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ActionBar icons not visible

I am adding icons to ActionBar, but instead of getting them on ActionBar, I get them in the menu option..
My Java Code-
#Override
public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.dashboard, menu);
return true;
}
#Override
public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item) {
int id = item.getItemId();
if (id == R.id.report) {
Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(),"Report",Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
return true;
}
return super.onOptionsItemSelected(item);
}
My dashboard.xml
<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto">
<item
android:id="#+id/share"
android:orderInCategory="100"
android:title="Share on Whatsapp"
app:showAsAction="never"/>
<item
android:id="#+id/medication"
android:title="My Medications"
android:icon="#drawable/medication"
app:showAsAction="always"/>
<item
android:id="#+id/coc"
android:title="Add Circle of care"
android:icon="#drawable/add_icon"
app:showAsAction="always"/>
<item
android:id="#+id/report"
android:title="Report"
android:icon="#drawable/report"
app:showAsAction="always"/>
</menu>
Please tell what am I missing..
I have appcompat as library.
Thank you

Extended ActionBar or AppCompactActivity

First menu item has app:showAsAction="never", so others menu items will always be shown only in overflow menu.

How to edit the list in the right up corner that contains settings?

I tried
#Override
public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
Log.v(
this.getClass().getName() + "!!!",
new Exception().getStackTrace()[0].getMethodName()
);
MenuItem m_item = (MenuItem)menu.findItem(R.id.action_settings);
if(m_item != null)
m_item.setTitle("Back to test");
// Inflate the menu; this adds items to the action bar if it is present.
getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.settings, menu);
return true;
}
but it always gets null.And also,onCreate seems to have it as null as well. Is there a function that i can modify the text on it during runtime??? And if so, is there an easy way to find it?

You should add items in the menu xml. You can find it on the folder res/menu. There you have all the menus available for inflation.
I suppose that you have only one. This is how it could look with added options:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto">
<item
android:id="#+id/searchMain"
android:icon="#drawable/ic_action_search"
app:showAsAction="ifRoom|withText"
android:title="Search"/>
<item
android:id="#+id/searchBarcodeScan"
android:icon="#drawable/ic_launcher"
app:showAsAction="always|withText"
android:title="Scanner"/>
<item
android:id="#+id/seeList"
android:icon="#drawable/ic_launcher"
app:showAsAction="ifRoom|withText"
android:title="See list"/>
<item
android:id="#+id/settings"
android:icon="#drawable/ic_settings"
app:showAsAction="ifRoom|withText"
android:title="Settings"/>
</menu>
Then in your activity you can react to the option selected by overriding this method and doing things inside it:
#Override
public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item) {
switch (item.getItemId()) {
case R.id.searchMain:
doSomething();
return true;
case R.id.searchBarcodeScan:
doSomething2();
return true;
case R.id.seeList:
doSomething3();
return true;
case R.id.settings:
doSomething4();
return true;
}
return super.onOptionsItemSelected(item);
}
EDIT
In order to change menus in runtime, you should call the method invalidateOptionsMenu(). This method will force the recreation of the menu and this time onPrepareOptionsMenu method will be called. You should override it in your Activity this way:
#Override
public boolean onPrepareOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
if(someCondition){
getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.main_menu, menu);
}
else if(someOtherCondition){
getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.other_menu, menu);
}
return true;
}

Instead of
getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.settings, menu);
do something like:
getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.menu_custom, menu);
where res/menu/menu_custom.xml is something like:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto">
<item android:id="#+id/menu_search"
android:icon="#drawable/ic_action_search"
android:title="#string/search"/>
<item android:id="#+id/menu_settings"
android:icon="#drawable/ic_action_settings"
android:title="#string/settings" />
</menu>
This will give you two items in the dropdown. It looks like your res/menu/settings.xml only has one item in it.

Adding items to actionbar

I want to use action bar in my application. So far I was able to add the action bar from the support library. Now I want to add items to my action bar. I want the icons of the items to be displayed in my action bar, so I did the following:
first I created menu.xml file
<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" >
<!-- Search, should appear as action button -->
<item android:id="#+id/action_locate"
android:icon="#drawable/ic_action_location_found"
android:title="#string/locate"
android:showAsAction="always" />
<!-- Settings, should always be in the overflow -->
and I added these functions to my mainActivity
#Override
public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
// Inflate the menu; this adds items to the action bar if it is present.
MenuInflater inflater = getMenuInflater();
inflater.inflate(R.menu.menu, menu);
return super.onCreateOptionsMenu(menu);
}
#Override
public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item) {
// Handle presses on the action bar items
switch (item.getItemId()) {
case R.id.action_locate:
Toast.makeText(this,"locate is selected",Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
return true;
default:
return super.onOptionsItemSelected(item);
}
}
When I run my application I only see the title of the action bar, the locate icon is not there. When I touch the options button on my phone a list with only locate in it appears. What I need is to have locate icon appearing on the right corner of the action bar. Can anybody please tell me what I'm doing wrong and why its not appearing on the right corner of the action bar??

