Develop Reference

android toolbar menu item button?

is it possible to add a button label like this as a toolbar action menu item?
I tried the following code below
<item
android:id="#+id/action_submit"
android:title="#string/submit_titlecase"
android:visible="false"
android:icon="#drawable/primary_btn"
app:showAsAction="always|withText" />
And it appears blank?
If i remove the android:icon, it appears the text but not the button sourrounding outline

Define a menu item in the following manner:
<item android:id="#+id/action_submit"
android:title="Submit"
app:showAsAction="always"/>
(Basically, if you show as action and you don't provide an icon, the title is shown as a button on the toolbar.)
But if you want it specifically to look like a button like you've put up in your question, make a drawable/mipmap file looking exactly like that and then add android:icon="#drawable/icon" (or #mipmap/icon) into your menu item code.

Items are directly added in overflow menu in Actionbar

I'm developing an application in which i need to show a button with an icon on action bar. I tried following but it directly adds in overflow menu. I want it on action bar.
I tried a few solution given here on stackoverflow but none of them worked for me. please tell me what i'm missing
here is xml file of menu.
<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto">
<item android:id="#+id/action_wishlist"
android:icon="#drawable/wish"
android:title="WishList"
android:orderInCategory="0"
app:showAsAction="ifRoom" />
</menu>
it Adds item named 'Wishlist' in overflow menu.
Theme i'm using is
<style name="AppBaseTheme" parent="android:Theme.Holo.Light">
thanks.

If you are using Theme.Holo.Light, that means that you are not using appcompat-v7 for the action bar, but instead you are using the native action bar. In that case, change app:showAsAction to android:showAsAction.

How to change Option Menu Item layout?

How to customize the Option Menu item layout from xml or programmatically.
I found many question but no good answer yet.
How to change Option Menu Style
How to change layout by clicking items of menu?
How to change Menu Item Color & Size programmatically?

<item
android:id="#+id/itemId"
android:title="Item title"
app:showAsAction="always"
app:actionLayout="#layout/menu_item_layout" />
Note that this layout will be shown only in the ActionBar. If the item is in the overflow menu only title will be shown.

ActionBarSherlock collapseActionView

I'm having a problem when I try to set one item in my actionbar as always visible and 4 more icons as dropdown items with the following layout:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" >
<item
android:id="#+id/search_movies"
android:icon="#drawable/action_search"
android:showAsAction="always"
android:title="Search"/>
<item
android:id="#+id/movies"
android:icon="#drawable/action_video"
android:showAsAction="collapseActionView"
android:title="Movies"/>
<item
android:id="#+id/theaters"
android:icon="#drawable/action_location_map"
android:showAsAction="collapseActionView"
android:title="Theaters"/>
<item
android:id="#+id/preferences"
android:icon="#drawable/action_settings"
android:showAsAction="collapseActionView"
android:title="Preferences"/>
<item
android:id="#+id/contact"
android:icon="#drawable/action_about"
android:showAsAction="collapseActionView"
android:title="Contact"/>
</menu>
The result is just the first item showing and the rest are not visible, not even as a dropdown. This is using ActionBarSherlock and a 2.3 Android device.
The question is, how can I get the icons to follow this layout:
EDIT:
The problem I had was because when you are using the actionbar with a device that has a "menu" hardware button the 3-dot dropdown does not shows off, the 4 other items are only displayed if you press the menu hardware button. Does anyone knows if this behaviour can be modified?

Hmmm, maybe I misunderstood, but if you wish to places those remaining four items into the overflow action menu (the 3-dot icon) then using android:showAsAction="never" instead of "collapseActionView" should do it.
...Tried a couple ways, but this did the trick:
Force overflow menu in ABS

I've met the same problem and my solution is quite simple. (I didn't use HoloEverywhere.)
The idea comes from the ABS sample project, whose drop-down menu can be displayed on pre-4.0 devices as well by using a submenu. So, my idea is using a submenu to disguise the 3-dot icon. Here's the code:
#Override
public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
SubMenu sub = menu.addSubMenu("More");
sub.getItem().setShowAsAction(MenuItem.SHOW_AS_ACTION_ALWAYS);
sub.getItem().setIcon(R.drawable.ic_menu);
getSupportMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.activity_main, sub);
return true;
}
Since the "More" menu doesn't have a MenuItem.SHOW_AS_ACTION_WITH_TEXT attribute, so the word "More"(or whatever you named) will actually not be displayed on the action bar. The only displayed icon R.drawable.ic_menu can be copied from ABS source code res/drawable-xxdpi folders named "abs__ic_menu_moreoverflow_normal_holo_dark.png", which is the so-called 3-dot icon. And the R.menu.activity_main is your menu xml.
It works!

Make menu items fill height of action bar

I have an app with an action bar. I need the menu items to fill the height of the action bar. I have tried styling the action bar with android:padding="0dp" and settings android:layout_height="fill_parent" on the action views to no avail.
This picture shows that the browse subjects actionview for instance does not fill the actionbar.
Here is a shortened version of my menu declaration.
<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
<item android:id="#+id/menu_more"
android:title="More"
android:showAsAction="always"
android:actionProviderClass="pacakge.action_providers.MoreProvider"
/>
</menu>
The action provider class inflates and returns a view that is inserted into the ActionBar.
Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks

Ended up just hard coding the button height to 50dp. Not a very elegant solution but it works.

Hmm....looks like you need to use bigger icons.
Also, in the layout for the buttons, use android:layout_height as "fill_parent".
And as a last tip, use android:showAsAction="ifRoom"

Try to change menu item layout to RelavtiveLayout