When there's more than 6 items in the Android Option Menu, a "More" will be in place. My question is currently I see two different behaviors upon clicking, from different apps. One will show a menu like this, another will show a context menu like this.
Which is one is the proper Android way?
Thanks
I don't see how those two are related. Your first link shows the options menu with "more", which is what you were talking about in your first sentence. The second link shows the context menu after a long press on a list item - that's a completely different item. They both have their uses.
The menu is used for options that are global to the current activity. The context menu is intended for options that relate to the specific item you picked.
If you see an app that uses a context menu for "more", then it's not using the normal Android menu system. I've even seen Google apps use that (Maps, I believe), and I don't know why you would do that.
The first is the "proper" way as in the default behaviour you get. I don't think the difference is meaningful, but to achieve the second the coder must have mucked around, and I don't think it's worth it..
Related
What is Android's concept of deleting a list item? I thought of something like long-pressing it which will pop-up a dialog box to confirm / reject...
But would like to know what is the most popular way of doing it in Android.
Thanks!
This question is regarding to UX design. Generally speaking, the most popular approach of deleting items are:
Long press and pop up context menu
On action bar, entering selection mode and then choose the action
Slide to right/left and display a delete indicator on the item
You might choose/combine appropriate methods.
I have found this link may explain everything you need for the deletion in list view.
https://ux.stackexchange.com/questions/48112/typical-android-app-behavior-for-deleting-data-from-a-list
There are many implementations of facebook app-like sliding menu, which are mentioned in that question.
Some of them, which implementation I checked, are using one activity for showing menu and data. When user selects item from menu no new activity is start. Thus, one activity is using for many part of the program, showing different data in one view.
IMHO, it could be messy to use one activity for all. So, I'm thinking of new plan:
Add menu to all activities;
When user select item in menu, close(pop/hide) current activity and start (push/show) activity, which is related to selected item.
Any ideas to implement such behavior?
I'm way to lazy to read through all those answers in the mentioned thread and check all provided libraries.
A good sliding menu library which works properly with Fragments is SlidingMenu
Also you should take a look at the documentation on Activities, Intents (the flags you can set to them) and how their life cycles are managed cause you seem to mix up some things.
I'm trying to set up a menu that appears when the user starts the app for the 1st time, so they can set it up by choosing from 1 of 6 items. It needs to start automatically dependent on a boolean value taken from sharedPreferences.
I have been trying to create a context menu, but its not working and I'm not sure if its the right way to go about it.
Has anyone done this and is context menu the right way to go? If not, please could you point me in the right direction.
Many thanks
You shouldn't be using a ContextMenu for this kind of design. You should be using a Custom Dialog for the configuring of your app. Using perhaps a ViewSlider to allow multiple configuration screens or just one View with all the configuration options in a ScrollView.
When I enter some text and press and hold on it then context menu is presented with items like cut,copy,select text and so on.
Is there any way to add my own custom item to this context menu ? I do not how this things works but I guess that should be possible to register something in the manifest just like registering activities and broadcasts . . .
Thanks,
Any ideas are wellcomed
Is there any way to add my own custom item to this context menu ?
Only for widgets in your own activities, not for the system as a whole.
Also, EditText is problematic even for your own activities, as some device manufacturers are bypassing the normal context menu system, so you can't add to them.
That being said, for your own activities, just follow the instructions to create a context menu for the widgets of interest.
Have you tried putting an onLongClickListener on your EditText? This won't let you add to the current list, but you can make your own dialog show up and then add all the options above, or some of them, or none of them and your own.
I'm not sure if exactly what you're asking for is possible, and if it is my way is a little bit more work, but you'll have full control.
I've activity that i want an option menu to be displayed on. But, i want the option menu to be displayed all the time the activity is displayed. I don't want my users to click (select) the menu button to display it. I want it to be there all the time. How can i do it?
thanks
Activity.openOptionsMenu().
From a design standpoint, I have to agree with Mayra. Wrong approach to begin with.
If you want options to appear at the bottom of the screen always, don't use the options menu. Just place buttons at the bottom of your screen.
However, keep in mind that this goes against the "Android way" of doing things, so make sure you understand how Android users are going to expect your application to look and work, and you have a good reason for doing something different.