PreferenceFragmentCompat has iconSpaceReserved true by default

Question

I've migrated to androidx.* libraries and one of them is the new preferences library: androidx.preference:preference:1.1.0-alpha01 - the latest version of it.

As said in release notes iconSpaceReserved attribute not working correctly with PreferenceCategories is fixed.

But looks like it's set to true by default.

I've built demo project to test it.

PreferencesFragment

import androidx.preference.PreferenceFragmentCompat;

public class SetttingsFragment extends PreferenceFragmentCompat {
    @Override
    public void onCreatePreferences(Bundle savedInstanceState, String rootKey) {
        addPreferencesFromResource(R.xml.preferences);
    }
}

preferences.xml

<PreferenceScreen xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto">
    <PreferenceCategory android:title="Category 1">
        <Preference
            android:key="pref1"
            android:title="Preference 1" />
        <Preference
            android:key="pref2"
            android:title="Preference 2" />
    </PreferenceCategory>
    <PreferenceCategory
        android:title="Category 2"
        app:iconSpaceReserved="false">
        <Preference
            android:key="pref3"
            android:title="Preference 3" />
        <Preference
            android:key="pref4"
            android:title="Preference 4"
            app:iconSpaceReserved="false" />
    </PreferenceCategory>
    ...
</PreferenceScreen>

Preferences theme is set as needed.

styles.xml

<item name="preferenceTheme">@style/PreferenceThemeOverlay</item>

Screenshot

When app:iconSpaceReserved=false is set manually (as you can see on PreferenceCategory 2 and Preference 4) it works fine, but otherwise a space for icon is reserved. Also docs says that it's false by default:

By default, preference icon view visibility will be set to GONE when there is no icon provided, so the default value of this attribute is false.

Is it a new bug in this library or a new feature to leave space for icon if it's not set? Or am I doing something wrong?

I know about workarounds:

Edit:

After looking through the sources I found the next thing.

PreferenceThemeOverlay -> anyPreferenceStyle has set the attribute

<item name="iconSpaceReserved">@bool/config_materialPreferenceIconSpaceReserved</item>

which refers to

values/values.xml
    <bool name="config_materialPreferenceIconSpaceReserved">false</bool>

and

values-sw360dp-v13/values-sw360dp-v13.xml
    <bool name="config_materialPreferenceIconSpaceReserved">true</bool>

For some reason it's set to true here.

I've not used that yet, but looking through the source, it seems `PreferenceThemeOverlay.v14.Material` is deprecated – https://android.googlesource.com/platform/frameworks/support/+/androidx-master-dev/preference/res/values/themes.xml#39. Try using `PreferenceThemeOverlay` instead. All of the styles in that theme have `iconSpaceReserved` set to `false` (actually, they're set to a `bool` resource value that's `false`). — Mike M., Nov 23 '18 at 09:03
@MikeM. thanks, forgot to check this. But nothing changed, padding is still there. — Sabre, Nov 23 '18 at 09:11
Well, I'm having machine issues, atm, and can't pull that to test. Have you tried to check the theme value of `iconSpaceReserved` at runtime, just to see if the resource value is wrong, or if it's an issue in the `Preference` classes? — Mike M., Nov 23 '18 at 09:54
@MikeM. Thanks for the suggestion, done. When `iconSpaceReserved` is not set manually it returns `true` (for example, *Preference 1* on my screenshot), if set to `false` manually returns `false` (*Preference 4*) as expected. Tested it on my physical device with API 26 and on emulators with different APIs (including 28). Also Layout Inspector shows some padding. — Sabre, Nov 23 '18 at 10:12
Also see edit at the end of my question. `iconSpaceReserved` is `true` in `values-sw360dp-v13`, almost for all android devices. Looks like they forgot to change it to `false` in the library. I will check issue tracker and post new issue if I find nothing related. — Sabre, Nov 23 '18 at 10:15
I'm not seeing a `values-sw360dp-v13` bucket in the androidx repo. https://android.googlesource.com/platform/frameworks/support/+/androidx-master-dev/preference/res Do you have the source downloaded? I'm sure that's probably more up-to-date. — Mike M., Nov 23 '18 at 10:27
Ah, it is `true`, though, in `values-sw360dp`, so same diff. — Mike M., Nov 23 '18 at 10:29

score 6 · Accepted Answer · edited Jul 16 '20 at 22:58

6

I've posted this on the Issue Tracker and got the following answer:

This is intended and part of the Material spec for Settings. See Material Design guide under 'Alignment'.

edited Jul 16 '20 at 22:58

mhsmith

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answered Nov 23 '18 at 13:52

Sabre

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PreferenceFragmentCompat has iconSpaceReserved true by default

1 Answers1