Question

I’m trying to store a user entry into an EditText field however when I exit the application it does not appear.

So for example a user types in his/her name and then exits the application. When the user returns and launches the Application the users name appears in the EditText field. However I can’t get this to work. I believe its to do with sharedPreferences but I’m not sure where I’m going wrong.

I’m quite new to android and java so finding this quite difficult. Any help would be much appreciated.

public class MainActivity extends Activity {
     public final static String EXTRA_FROM = "com.example.assignment1.FROM";


     @Override
        protected void onSaveInstanceState(Bundle outState)
        {
            super.onSaveInstanceState(outState);
            EditText emailFrom =(EditText) findViewById(R.id.editEmailFrom);
            String from = emailFrom.getText().toString();
            outState.putString(EXTRA_FROM, from);
        }

        @Override
        protected void onRestoreInstanceState(Bundle savedState)
        {

            EditText emailFrom =(EditText) findViewById(R.id.editEmailFrom);
            String from = savedState.getString(EXTRA_FROM);
            emailFrom.setText(from);

        }

    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
    }

    @Override
    public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
        getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.activity_main, menu);
        return true;
    }

    public void emailSend (View sendButton) 
    {
        Intent intent = new Intent(this,DisplayEmailActivity.class);

        EditText emailFrom =(EditText) findViewById(R.id.editEmailFrom);
        String from = emailFrom.getText().toString();
        intent.putExtra(EXTRA_FROM,from);

        SharedPreferences saveFrom = getSharedPreferences(EXTRA_FROM, MODE_PRIVATE);
        Editor editor = saveFrom.edit();
        editor.putString(EXTRA_FROM, from);
        editor.commit();

        String storedfrom = saveFrom.getString(EXTRA_FROM, from);
        emailFrom.setText(storedfrom);

        startActivity(intent);
    }

Second Activity

 public class DisplayEmailActivity extends Activity {

        @Override
        public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
            super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
            setContentView(R.layout.activity_display_email);

            Intent intent = getIntent();

            String from = intent.getStringExtra(MainActivity.EXTRA_FROM);
            TextView textFrom =(TextView)findViewById(R.id.displayEmailFrom);
            textFrom.setText(from);

        }

        @Override
        public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
            getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.activity_display_email, menu);
            return true;
        }

Answer 1

Ok, so after you store value in your EditText emailFrom, you have to save it in SharedPreferences like this:

String from = emailFrom.getText().toString(); // Getting String value from EditText and storing it in "from" String
SharedPreferences settings = getSharedPreferences("MyPreferencesFile", 0); // Opening SharedPreferences 
SharedPreferences.Editor editor = settings.edit(); // Opening editor for SharedPreferences
editor.putString("exampleName", from); // You are putting here a String "from" and give it a "exampleName" name. Later you will use this name to restore data.

And then when you launch your application, you need to load data from SharedPreferences:

SharedPreferences settings = getSharedPreferences("MyPreferencesFile", 0); // Again opening SharedPreferences
String from = settings.getString("exampleName", ""); // The second argument is the default value. The default value will be set if there wasn't saved any data with "exampleName" name
if(from != "") // If "from" is not empty, it means that the data was stored in SharedPreferences
   emailFrom.setText(from); // Setting text in your EditText