You need to add a namespace
xmlns:yourapp="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
Then
yourapp:showAsAction="always"
Edit:
<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:yourapp="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto" >
<!-- Search, should appear as action button -->
<item android:id="#+id/action_locate"
android:icon="#drawable/ic_action_location_found"
android:title="#string/locate"
yourapp:showAsAction="always" />
Quoting docs
Using XML attributes from the support library
Notice that the showAsAction attribute above uses a custom namespace
defined in the tag. This is necessary when using any XML
attributes defined by the support library, because these attributes do
not exist in the Android framework on older devices. So you must use
your own namespace as a prefix for all attributes defined by the
support library.

Try This :-
Menu Xml:
<item
android:id="#+id/action_location_found"
android:clickable="true"
android:icon="#drawable/more_btn"
android:showAsAction="always"
android:title="action_location_found">
<menu>
<item
android:id="#+id/action_user_profile"
android:orderInCategory="1"
android:showAsAction="never"
android:title="User Profile">
</item>
<item
android:id="#+id/action_settings"
android:orderInCategory="2"
android:showAsAction="never"
android:title="Settings">
</item>
</menu>
</item>
In your Activity:-
#Override
public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
MenuInflater inflater = getSupportMenuInflater();
inflater.inflate(R.menu.main, menu);
return super.onCreateOptionsMenu(menu);
}
#Override
public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item) {
// Handle action buttons
switch (item.getItemId()) {
case R.id.action_user_profile:
Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(), "User Profile",
Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
break;
case R.id.action_settings:
Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(), "Setting",
Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
break;
default:
return true;
}
return super.onOptionsItemSelected(item);
}

Android - OptionsMenu on top transparent

Im building my top menu using the following code:
#Override
public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
super.onCreateOptionsMenu(menu);
getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.menu_view, menu);
return true;
}
#Override
public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item) {
// Handle presses on the action bar items
switch (item.getItemId()) {
case R.id.map_view:
Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(), "Map view pressed",
Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
return true;
case R.id.camera_only:
Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(), "Camera only pressed",
Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
return true;
default:
return super.onOptionsItemSelected(item);
}
}
menu_view.xml
<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" >
<item
android:id="#+id/dots_menu"
android:icon="#drawable/ic_action_overflow"
android:showAsAction="always"
android:title="#string/dots_menu">
<menu>
<item
android:id="#+id/map_view"
android:icon="#drawable/ic_action_map"
android:showAsAction="never"
android:title="#string/map" />
<item
android:id="#+id/camera_only"
android:showAsAction="never"
android:title="#string/camera_only"/>
</menu>
</item>
</menu>
It happens that in my main activity i want to use this menu on top, but the menu appers transparent. Im using a fragment to display a full-screen map (google maps api v2), but then i can see the map under the top menu. I would like this fragment to "auto-resize" under the menu.
How can i set menu always on top of every activity?

So, i found out what my problem was!
in styles.xml file:
<!-- the theme applied to the application or activity -->
<style name="CustomActionBarTheme"
parent="#android:style/Theme.Holo">
<item name="android:windowActionBarOverlay">true</item>
</style> </resources>
i just needed to change the attribute windowActionBarOverlay to false, and it makes automatically the resize for the activity content.
For more details, here is the documentation

Android Option Menu showing as list

I have created a menu which is activated on clicking the menu button on the device however it is showing as a list
My in res/menu/menu.xml code is as follows:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
<item android:id="#+id/menuRefresh"
android:icon="#drawable/ic_menu_refresh"
android:title="Refresh"/>
<item android:id="#+id/menuAbout"
android:icon="#drawable/ic_menu_info_details"
android:title="About"/>
</menu>
and in my main activity i have:
//Initiate Menu XMl file
#Override
public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu){
MenuInflater menuInflater = getMenuInflater();
menuInflater.inflate(R.menu.menu, menu);
return true;
}
/**
* Even handling for individual menu items selected
* Identity single menu item by its id
*/
#Override
public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item){
switch(item.getItemId()){
case R.id.menuRefresh:
Toast.makeText(MainActivity.this, "Refresh Selected", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
return true;
case R.id.menuAbout:
Toast.makeText(MainActivity.this, "About Selected", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
return true;
default:
return super.onOptionsItemSelected(item);
}
}
If i select an item from the list, i get the notification as expected.
How do i make the menu look like the Options menu on the android dev site?

That is what the options menu looks like on new devices, a list. If you want your options to be part of the top bar (called the Action Bar), add android:showAsAction to your xml.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
<item android:id="#+id/menuRefresh"
android:icon="#drawable/ic_menu_refresh"
android:title="Refresh"
android:showAsAction = "always"/>
<item android:id="#+id/menuAbout"
android:icon="#drawable/ic_menu_info_details"
android:title="About"
android:showAsAction = "always"/>
</menu>
For demo purposes, I chose the attribute to be "always", but you have more options:
"ifRoom"
"never"
"withText"
"always"
"collapseActionView"

Even in new devices, you can set the theme to an old one and the menu will display in the old 6-item table layout:
<style name="AppBaseTheme" parent="android:Theme">