Develop Reference

handle click on iconmenu item

I see that it's possible to handle a tap on a icon menù item or by implementing
onOptionsItemSelected
inside the acivity, or by using
onMenuItemClickListener
like onclick listener on a button. When is better to use the fist one method, and when the second one?
Because for my opinion, using an external listener makes more modular the code, but create a new class, but using the first way don't create new class, but makes code less modular...

There are use cases other than the ones outlined below, but I'm putting in the general cases that come up regularly.
onOptionsItemSelected
If you're using Fragments, you may want to use onOptionsItemSelected and consider adding menu items to the Action Bar the way that is described in Adding items to the Action Bar.
What this describes is implementing onCreateOptionsMenu inside your Fragment. To make this happen, you must call setHasOptionsMenu in onCreate.
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
this.setHasOptionsMenu(true);
}
Setting this will actually make the Activity call onCreateOptionsMenu which allows you to add the menu items.
#Override
public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu){
super.onCreateOptionsMenu(menu);
// add items corresponding to this Fragment
menu.add(...);
return true;
}
The reason I recommend this is that it allows you to put more of the menu handling code into your Fragment instead of the Activity to figure out which Fragment to call, etc.
In this case, clicking the menu item will call onOptionsItemSelected inside of your Fragment which I suggest.
#Override
public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item) {
switch (item.getItemId()) {
case R.id.my_id1:
dothing1();
return true;
case R.id.my_id2:
dotghing2();
return true;
default:
return super.onOptionsItemSelected(item);
}
}
More of a long winded answer, but this is the way to handle menu clicks inside your Fragment.
onMenuItemClickListener
In the case of onMenuItemClickListener, this is used when you DON'T want to use the pre-ready method above and implement your own.
What I mean by that is you implement OnMenuItemClickListener and generate the methods in the interface. You then assign the menu to call the Activity that implemented this where as the above option assumes what Activity to use based on the pre-ready implementation of the Activity to Fragment relationship.

If you are targeting API 14 or greater (ICS or above) you could implement an ActionProvider. If that's not an option then you could implement a base activity that will always populate the menu and handle any menu clicks using onOptionsItemSelected. This is a good approach to implement "About" or "Settings" menu items through all your activities.

CAB "check" button

How can we handle the check button in the CAB menu?
Is the item associated to some internal id like android.R.id.checkbox?
I've read that it could be handled in SherlockActionBar CAB, but could it be the same with the native ActionBar CAB?
Is there any way to detect the interaction of this item? onActionModeFinished() is not sufficient since I'm calling it multiple times since the CAB needs to be present due to previous changes that happened.
Thanks.

Ok, finally found a solution after trying some things.
Place the code you want for the checkbox or onbackpressed in the method below
public void onDestroyActionMode(ActionMode mode)
{
//place the code you want for the checkbox or back icon here. If you don't want
// this code run if other selections are used, then just create a boolean value that
//you earlier on and check the value in this section before implementing the code
}
};

Android OptionsMenu, add items on runtime

I've got an optionsmenu looking like this right now:
Lets say that if I click item 1, i want two new items added to the menu looking like this:
I'm having problems doing this at runtime(while it's open) since onCreateOptionsMenu is only called once and onPrepareOptionsMenu seems only to be called when the menubutton of the phone is clicked. I just want it to refresh with these new items added.
Thanks for any help!

When you select an option item it causes the system to close the options menu. This happens after onOptionsItemSelected() runs. I'm guessing what you need to have happen is for that entire process to complete then have the options menu programmatically opened again so onPrepareOptionsMenu() is called.
Try this:
In onOptionsItemSelected(), when the user selects your "add two more options" option, set a flag in your activity but don't do anything else.
Override onOptionsMenuClosed(). Check if the flag is set. If it is, then post to be executed by the UI thread on its next pass. It should do nothing but open the options menu again, e.g.
runOnUiThread(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
openOptionsMenu();
}
});
Override onPrepareOptionsMenu(). Check if the flag is set. If it is, then add your two additional menu items and un-set the flag. You'll need to do some additional work to prevent the "add more items" menu item from continuing to add new items every time its pressed, unless that's the behavior you're looking for.

Android - keep options menu open

I have an Options menu up and running in my Android application and I've overridden the onCreateOptionsMenu, onOptionsItemSelected and onPrepareOptionsMenu methods to customize the menu a little.
My question is related to keeping the Options menu open after the user clicks on a menu item. Basically, I'd like to be able to hide the menu until the user clicks on the device menu key. Once the user clicks on this key, I'd like to be able to hold the menu in place regardless of how many times the user clicks on menu items. If the user wants to hide the Options menu, they'd just need to click on the device menu key again.
Is this type of interaction supported (or even advisable). If this interaction is not supported, any alternative suggestions are more than welcome.
Cheers!
Sean

This will not be possible with onCreateOptionsMenu and the other methods. They always act that way.
But you can do it another way. But there you have to program the whole menu yourself. Basically add the Menu in your layout.xml and let it be hidden (visibility = gone). Then you overwrite the methods onKeyDown. There you check if it is the Menu key. if the menu is not yet open yes, then you show the menu. If it is open already, you hide it.
should not be too difficult. Good thing as well is, that you can make the menu look exactly the way you want and as well let it react the way you want.

For anybody like me, who found this question in google:
To keep menu open after selecting item, you need this code:
#Override
public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item) {
item.setChecked(!item.isChecked());
item.setShowAsAction(MenuItem.SHOW_AS_ACTION_COLLAPSE_ACTION_VIEW);
item.setActionView(new View(this));
item.setOnActionExpandListener(new MenuItem.OnActionExpandListener() {
#Override
public boolean onMenuItemActionExpand(MenuItem item) {
return false;
}
#Override
public boolean onMenuItemActionCollapse(MenuItem item) {
return false;
}
});
return false;
}
Important to return false in onOptionsItemSelected and methods of OnActionExpandListener
This solution from #MayurGajra. More details here: How to hold the overflow menu after I click it？

how to rename existing menu item?

Do you know how to rename existing menu ?
I can rename when press menu item. But I don't know how to access to menu item when press the button.
Please advice.

It would be good if you can clarify the question a little, but 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.
As an example:
#Override
public boolean onPrepareOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
// Check current message count
boolean haveMessages = mMessageCount != 0;
// Set 'delete' menu item state depending on count
MenuItem deleteItem = menu.findItem(R.id.menu_delete);
deleteItem.setTitle(haveMessages ? R.string.delete : R.string.no_messages);
deleteItem.setEnabled(haveMessages);
return super.onPrepareOptionsMenu(menu);
}

Use MenuItem.setTitle(). If this isn't what you needed, you have to be more specific.

The onPrepareOptionsMenu is the proper place to make changes to menuitems.