Develop Reference

How does android action bar work?

<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
tools:context=".MainActivity">
<item
android:id="#+id/action_settings"
android:title="Settings"
android:orderInCategory="100"
app:showAsAction="never" />
<item android:id="#+id/action_search"
android:orderInCategory="200"
android:title="Search"
android:icon="#android:drawable/ic_search_category_default"
app:showAsAction="ifRoom" />
<item android:id="#+id/action_user"
android:orderInCategory="300"
android:title="User"
android:icon="#android:drawable/ic_dialog_info"
app:showAsAction="ifRoom" />
</menu>
I'm experimenting with android action bar and I'm confused how the settings and other actions are added to my action bar from the menu.
How did android determine that the first item in my list is to be added the three dot menu?

Because you asked android to not show it as action, like this:
app:showAsAction="never"
while for other items you show them when there is enough space to show:
app:showAsAction="ifRoom"

SearchView and toolbars

I want a menu item in my toolbar when clicked to act like a SearchView. I tried this, but the icon was still the default SearchView icon...
<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
tools:context=".MainActivity">
<item
android:id="#+id/action_edit_courses"
android:title="#string/action_edit"
android:orderInCategory="100"
android:icon="#android:drawable/ic_menu_edit"
app:actionViewClass="android.widget.SearchView"
app:showAsAction="always" />
<item
android:id="#+id/action_delete_courses"
android:title="#string/action_delete"
android:orderInCategory="100"
android:icon="#android:drawable/ic_menu_delete"
app:actionViewClass="android.widget.SearchView"
app:showAsAction="ifRoom" />
Please I don't know how to get through with it... Thank you in advance

Context menu in action bar android

Please help me. I use the context menu in Action Bar (CAB). Listing menu has the following code
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto">
<item
android:id="#+id/add_cxtmenu"
android:icon="#android:drawable/ic_menu_add"
android:showAsAction="always"
android:orderInCategory="1"
android:title="edit"/>
<item/>
<item
android:id="#+id/edit_cxtmenu"
android:icon="#android:drawable/ic_menu_edit"
android:showAsAction="always"
android:orderInCategory="2"
android:title="edit"/>
<item
android:id="#+id/delete_cxtmenu"
android:icon="#android:drawable/ic_menu_delete"
android:showAsAction="always"
android:orderInCategory="3"
android:title="delete"/>
</menu>
So the menu should consist of three items. Each item has a parameter android:showAsAction="always"
In the end, I had to get three icons on the panel ActionBar. But in reality, I have two icons together into a button overflowbutton. How to fix it? I can not find the answer to this problem.
Theme my app
<style name="AppTheme" parent="#style/Theme.AppCompat.Light">

Try this.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto">
<item
android:id="#+id/add_cxtmenu"
android:icon="#android:drawable/ic_menu_add"
app:showAsAction="always"
android:orderInCategory="1"
android:title="edit"/>
<item/>
<item
android:id="#+id/edit_cxtmenu"
android:icon="#android:drawable/ic_menu_edit"
app:showAsAction="always"
android:orderInCategory="2"
android:title="edit"/>
<item
android:id="#+id/delete_cxtmenu"
android:icon="#android:drawable/ic_menu_delete"
app:showAsAction="always"
android:orderInCategory="3"
android:title="delete"/>
</menu>

Try to change this:
android:showAsAction="always"
For this:
app:showAsAction="always"
Also you couldn´t have enought room. Try to remove your title or do it small.

how can i set icon for actionbar menu items

i simply want to use and set icon for actionBar menu items in xml and this is my code:
<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" >
<item android:id="#+id/action_search"
android:icon="#drawable/ic_action_search"
android:title="#string/action_search"
android:showAsAction="ifRoom|collapseActionView"
android:actionViewClass="android.widget.SearchView" />
<item android:id="#+id/my_action"
android:icon="#drawable/ic_action_edit"
android:hint="#string/your_mind"
android:textColorHint="#android:color/white"
android:title="#string/action_search"
android:showAsAction="ifRoom|collapseActionView"
android:actionLayout="#layout/my_action" />
<item android:id="#+id/about_me"
android:title="#string/about"
android:icon="#drawable/ic_home" //CUSTOM ICON
android:showAsAction="ifRoom|collapseActionView" />
<item android:id="#+id/action_settings"
android:title="#string/action_settings"
android:icon="#android:drawable/ic_menu_help" //DEFAULT ANDROID ICONS
android:showAsAction="ifRoom|collapseActionView" />
</menu>
The default or custom icon do not show with menu items.
SCREEN SHOT:
this is screen shot is latest running project with set icons for menu items. but menu items dont have any icons.

The icon can be shown only inside the ActionBar but inside the overflow menu

Try this
<item
android:id="#+id/action_search"
android:icon="#drawable/ic_action_search"
android:title="#string/action_search"
android:orderInCategory="100"
android:showAsAction="always|withText"/>

Custom rows for menu items in action bar

I am trying to create kind of list view with custom rows in menu in action bar. something like this:
I have searched a lot on web but could not find anything useful. How can I achieve this thing? I know you can bind custom views with items in menu but how?
I want to bind list view with this item:
<item
android:id="#+id/action_settings"
android:orderInCategory="100"
android:showAsAction="never"
android:title="#string/action_settings"/>

I had figured out after a while. If you want to list items with just icon and title in over flow menu, you need to do nesting of items within items or group them using menu tag.
<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" >
<item
android:id="#+id/action_settings"
android:icon="#drawable/ic_action_overflow"
android:orderInCategory="100"
android:showAsAction="always">
<menu>
<item
android:id="#+id/add_source"
android:icon="#drawable/add_on"
android:orderInCategory="100"
android:showAsAction="never"
android:title="#string/add_source"/>
<item
android:id="#+id/channel_setup"
android:icon="#drawable/channelsetup_on"
android:orderInCategory="100"
android:showAsAction="never"
android:title="#string/channel_setup"/>
</menu>
</item>
<item
android:id="#+id/time"
android:orderInCategory="99"
android:showAsAction="always"
android:title="#string/time_title"/>
<item
android:id="#+id/weather"
android:icon="#drawable/ic_action_cloud"
android:orderInCategory="98"
android:showAsAction="always"
android:title="#string/weather_title"/>
<item
android:id="#+id/search"
android:actionViewClass="android.widget.SearchView"
android:icon="#drawable/ic_action_search"
android:orderInCategory="97"
android:showAsAction="collapseActionView|always"
android:title="#string/search_title"/>
</menu>