android:visibility attribute in preferences xml not working? (Android 2.3)

Question

Take for example this small preference.xml file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<PreferenceScreen android:title="@string/sig_title" xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
<ListPreference android:entries="@array/text_display_entries" android:title="@string/sig_style" android:key="text_style" android:entryValues="@array/text_display_values" />
<CheckBoxPreference android:title="@string/custom_font" android:key="tweaks_text" />
<CheckBoxPreference android:title="@string/col_random" android:key="random_color_pref" />
<CheckBoxPreference android:visibility="invisible" android:enabled="false" android:title="@string/sig_show" android:key="show_sig" />
</PreferenceScreen>

The attribute android:visibility="invisible" for the last checkbox doesn't work; this attribute (or gone for that matter) doesn't work for preferences?

I don't have anything in the code to mess with its visibility, just curious why this doesn't work.

score 13 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 01 '13 at 12:44

android:visibility is used to show and hide Views but it's not valid for a Preference. The documentation for Preference lists the available XML attributes, but none of them are what you want.

It is, however, possible to add and remove preferences from a PreferenceScreen programatically.

score 4 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 27 '20 at 20:14

4

For AndroidX users, add this directly to your preference XML

app:isPreferenceVisible="false"

answered Mar 27 '20 at 20:14

gcantoni

727
6
13

Android 2.3 is not AndroidX – pjdupreez Jul 11 '22 at 17:10

score 3 · Answer 3 · answered May 31 '17 at 08:54

3

You have to use setVisible method to change the visibility.

First, initialize the checkbox preference.

CheckBoxPreference showSigPreference = (CheckBoxPreference) findPreference("show_sig");

then

// Show the check box preference
showSigPreference.setVisible(true);

// Hide the check box preference
showSigPreference.setVisible(false);

answered May 31 '17 at 08:54

Srikar Reddy

3,650
4
36
58

This did not work for me because `setVisible` isn't even an option for my `CheckBoxPreference`. – Fred Dec 15 '20 at 18:32
https://developer.android.com/reference/androidx/preference/Preference#setVisible(boolean) – Srikar Reddy Dec 16 '20 at 06:18
I see, you are using androidx. – Fred Dec 16 '20 at 16:52

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Jan 12 '19 at 01:00

I realize that this is an older question that didn't previously have an acceptable answer to do this in xml.

Now with the addition of the AppCompat Library is IS possible do this directly in xml. See the complete example at https://stackoverflow.com/a/54154665/114549

android:visibility attribute in preferences xml not working? (Android 2.3)

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