Develop Reference

How to dynamically enable/disable entire overflow menu?

I would like to enable/disable the entire overflow menu in my Toolbar at runtime according to certain user actions. This is all within the same fragment. I tried just returning out of onPrepareOptionsMenu() if the condition holds, which hides the three dot icon as soon as the user touches it. However, I can't figure out how to then show the options menu again.

Calling getActivity().invalidateOptionsMenu() invokes onPrepareOptionsMenu() again, where you can load/not load the menu based on your conditions.

Just want to add one more thing if you want to show or hide the menu again without even inflating them. You can use oncreateoptions menu parameter like this
Menu overflow;
#Override
public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.mymenu, menu);
this.overflow = menu;
return super.onCreateOptionsMenu(menu);
}
and then make a function to show or hide any menu item according to the index. for e.g.
public void hideorShowMenuItems(boolean bool){
overflow.getItem(1).setVisible(bool);
overflow.getItem(2).setVisible(bool);
overflow.getItem(3).setVisible(bool);
}

Android - Settings menu of the main activity

I have a settings menu item that is generated in MainActivity. All the MainActivity's job is to contain fragments that actually do the job. Those fragments have their own action bar items and they work as expected.
The settings menu item should show/hide, depending on a certain condition that is changing between fragments, so assuming the code is on MainActivity, it should be:
if (condition) menu.findItem(R.id.action_settings).setVisible(false);
else menu.findItem(R.id.action_settings).setVisible(true);
Now I'm wondering where should I place the code because the condition changes between fragments but the actual menu item is on MainActivity.

Your condition might be OK and you can put it in your Activity's onPrepareOptionsMenu().
As you said this gets called just one time when you enter the Activity (with some exceptions).
You need to force the system to recall the Activity onPrepareOptionsMenu() when switching through fragments, and that is done - from anywhere - with the line invalidateOptionsMenu() (or, if necessary, getActivity().invalidateOptionsMenu()).
Good points to paste it might be Fragments onResume(), or any other point at which you think your condition state has changed.
Depending on your libraries, there's also a support method for API<11 called supportInvalidateOptionsMenu().
This should be called each time you want your Menu to change. However, if your fragments just add some items to a base, activity menu, take a look at this.

i think it is gonna work for you
public boolean onPrepareOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
// if nav drawer is opened, hide the action items
boolean drawerOpen = mDrawerLayout.isDrawerOpen(mDrawerList);
menu.findItem(R.id.action_settings).setVisible(!drawerOpen);
return super.onPrepareOptionsMenu(menu);
}

Android: hide action bar menu views regardless the menu items

I am using navigation drawer to switch between fragments.
And my action bar menu items are different regarding to the fragments.
I want to hide the menu item views when drawer is opened.
Referring to the doc, it suggest to find the menu item by ID and hide the item.
However, my menu items are different with fragments, so, how can I simply hide/show the menu item views on the action bar? Is there some flag to control it?
By the way, I see in the DOC it says I can return false in onPrepareOptionsMenu() to make it not displayed, however I tried and ended up in vain. Did I misunderstand it?
public boolean onPrepareOptionsMenu (Menu menu)
Added in API level 1
Prepare the Screen's standard options menu to be displayed. This is called right before the menu is shown, every time it is shown. You can use this method to efficiently enable/disable items or otherwise dynamically modify the contents.
The default implementation updates the system menu items based on the activity's state. Deriving classes should always call through to the base class implementation.
Parameters
menu The options menu as last shown or first initialized by onCreateOptionsMenu().
Returns
You must return true for the menu to be displayed; if you return false it will not be shown.

