I've been stuck for a really long time with my app actions not showing as icons and finally I realized that some had the tag app:showAsAction="always" and some other had android:showAsAction="always", but the ones who worked were those ones with the app prefix. Could somebody whats the reason for this to happen this way?
The appcompat-v7 action bar backport -- ActionBarActivity and kin -- are designed to work on devices going back to API Level 7. android:showAsAction was only added in API Level 11. Hence, appcompat-v7 cannot readily use it. As a result, it defines its own custom menu attributes as replacements.
If you use the native action bar, you use android: attributes for everything. If you use appcompat-v7, you will use the app: attributes where needed and android: ones elsewhere.
Related
Given the following:
Android documentation says :
AppCompatActivity - Adds an application activity class that can be used as a base class for activities that use the Support Library action bar implementation.
I'm not considering adding action bar to my activity
I need some material design widgets, which I can control only through AppCompat or material theme, but the latest need API >= 21, which is not my case.
I tested Theme.AppCompat.Light.NoActionBar with Activity class and it works well.
--
Is there an issue with using Activity class with AppCompat theme in my case?
The AppCompat library is intended to make compatibility with olders API, so the Theme and all components may work well in older systems.
I think the only concern is to always use the AppCompat elements and not the regular ones.
Example, use AppCompatEditText, AppCompatTextView, etc... And always refers to they with the AppCompat (AppCompatEditText editText;)
I have used a lot the support library and not have others issues, considering the visual elements may be a little different when using an API minor than 21
No.There is not issues with AppcompactActivity & support libaray. You can refere this link
To gain more rich & amazing look go with support library,Try to do material design
I'm going through the tutorial at developers.android.com and I had problems with styling the action bar. I use the newest SDK (the bundle with Eclipse).
Say, that in values-v14/styles.xml I have
<style name="MessageTheme" parent="#android:style/Theme.Holo.Light.DarkActionBar">
I've tried all the variations of that that I could find. Tried without DarkActionBar in values-v11 as well.
It compiles fine but when I open activity styled as such, app crashes and logcat says
java.lang.IllegalStateException: You need to use a Theme.AppCompat theme (or descendant) with this activity.
Like I said, API is set correctly. The target one in project properties (API 19) and android:minSdkVersion="14" in the manifest (tried higher as well).
Now, my activity extends ActionBarActivity (that's how the file was generated). If I make it extend Activity instead, then Holo works fine. That's an answer I found, but I don't understand why that works. What exactly is the difference between ActionBarActivity and Activity that makes this works and is this some hack or is it supposed to be done this way?
Also, that works fine with my additional Activity. If I try to this with the main activity from the tutorial, it doesn't compile because 2 methods used there are undefined - getSupportActionBar and getSupportFragmentManager.
You are using a compatibility library, so to style a support actionBar you need your theme to be descendant of appCompat.
Try this:
<style name="Theme.whatever" parent="#style/Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar">
If you are still a little lost, you can generate your theme with this tool: ActionBar style generator and take a look how it's done.
Edit:
Check this out, also: Styling the Action Bar
See "For Android 2.1 and higher"
About the difference between Activity and ActionBarActivity...
As far as I know, you extend ActionBarActiviy if you need to have an action bar while targeting lower than 3.0 android versions. That's why you are having troubles with actionBar or supportActionBar depending on what kind of activity you are coding.
So, to summarize, when working with Acivity call actionBar, but If you are extending ActionBarActivity you should call SupportActionBar. For instance: getSupportActionBar().
More info you could use: Support Library Features
Edit 2: Android is yelling at you because your are trying to use appCompat features. To avoid this in your particular instance, all you need to do is NOT extending ActionBarActivity, but coding regular Activities. Then use ActionBar features as normally you would do.
Edit 3 and probably last:
Let's guess you are using holo as theme, and you are coding a regular Acitivty for API 11 and above. In this case you are not extending ActionBarActiviy, so you don't have to do anything special. That's ok, right? but now, you want the same thing to work for API versions lower than 11 and here comes your real problem. To make that happen you must extend ActionBarActivity, but you didn't. So your only way out (as far as I know) is to have another activity that extends ActionBarActivity, and somehow detect with code, which version of android is running, in order to execute the right code (this is, which class you of the two you should take advantage of) so your app would be able to avoid crashing.
