Develop Reference

How to set toggle for Android MenuItems. How to show one when the other is clicked?

i have a note taking activity where i would like to be able to edit and save (basically overwrite) the same note.
Once i click the edit MenuItem, I would like it to hide and then show the save MenuItem.
I can get the edit MenuItem to be invisible but i cant get the save MenuItem to show. i keep getting a null pointer exception.
here's my edit_question_menu.xml
<?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/edit_question"
android:icon="#drawable/ic_edit_black_24dp"
android:title="Edit"
app:showAsAction="ifRoom"
android:visible="true">
</item>
<item
android:id="#+id/save_question"
android:icon="#drawable/ic_save_black_24dp"
android:title="Edit"
app:showAsAction="ifRoom"
android:visible="false">
</item>
</menu>
activity.java file
#Override
public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
MenuInflater menuInflater = getMenuInflater();
menuInflater.inflate(R.menu.edit_question_menu, menu);
MenuItem itemSave = menu.findItem(R.id.save_question);
itemSave.setVisible(false);
return super.onCreateOptionsMenu(menu);
}
#Override
public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item) {
switch (item.getItemId()) {
case R.id.save_question:
saveQuestion();
return true;
case R.id.edit_question:
item.setVisible(false);
// MenuItem save_Question_MenuItem = findViewById(R.id.save_question);
// save_Question_MenuItem.setVisible(true);
enableEditMode();
return true;
default:
return super.onOptionsItemSelected(item);
}
}
private void enableEditMode(){
MenuItem saveButton = findViewById(R.id.save_question);
getSupportActionBar().setHomeAsUpIndicator(R.drawable.ic_close_black_24dp);
questionEditText = findViewById(R.id.questionEditTextID);
mPostAnswerButton.setEnabled(false);
mPostAnswerButton.setBackgroundColor(getResources().getColor(android.R.color.darker_gray));
mCommentButton.setEnabled(false);
mCommentButton.setBackgroundColor(getResources().getColor(android.R.color.darker_gray));
saveButton.setVisible(true); **ERROR HAPPENS HERE**
}
Any and all help is appreciated. This seems fairly simple but I cant find a way to get it to work.

Add flag to your activity that indicates where the save MenuItem should be visible or not:
private boolean mShowSaveIcon
Override onPrepareOptionsMenu (UPDATE):
#Override
public boolean onPrepareOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
MenuItem item = menu.findItem(R.id.save_question);
item.setVisible(mShowSaveIcon);
menu.findItem(R.id.edit_question).setVisible(!mShowSaveIcon); // you can use negation of the same flag if one and only one of two menu items is visible; or create more complex logic
return true;
}
In the click handler, change flag value and request invalidation:
#Override
public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item) {
switch (item.getItemId()) {
case R.id.save_question:
mShowSaveIcon = false;
break;
case R.id.edit_question:
item.setVisible(false);
enableEditMode();
mShowSaveIcon = true;
break;
}
invalidateOptionsMenu();
return true;
}
Change handler:
private void enableEditMode(){
/// MenuItem saveButton = findViewById(R.id.save_question); // <--- NO THIS LINE
getSupportActionBar().setHomeAsUpIndicator(R.drawable.ic_close_black_24dp);
questionEditText = findViewById(R.id.questionEditTextID);
mPostAnswerButton.setEnabled(false);
mPostAnswerButton.setBackgroundColor(getResources().getColor(android.R.color.darker_gray));
mCommentButton.setEnabled(false);
mCommentButton.setBackgroundColor(getResources().getColor(android.R.color.darker_gray));
/// saveButton.setVisible(true); **ERROR HAPPENS HERE** // <--- NO THIS LINE
}

Android: Cannot show only text on overflow actionItem

I want to get an item to only show text on the optionsMenu in the action bar.
Here is my code:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" >
<item
android:id="#+id/select_recipients_return_to_compose"
android:showAsAction="ifRoom|withText"
android:orderInCategory="100"
android:title="Finish"/>
</menu>
Things I've tried:
1) True on onCreateOptionsMenu:
#Override
public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.create_broadcast_options_menu, menu);
optionsMenu = menu;
MenuItem menuItem = menu.getItem(0);
menuItem.setEnabled(false);
// check if our roles recipients are chcked and if
Cursor cursor3 = getCheckedRecipients();
// actually, just checked if they're ticked.
if (cursor3 == null || cursor3.getCount() == 0) {
menuItem.setVisible(false);
} else {
menuItem.setVisible(true);
menuItem.setEnabled(true);
}
return true;
}
2) Setting the text manually
Anything else?
Right now it will show my home icon as the icon but will respond to clicks and behavior I set on onOptionsItemSelected().

android:showAsAction="withText|always"
forces the menuItem to the be a action of your actionbar.
if you want it to be in the overflow use
android:showAsAction="withText|never"

Android: how to detect click on disabled menu item?

