Develop Reference

Styling the Action Bar

I'm trying to style the action bar by adding a custom back button on the left and an icon in the center. The rendering in Android Studio is exactly as I want it, but when I test the layout on my phone, it just shows both back button and icon on the left, with the icon on top of the back button. This is my layout file:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:id="#+id/action_bar_layout"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content">
<ImageButton android:id="#+id/back_button"
android:contentDescription="Image"
android:src="#drawable/back_button"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_marginTop="20dp"
android:background="#color/action_bar_bg_color"
android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"/>
<ImageView android:id="#+id/cow_icon"
android:contentDescription="Image"
android:src="#drawable/cowhead"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_centerInParent="true"
android:layout_centerVertical="true"/>
</RelativeLayout>
And this is what I do to style the action bar:
ActionBar actionBar = getSupportActionBar();
actionBar.setDisplayShowTitleEnabled(false);
View mActionBar = getLayoutInflater().inflate(R.layout.action_bar_layout, null);
actionBar.setCustomView(mActionBar);
actionBar.setDisplayShowCustomEnabled(true);
Anyone see what could be causing the flawed styling of the action bar?

You could try using the new Toolbar : https://developer.android.com/reference/android/widget/Toolbar.html
which is great for making custom actionBar.
Otherwise, you don't have to make your back button custom, actionbar supports it with : https://developer.android.com/reference/android/app/ActionBar.html#setDisplayHomeAsUpEnabled(boolean)

Android action bar is invisible but still takes up place

I am trying to hide the android action bar, I tried the following in the manifest:
android:theme="#android:style/Theme.NoTitleBar"
and also tried the following in my activity's onCreate method:
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
getWindow().requestFeature(Window.FEATURE_ACTION_BAR);
getActionBar().hide();
setContentView(R.layout.viewpager);
Both work fine and the actionbar is invisible. But the problem is, I cannot use the space that the actionbar left after it disappeared. I mean, if I want to center a widget in the layout vertically, it counts for the space the action bar covers, and then centers the widget in the space left, and so it looks like not centered.Here is the xml file content:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:background="#color/background"
android:gravity="center_vertical" >
<LinearLayout
android:layout_centerInParent="true"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:orientation="vertical">
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/imageview_create_db_first_time"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal"
android:background="#drawable/data" />
<TextView
android:layout_marginTop="10dp"
android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal"
android:id="#+id/textview_create_database"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="#string/create_database"
android:textSize="15sp"
android:textColor="#color/white_text"/>
</LinearLayout>
</RelativeLayout>
So can anyone help me with this?
Thanks

You should either use the no title flag:
requestWindowFeature(Window.FEATURE_NO_TITLE);
Or create your theme and add:
<item name="android:windowNoTitle">true</item>

Your code is fine. I have used similar code in my project. I think the margin:top attribute in your imageview is making it appear below the center.
android:layout_marginTop="20dp"
So remove this line.

How should I set up an Indeterminate Progress in a custom Action Bar layout?

I've created a custom layout for my app's Action Bar. Everything's working fine except that the Indeterminate Progress that I enable in onCreate() via requestWindowFeature(Window.FEATURE_INDETERMINATE_PROGRESS); shows up to the right of my custom layout and moves everything over whenever it appears:
Here's my custom Action Bar layout:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent">
<TextView
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium"
android:text="#string/app_name"
android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"
android:layout_centerVertical="true"/>
<SearchView
android:id="#+id/search_view"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:title="#string/menu_search"
android:icon="#drawable/ic_search"
android:showAsAction="always"
android:actionViewClass="android.widget.SearchView"
android:layout_alignParentLeft="false"
android:queryHint="#string/menu_search_hint"
android:iconifiedByDefault="false"
android:layout_alignParentRight="true"
/>
<ProgressBar
android:id="#+id/progress_spinner"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
style="?android:attr/progressBarStyleSmall"
android:layout_centerVertical="true"
android:indeterminate="true"
android:layout_toStartOf="#id/search_view" />
</RelativeLayout>
What can I do to the ProgressBar in my custom Action Bar layout so that requestWindowFeature() finds and uses it instead of the default one?

So I figured out a solution. Instead of using requestWindowFeature(), I referenced the ProgressBar I'd placed in the ActionBar layout and replaced all instances of setProgressBarIndeterminateVisibility() with setVisibility():
// Toggles progress spinner visibility when we conduct a search
private void toggleIndeterminateSpinner(int state)
{
// Indeterminate Progress Spinner
ProgressBar progressSpinner = (ProgressBar) getActivity().findViewById(R.id.progress_spinner);
switch(state)
{
case HIDE:
progressSpinner.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
break;
case SHOW:
progressSpinner.setVisibility(View.GONE);
break;
}
}

ActionBar actionView item style

I am trying to create a popup on the actionbar item (like the one in G+ app).
To do this, I need to have the actionbar item view but this is available only setting a custom view with setActionView().
The problem is that I cannot reach the same menu item style of actionbar items.
I am using this:
<Button xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
style="?android:attr/actionButtonStyle"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:paddingLeft="12dp"
android:paddingRight="12dp"
android:background="#drawable/ic_refresh">
but the result is not good.
Where could I find a layout/style to mimic the action bar item one?

The solution is to use this layout:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<ImageButton xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
style="#android:style/Widget.Holo.ActionButton"
android:src="#drawable/ic_refresh">
</ImageButton>
with the style #android:style/Widget.Holo.ActionButton

Invert the split action bar

I just modified my action bar on my application to use the Split ActionBar functionality described here:
http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/ui/actionbar.html#SplitBar
I created a draft custom view in order to see the result on my device, here is the XML:
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:gravity="right" >
<ImageButton
android:id="#+id/action1"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
style="?android:attr/actionButtonStyle"
android:src="#android:drawable/ic_menu_compass" />
<ImageButton
android:id="#+id/action2"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
style="?android:attr/actionButtonStyle"
android:src="#android:drawable/ic_menu_compass" />
</LinearLayout>
In my Activity, I just modified my code to add the two required lines to set this custom XML and the way it should be displayed:
ActionBar actionBar = getActionBar();
actionBar.setCustomView(R.layout.action_bar_bottom); //load bottom menu
actionBar.setDisplayOptions(ActionBar.DISPLAY_SHOW_HOME|ActionBar.DISPLAY_SHOW_CUSTOM);
actionBar.setDisplayShowTitleEnabled(false);
actionBar.show();
The split is working well, my problem is that the action bar I was using previously is now at the bottom of the screen and the new one defined in the XML above is now displayed at the top of the screen, along with the Home button.
I looked at the function setDisplayOptions in the developer guide but it is not really clear for me how to use it.
Is there an easy way to invert the 2 action bars in order to let my main action bar at the top?
Thank you!