AndroidX multiple instances of Preferences

Question

How can I keep multiple sets of Preferences using the AndroidX Perference library? For example, the user can choose different profiles which have different values over the same set of settings:

Global preferences:

• Selected profile: foo
• Other settings: etc

Profile 1:

• Name: foo
• Setting: Bar

Profile 2:

• Name: bar
• Setting: Hello

etc

Answer 1

I see two options here:

• Use Context.getSharedPreferences(String name, int mode) with different names for different profiles. PreferenceManager has a setDefaultValues method that also takes a name in that case. The downside of this approach is that a settings screen will still use the default shared prefs, and not the ones for whatever profile is selected.

• Make your own shared prefs wrapper that extends PreferenceDataStore and implements all the methods. Then call PreferenceManager.setPreferenceDataStore whenever the profile is changed. A settings screen will show the correct values with this approach. Internally, your wrapper can either use a database to store the values, or use the default shared prefs, appending a different prefix for different profiles.

I haven't tried either but I believe it could work.