I have some items in an ActionBar sub menu which I would like to conditionally disable, because they are not applicable for some contexts. I would like them to appear disabled (greyed out) to discourage users from clicking them; but if clicked, I would like to show a toast informing the user of why it is disabled ("can't do A because there is no B", etc). However, if I call MenuItem.setEnabled(false), it seems all the menu item click events do not occur. So, how do I detect click on the disabled menu item?
public class Temp extends Activity implements OnMenuItemClickListener
{
boolean mConditional = true;
protected void onCreate(Bundle state)
{
super.onCreate(state);
}
public boolean onMenuOpened(int featureId, Menu menu)
{
MenuItem item = (MenuItem) menu.findItem(R.id.item2);
if(item != null && mConditional)
{
item.setEnabled(false);
item.setOnMenuItemClickListener(this);
}
return super.onMenuOpened(featureId, menu);
}
#Override
public boolean onMenuItemClick(MenuItem item)
{
//does not fire if item is disabled
Log.e("", item.getTitle().toString());
return true;
}
#Override
public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item)
{
//does not fire if item is disabled
Log.e("", item.getTitle().toString());
return super.onOptionsItemSelected(item);
}
#Override
public boolean onMenuItemSelected(int featureId, MenuItem item)
{
//does not fire if item is disabled
Log.e("", item.getTitle().toString());
return super.onMenuItemSelected(featureId, item);
}
#Override
public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu)
{
MenuInflater inflater = getMenuInflater();
inflater.inflate(R.menu.main, menu);
return true;
}
}
<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
<item
android:id="#+id/menu"
android:icon="#drawable/ic_launcher"
android:showAsAction="always"
android:title="menu">
<menu>
<item
android:id="#+id/item1"
android:showAsAction="always"
android:title="item 1"/>
<item
android:id="#+id/item2"
android:showAsAction="always"
android:title="item 2"/>
<item
android:id="#+id/item3"
android:showAsAction="always"
android:title="item 3"/>
</menu>
</item>
</menu>

You cannot use setEnabled for this. You need to keep menu items enabled all the time and simulate the "disabled" state by changing the drawable (or modifying it using porterduff filter - have a look at this question on how to dim images in android). Separately, you need to keep a flag indicating the state of the item - tag of the menu item is a good option. Ideally, you'd have something like this:
private void setMenuItemEnable(MenuItem item, boolean enabled) {
int curstate = ((Integer)item.getTag()).intValue();
if(curState == 1 && enabled || curstate == 0 && !enabled) {
return;
}
if(enabled) {
... //update image to remove dimming
item.setTag(1);
}
else {
... //update image by dimming it
item.setTag(0);
}
}
Finally, in your onOptionsItemSelected() method, check the tag of the chosen menu item and either perform the action if the tag is 1 or display the toast if the tag is 0. Visually it will be just what you want, and functionally it'll do what you're after.

