inflate options list after clicking a button - android

I would like to inflate an option list like this one after clicking on a certain button.
I didn't like to call it option menu because I'm not pressing the "menu" button.
I want the items to be listed like the one above..
Is it possible to use the same .xml file used to create an option menu inflater for my case?
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" >
<item
android:id="#+id/first_menu_item"
android:title="First Menu Item">
</item>
<item
android:id="#+id/second_menu_item"
android:title="Second Menu Item">
</item>
<item
android:id="#+id/third_menu_item"
android:title="Third Menu Item">
</item>
<item
android:id="#+id/fourth_menu_item"
android:title="Fourth Menu Item">
</item>
</menu>
I hope some experts can help me achieve what I really want to do.

That's a popup menu, which is documented in the API guide.
However, depending on what you're trying to do, it may not be consistent with Android design guidelines. I encourage you to follow the guidelines whenever possible, because this will make your app easier to use. As users see more and more UI consistency across apps, Android itself becomes easier to use.

You can use a ContextMenu.
Activities and Fragments have the registerForContextMenu() and onCreateContextMenu() to quickly implement one of these. If you ever want to open a ContextMenu with a regular OnClickListener (rather than waiting for a long click event) you can use openContextMenu() directly.
See the Developer's Guide on Menus for detailed information and example code.
And if you are using API 11+ you can use a PopupMenu instead, this is describeed in the Menu guide as well.

Related

How to create a menu without a bar?

I have an application without an appbar. Now I want to put 3 Buttons into a menu. I have seen the option to create a toolbar and then add the items programmaticlly. But first I would prefer not to have a bar but just the menu.
I know that that isn´t really important because I can make the bar transparent.
And Second I really don´t want to add the items programmatically. (But defigned in xml.) Is this possible, are there better ways and how can I do it?
If "By the menu" you mean, the overflow menu that exists in the app bar then you can not just the add the menu that way. The app bar or toolbar has to be there to contain that overflow menu. But for giving that sort of effect as you also mentioned you can have the toolbar transparent or you can look into the PopUpMenu, http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/ui/menus.html,
this way you can hide your app bar and can give a separate button which will call PopUpMenu, its going to give you same overflow menu effect.
Regarding your 2nd requirement of putting menu in xml, if i am getting it correct you can have your menu defined like this,
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" >
<item
android:id="#+id/phone"
android:title="#string/phone"
android:icon="#drawable/phone"
android:showAsAction="ifRoom|withText"
/>
<item
android:id="#+id/computer"
android:title="#string/computer"
android:icon="#drawable/computer"
android:showAsAction="ifRoom|withText"
/>
</menu>
You need your CSS anymets revised.
Please consider this codings:
style {template.css}
I think you'll find those are the exact answer.

Text or Icon in action bar, stuck with the 3 dots

I'm making an android app in Eclipse. I want to place a text or icon in the action bar, but when I am writing in menu.xml, which looks like this:
<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" >
<item
android:id="#+id/createnew"
android:orderInCategory="1"
android:showAsAction="ifRoom"
android:title="CREATE"/>
</menu>
it puts it in the options menu. I want to separate it.
I see this in the app when I run it:
(sorry can't post pictures because I don't have enough rep)
I want to CREATE next to the option menu like this for example:
Since you are using the AppCompat Actionbar, you need to use a custom namespaced showAsAction attribute.
It should look something like this:
<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:yourapp="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto" >
<item
android:id="#+id/createnew"
android:orderInCategory="1"
yourapp:showAsAction="ifRoom"
android:title="CREATE"/>
</menu>
Note that this uses yourapp:showAsAction instead of android:showAsAction. This is because the showAsAction attribute is not available on pre-Honeycomb devices and is provided by the support library.
For more information, read the Action Bar developer guide.
It's caused by this line
android:showAsAction="ifRoom"
That tells Android to put it up there if it's going to fit nicely. If you want it up there no matter the fit use
android:showAsAction="always"

How to put the most frequently used action on top of ActionbarSherlock list navigation?

I use ActionbarSherlock 4.3 and I intend to use its List Navigation. I checked the official guidelines of Google here and at the Sharing data section I discovered a pretty neat solution that I'd like to accomplish: the icons are in a list and the most frequently used app's icon is on the top. I'd like to create a similar solution where the list items are ordered based on the frequency of usage and they vary. How should I accomplish that?
Use android:showAsAction="always", for example:
<item android:id="#+id/menu_settings"
android:title="#string/settings"
android:icon="#drawable/ic_action_settings"
android:showAsAction="always" />

Android Actionbar compatibility alternate xml for pre-honeycomb

I am using the actiobarcompat sample in my application and I am trying to implement search for pre 3.0 devices.
<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" >
<item
android:id="#+id/menu_search"
android:orderInCategory="1"
android:title="#string/menu_search"
android:icon="#drawable/ic_home"
android:showAsAction="collapseActionView|ifRoom"
android:actionViewClass="android.widget.SearchView" />
</menu>
On Honeycomb+ this works fine, the searchview widget appears in the actionbar. What I am trying to do is have a second menu XML so I can fall back to the old search activity way of doing it. However, there is no such thing as menu-v11 folder as the menu folder is essentially menu-v11 because that is the version it started supporting this.
My question is, using the actionbar compatibility sample, is there a way to declaratively add an alternate button for pre-honeycomb?
Can you please be more specific about what you are trying to achieve?
It it's about calling different activities depending on API version, the action bar has nothing to do with that.
You analyse API version in onOptionsItemSelected and act accordingly.
If you want different menu items depending on API version, just create a folder menu-v11 (or menu-v14) and put
version-specific xml-s- there.
BTW, I use com.android.actionbarcompat and it works great for me!

Android 3.0 ActionBar Gmail Search

In the Gmail app, the search bar moves all the way to the left when you click on the search icon. Does anyone know how to recreate this effect? The current way I have it, the icon expands when clicked, but doesn't move to the left like the Gmail app. Here is my menu xml file:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
<item android:id="#+id/menu_search"
android:title="Search"
android:icon="#drawable/ic_menu_search"
android:showAsAction="ifRoom"
android:actionViewClass="android.widget.SearchView"
/>
</menu>
Take a look at this SO Question and see if that is what you're referring to:
Contextual Action Bar in Honeycomb
and
Contextual Action Bar in Honeycomb
The Gmail app seems to simply have a search icon in the menu and when you click on this it will add SearchView as the current navigation view with getActionBar.setCustomView().
There are a few gotchas when doing this, for example handling when it should be removed etc but if handled well it can lead to a nice user experience. But it may not be worth the hassle though, the regular expandable SearchView should be sufficient for most applications.

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