Android: how to put parameters in configuration files

I need to parametrize my app by adding, for example, the URL of a web service to be called. In other environments I would use a .ini file or a web.config file开发者_开发百科 to store the info. How can this be achieved in Android?

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For android you can store settings in a number of ways. The simplest is SharedPreferences. You could also store the values in a sqlite database or use a ContentProvider.

To retrieve preferences, you do something like below.

SharedPreferences prefs = PreferenceManager.getDefaultSharedPreferences(this);
String myURL = prefs.getString("url",defaultURL);

You can then set these from a PreferenceActivity with some defaults provided in the XML that stores your preferences.

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You can store the value in res/values/strings.xml as <string name="serviceUrl">http://www.example.com</string>and pull it out in your activity using getResources().getString(R.string.serviceUrl)

This is not suitable for values which can be modified by the user. You should use the PreferenceManager in that case.

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could you store the details in an xml file and read them in ? or possibly SharedPreferences ? or an SQLITE database ?

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There could be 2 possible ways.

1. Create a system.properties file which is a simple text file and put all your configurations in that. Once done, put that file in asset folder and access it in your activity by using AssetManager.

2. Create a final class say Data.java and put all properties in that and access the properties in static way through out the application.

I recommend to go for option 2.