Android Switch Widget Backport

A backport of the Switch widget (http://developer.android.com/reference/android/widget/Switch.html) that was introduced on Android 4.

This port works on Android 2.1+.

How to use

This is an Android library project, you have to add it as a dependency to your project (please see http://developer.android.com/guide/developing/projects/projects-eclipse.html#ReferencingLibraryProject to know how to do that.)

Alternatively, you can use it as a Maven dependency (the artefact is pushed to Maven Central) by putting this in your pom.xml:

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.jraf</groupId>
    <artifactId>android-switch-backport</artifactId>
    <version>1.0</version>
    <type>apklib</type>
</dependency>

Switch

Once you have done that, have a theme for your application (or Activity), that declares the switchStyle item to be one of the two possible themes: either Widget.Holo.CompoundButton.Switch (dark) or Widget.Holo.Light.CompoundButton.Switch (light).

The simplest way to do that is to create a themes.xml file in your project's res/values folder with this contents:

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

    <style name="Theme" parent="@android:style/Theme">
        <item name="switchStyle">@style/Widget.Holo.CompoundButton.Switch</item>
    </style>

</resources>

And use it in your Application or Activity by updating your AndroidManifest.xml file:

(...)
<application
    android:theme="@style/Theme" 
(...)

or

(...)
<activity
    android:theme="@style/Theme" 
(...)

Then in your layout xml files you use the widget like this:

<org.jraf.android.backport.switchwidget.Switch
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content" />

SwitchPreference

Add switchPreferenceStyle to your 'themes.xml'

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

    <style name="Theme" parent="@android:Theme">
        <item name="switchStyle">@style/Widget.Holo.CompoundButton.Switch</item>
        <item name="switchPreferenceStyle">@style/Preference.SwitchPreference</item>
    </style>

</resources>

Then in your preference xml file:

<PreferenceScreen xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:switchpref="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto" >

    <org.jraf.android.backport.switchwidget.SwitchPreference
        android:key="testKey"
        android:title="SwitchPreference Test"
        switchpref:switchTextOff="@string/off"
        switchpref:switchTextOn="@string/on"
        switchpref:summaryOff="@string/summary_off"
        switchpref:summaryOn="@string/summary_on" />

</PreferenceScreen>

Sample app

A sample app is available in the sample folder, and also on the Play Store:

Credits

The code was copied directly from the Android 4.0.3 (API 15) source code, then slightly tweaked by myself ([email protected]) to make it run on 2.1+. The few modifications I made are documented in the code (look for 'XXX' comments). The SwitchPreference part was added later by Intrications (intrications.com / github.com/intrications), also by taking code from Android and tweaking it a bit.

Licence

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at

http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.