Overflow Actions on ActionBar not showing

I have an ActionBar using ActionBar Sherlock where I need it to display overflow because I have more actions than room. But, it doesn't show the overflow icon. Here is my configuration:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
<item android:id="#+id/menu_search"
android:icon="#drawable/action_search"
android:title="#string/menu_search"
android:showAsAction="ifRoom|withText"/>
<item android:id="#+id/menu_library"
android:icon="#drawable/hardware_headphones"
android:title="#string/my_music"
android:showAsAction="ifRoom|withText"/>
<item android:id="#+id/menu_downloads"
android:icon="#drawable/av_download"
android:title="#string/downloads"
android:showAsAction="ifRoom|withText"/>
</menu>
And here is code to set it up:
#Override
public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
MenuInflater menuInflater = getSupportMenuInflater();
menuInflater.inflate(R.menu.shopping_menu, menu);
MenuItem searchMenuItem = menu.findItem(R.id.menu_search);
searchMenuItem.setOnMenuItemClickListener(new MenuItem.OnMenuItemClickListener() {
#Override
public boolean onMenuItemClick(MenuItem item) {
startActivity(new Intent(ShopActivity.this, SearchDialog.class));
return false;
}
});
MenuItem downloadMenuItem = menu.findItem(R.id.menu_downloads);
downloadMenuItem.setOnMenuItemClickListener(new MenuItem.OnMenuItemClickListener() {
#Override
public boolean onMenuItemClick(MenuItem item) {
startActivity( new Intent(ShopActivity.this, DownloadQueueActivity.class) );
return false;
}
});
MenuItem myMusicItem = menu.findItem(R.id.menu_library);
myMusicItem.setOnMenuItemClickListener( new MenuItem.OnMenuItemClickListener() {
#Override
public boolean onMenuItemClick(MenuItem item) {
startActivity(new Intent(ShopActivity.this, MyMusicActivity.class));
return false;
}
});
return true;
}
I've looked over the demos in ActionBar Sherlock, but I can't tell what they do differently to get the overflow than what I'm doing. So what's happening here why its not showing?

If you have a physical menu key, the overflow indicator does not show. That is a behaviour by design. See here for more details on another question asked.

Hmm I think there are two issues here. First, as t0mm13b states, if the device has a physical menu key, the overflow indicator does NOT show. This is by design. Although in my experience, it doesn't apply to every device (unfortunately...)
The second issue is that, if you want to force an item to the overflow, you need to set the showAsAction to "never". Otherwise, the only elements that appear in the overflow are ones that simply "don't fit" in the action bar. And given that you have 3 items that you want to display with text.. you're pretty much guranteed to have at least one overflow item, and therefore the overflow icon (with the caveat of the first paragraph)

Try by changing the android:showAsAction tag to app:showAsAction according to the Android guide in the menu_main.xml file as shown below
Add this line if not present
menu xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
<item android:id="#+id/action_search"
android:icon="#drawable/search_icon"
android:title="#string/action_search"
app:showAsAction="always"/> <!--change here android: to app:-->
<item android:id="#+id/action_location"
android:icon="#drawable/location_icon"
android:title="#string/action_locate"
app:showAsAction="always"/>
</menu>

Android: menu's separators is disappeared

I'm a begginer in android development and I have a problem. My first menu has no separator lines in portreit and landscape modes. Also I've no separator in action bar in portreit mode while I have it in landscape one. Separator for action bar is a pic 1x32 placed at ./drawable. At the same time under AVDs and Android-x86 (VirtualBox) is fine. Please, see the fig1: .
Thanks in advance!
Update 1:
Create and show menu:
#Override
public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
MenuInflater inflater = getMenuInflater();
inflater.inflate(R.menu.main_menu, menu);
return true;
}
#Override
public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item) {
// Handle item selection
switch (item.getItemId()) {
case R.id.main_menu_sync:
Toast("Refresh menu");
return true;
case R.id.main_menu_more:
Toast("More menu");
return true;
// ...
default:
return super.onOptionsItemSelected(item);
}
}
Menu layout (./res/menu/main_menu.xml):
<item
android:id="#+id/main_menu_undo"
android:icon="#drawable/ic_menu_undo"
android:title="Undo"/>
<item
android:id="#+id/main_menu_multiselect"
android:icon="#drawable/ic_menu_multiselect"
android:title="Multiselect"/>
<item
android:id="#+id/main_menu_sync"
android:icon="#drawable/ic_menu_refresh"
android:title="Sync"/>
<item
android:id="#+id/main_menu_more"
android:icon="#drawable/ic_menu_more"
android:title="More">
<menu>
<item
android:id="#+id/main_menu_preferences"
android:icon="#drawable/ic_menu_preferences"
android:title="Preferences"/>
<item
android:id="#+id/main_menu_tab_order"
android:icon="#drawable/ic_menu_tab_order"
android:title="Tab order"/>
</menu>
</item>

If your device is QVGA and you set the anyDensity attribute to false, some separators on the UI will be missing.
See more details at
http://developer.android.com/guide/practices/screens_support.html

I think your screen is supporting the view that you are using. You should add the support screen tag to your manifest.xml file. It works for me. Or may be you can check the following link to get some more info.