Thats why I think using only appComapt is a nice solution, assuming you don't really need to use holo. But, if you truly want to make things that way...
if (android.os.Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= android.os.Build.VERSION_CODES.HONEYCOMB) {
// Use a regular Activity class for API 11 and above.
}
else{
// Use an activity extending ActionBarActivity. Have in mind that here you would be calling a supportActionBar instead of a regular ActionBar.
}
So, I have tried to use ActionBarStyleGenerator. It generates all style.xml file and all its left is to somehow set it for the action bar. The problem is that I use support libraries (app support 2.1 android) and I have issues with setting action bar style.xml to it.
Have you ever tried using this tool. If so, can you help me out and explain how to set style for the action bar?
The problem is that I use support libraries (app support 2.1 android) and I have issues with setting action bar style.xml to it.
You can set it to generate the resources for ActionBarCompat or ActionBarSherlock as well.
Since you are using the support library you have to choose AppCompat:
I am developing an android app, where I want to put action bar for phones below API 11.
I am following the below link.
http://hmkcode.com/add-actionbar-to-android-2-3-x/
I am making use of the v7 support library, and I am able to get the actionbar. But, the problem is I want to add a navigational listener or tab listener to the action bar. How is it possible.
Please help! Thanks in Advance.
You should use ActionBarSherlock. It is an excellent library of tools that allow you to use Action Bars in older phones and is widely used. The catch is that all your Activities will need to extend SherlockActivity instead of Activity and you have to be careful to call methods like getSherlockActivity() in Fragments instead of getActivity().
I prefer HoloEverywhere library
It allows much more than ActionBarSherlock, but makes your app ~3Mb bigger in size
I am sure you have not seen this
http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/ui/actionbar.html
Yet another compatibility question.
THE PROBLEM
I need to use a tabbed action bar in api level 3.0 and greater to switch between fragments. However, I also need to be able to switch between these fragments somehow in api level < 3.0.
The spanner in the works is the fact that I have already downloaded a custom compatibility library that allows me to use google maps with fragments and therefore I can't use a library.
THE QUESTION
How can I implement a tabbed ActionBar solution in 3.0 and greater and also cater for the bigger market that is 3.0 and less?
Any help would be grand.
What you want is ActionBarSherlock. It uses the native action bar for API >= 3 and provides backwards compatibility for API levels 2.x. There's also the Action Bar Compatibility sample project (listed as SupportAppNavigation, I believe). I think this is essentially the same thing.
So I managed to figure a solution a while ago, it's just taken me a while to post it here.
This is the solution that works for me. I needed to use an ActionBar but I also needed to use the MapActivity as well as the FragmentActivity hence not being able to use ActionBarSherlock.
What I did was the following:
Created a fragment called CCActionBar which handles the touching of the CCTab's by adding itself as a listener(explained below). It also inflates a layout called action barlayout which has the tabs and images arranged, just reference the tabs at run time.
Created a custom view called CCTab which represent the tabs of the action bar. When its touched it tells its listener (CCActionBar) its been touched.
In my main layout xml file have an action bar container which I show or hide at runtime depending on the API level.
Now in my main activity in my OnCreate method I check whether my API level is greater than 3.0 or not. If it is I just implement the standard ActionBar making sure my custom action bar container is invisible. If it isn't I set up my custom action bar and make sure my action bar container in my xml layout is visible.
Then I make sure that when a tab is pressed whilst using either method it is handled in the same way so once its setup you don't have to handle it any differently.
I hope this helps someone somewhere or at least give you an idea of how to proceed.
What I would recommend is to use ActionBarSherlock to get the tabbed action bar functionality.
I assume that you also need a MapView support in Fragment. For this I would recommend solution from MapView in a Fragment (Honeycomb)
(look at user1414726 answer with sample code).
I think it is a better solution than using library though it is using deprecated LocalActivityManger. But in my opinion it is a better idea than using library where every Activity is a subclass of MapViewActivity which I assume you are using.