If people are still visiting the link, this is how we disable the options menu or options menu items for a fragment.
1) In the onCreateView() method of fragment add the following code
setHasOptionsMenu(true);// then only we can work with the menu items.Without this onPrepareOptionsMenu() method is not called
.
Now override the onPreparedOptionsMenu() method and hide the menu items. If you hide all the menu items the menu will not at all be shown. or use menu.clear() to clear all the menu items
#Override
public void onPrepareOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
super.onPrepareOptionsMenu(menu);
menu.findItem(R.id.menu_contacts).setVisible(false);
--------------
}

Android: Multiple Option Menus in one Activity

I have an Activity containing a ViewFlipper and would like to show a different option menu for each view in that ViewFlipper. That is, the type of menu displayed when the menu button is pressed would depend on the type of the current view.
However, onCreateOptionsMenu() is called only once (when showing the option menu for the first time), so creating the different menus can't be implemented there.
How could I solve this?

First read about onPrepareOptionsMenu(Menu menu)
Each time the user presses the Menu on their Android device while inside one of your activities, the onPrepareOptionsMenu method is called. The first time the menu is shown (i.e. only once), the onCreateOptionsMenu method is called.
Basically, the onPrepareOptionsMenu method is where you should make any changes such as enabling/disabling certain menu items, or changing the menu item text depending on the circumstances.
So do this (Don't use onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) )
//Dynamically create context Menu
#Override
public boolean onPrepareOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
menu.clear(); //Clear view of previous menu
MenuInflater inflater = getMenuInflater();
if(condition_true)
inflater.inflate(R.menu.menu_one, menu);
else
inflater.inflate(R.menu.menu_two, menu);
return super.onPrepareOptionsMenu(menu);
}

In Android, how to change the title of a different MenuItem inside onOptionsItemSelected()

On clicking a certain MenuItem in a Options Menu in Android, I need to change the title of a different MenuItem in the same Menu. What is the way to do this?
When a MenuItem in an options menu is clicked, onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem menuitem) is called.
You can change the title of the MenuItem which is passed as a parameter in the
onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem menuitem), but not of any other MenuItem. I need to know how to change the title of a MenuItem that is not passed as parameter to onOptionsItemSelected(), but which belongs to the same Menu.
I did not find a way to get handle to containing Menu inside the onOptionsItemSelected method (which is called when any MenuItem is clicked).
Many Thanks.

From the Android Dev Guide: http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/ui/menus.html
Changing the menu when it opens
The onCreateOptionsMenu() method is called only the first time the Options Menu is opened. The system keeps and re-uses the Menu you define in this method until your Activity is destroyed. If you want to change the Options Menu each time it opens, you must override the onPrepareOptionsMenu() method. This passes you the Menu object as it currently exists. This is useful if you'd like to remove, add, disable, or enable menu items depending on the current state of your application.
Note: You should never change items in the Options Menu based on the View currently in focus. When in touch mode (when the user is not using a trackball or d-pad), Views cannot take focus, so you should never use focus as the basis for modifying items in the Options Menu. If you want to provide menu items that are context-sensitive to a View, use a Context Menu.

You can do it like this.
public boolean onPrepareOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
menu.clear();
getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.photoviewer_menu, menu);
MenuItem item = menu.findItem(R.id.photoviewer_menu_button);
item.setTitle("title");
return super.onPrepareOptionsMenu(menu);
}

This wil work for sure try it............
public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
MenuInflater inflater = getMenuInflater();
inflater.inflate(R.menu.addappointmentmenu, menu);
menu.findItem(R.id.add_appontment_menu).setTitle("Add Appointment");
//Similarly set for all your menu's has above
return true;
}

I'm not sure you can change the title, but you could remove the item and then add another one back in with the same ID with a different title.
Menu foo;
foo.removeItem(id);
foo.add(0, id, 0, R.string.a_new_title);

But when MenuItem is more than six times in the Menu resource and if you click on menu then onPrepareOptionsMenu is called either once or twice.
With a simple click on menu then the onPrepareOptionsMenu is called only once
When you click on menu and then click on the "More" option i.e. sixth option then onPrepareOptionsMenu is called twice.
I hope this will help someone.