UPDATE" />
</intent-filter>
<meta-data
android:name="android.appwidget.provider"
android:resource="@xml/configurable_widget_info" />
</receiver>
<activity android:name=".ConfigActivity">
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.appwidget.action.APPWIDGET_CONFIGURE" />
</intent-filter>
</activity>
</application>
After app installed, move to "WIDGETS" tab, you will see it:
If you select other options at the configuration activity, the widget text will be different:
