I am trying to get my app to be backward compatible so i need to show the menu button
since we used the menu button in our app on previous versions.
So I was reading and it says that if your target is 11 (3.0) than you don't get the menu button but it your target is 10 they you do.
But the issue is I am using fragments so my target has to be 11.
Any thoughts.
Ordinary options menus will appear regardless of Android version. If you have:
android:targetSdkVersion="11"
then the options menu will appear in the action bar on Android 3.0+ devices. All items in the options menu will be available when clicking the "overflow" button in the upper-right corner. Your options menu will appear normally on Android 1.x and 2.x devices, even if you have android:targetSdkVersion="11" in your <uses-sdk> manifest element.
If you overrode the MENU button to have other behavior, you will need to create some other trigger for that behavior for API Level 11 and higher. Overriding the MENU button was never a good idea to begin with, and as you can see, it is even less of a good idea now. I know of no way to get a MENU button on an Android 3.0 device if you have android:targetSdkVersion="11".
One thing that worked for me in order to get older Options Menu on Tablet devices was after I used the following:
minSdkVersion="11"
targetSdkVersion="10"
I think what helps over here is that I am stating to system that app has been tested against API 10 so I get older Options menu.
And because my app is meant for tablets only, keeping minSdkVersion to 11 also prevents it to be installed on the smaller devices. I know, I might still have to see the case of installation for smaller devices having ICS.
Related
Quick question, Android related..
How do I display a working "THREE VERTICAL-DOTS" floating action button, to trigger same functionality as Android menu button that worked on Kitkat (Android-4), and all previous Android versions?
Details:
I have an Android app that uses Java Native Interface. It worked fine in Kitkat (Android 4.x series), but in Android 5.x, the menu-options button (three vertical dots) no longer responds. Originally, in Kitkat (Android 4.x), the standard Android menu button brought up the applications configuration menus. Now, in Android-5, the Menu button has been replaced with a "Recent Apps" button (this was a very poor design change - probably the worst basic re-design of a working interface I have seen in 30 years... ). Is there an easy way to use a "floating action button" or something like that, to restore functionality of the standard Android "Menu" button?
On Samsung tablets, one can tweak: "Settings / Accessibility / Dexterity and interaction / Assistant menu " to "On", and then a floating-action-button appears, which then has the three vertical-dots as one of it's optional push-buttons, if invoked. Pressing that three vertical-dots button (on the Samsung FAB (floating-action-button)), triggers the old Kitkat/Android4 menu, and at least Samsung users can alter set my app config parameters.
In my app's AndroidManifest.xml file, I have minSdkVersion="8" and the targetSDKVersion="8". I have tried setting the targetSDKVersion to higher levels, which results in a non-functional floating action button, showing three vertical dots, appearing on the screen.
There must be an obvious way to fix this damage that the Android "Material Girl Design" people did to Android Kitkat(and previous Android vers.) Android Menu Button. I've detailed a work-around for my user-base at this point, and released an new app version which offers details on the work-around - at least for Samsung phone and tablet users, but an in-app button really should just appear to allow the main app configuration menu to be triggered.
I have looked at this:
http://developer.android.com/training/appbar/setting-up.html#utility
Don't want an "Action Bar". My app is a DOS-emulator, and needs all the screen space.
I have also reviewed:
Android Options Menu in Fragment
This gets closer, but rather than trial-and-error, I would like to just jump to the solution, if possible. There must be some code or a feature selection that just fixes the little action button that appears (but does not work), when I set the targetSDKVersion="12" (or higher values), in the AndroidManifest.xml file.
My app uses SDL (Simple DirectMedia Layer) vers. 1.2 and 1.3 to control and draw the screen.
I will post the answer here when I find it. I know it is possible, because Samsung is already doing this, within its "Accessibility/ Dexterity.. /Assistant Menu" feature.
I have application which uses Sherlock ActionBar package.
The application uses platform-specific behavior for menu (so it's 3-dot icon in ActionBar on ICS and classic menu under HW button on pre-ICS)
I had recieved report from one user with HTC One X. It appears, that One X shows some "compatibility" bar with menu button on the bottom of screen, and there is also same button in ActionBar (where it's supposed to be).
I was not able to emulate this in AVD, and I have multiple reports that this issue is not present on Galaxy Nexus or Galaxy S (they show only the icon in ActionBar).
I have no idea where to look to resolve this or how to debug it, so any help or workaround will be appreciated.
Application is built against API14, with targetSdk="11"
You have a typo:
The android:targetSdkVersion in the manifest should be the solution - it's recommended by Google to always set it to the maximum available (currently it's 19).
Some websites do show that HTC shows the huge button on old apps, but not on new ones, as shown here, so if you think it's weird/ugly, simply set the target SDK. Also make sure it's updated in the project.properties file .
I created an app with minimum SDK 7 in order to get maximum compatibility with circulating devices. On Android phones (GB2.3), pressimng Menu button pops up a menu strip on the bottom of the screen, and that is correct.
However on HC3.2 tablets, where no menu hardware key is present, I expected a soft-menu key on the bottom of the screen, but it didn't appear, so I can't open my menu.
I don't know where to investigate and which portion of my code to share, so could you please show me where do I have to look for menu softbutton?
After reading that menus are deprecated in most recent Android versions, I don't know if ICS4 has a soft-menu button or not. I never tested my app on such a device. Can you give me advices?
Thanks
The link you provide tells you how to correctly provide action bars in your app so that the presence or otherwise of a physical menu button is irrelevant, so that's a good start.
Now, you need to combine that with a little runtime detection of the SDK version (just check the Build.VERSION.SDK_INT constant for Android 1.5 or above), along with some appropriate reflection to enable the same APK to run on any Android version starting with your minSDK version.
I'm trying to understand what the new approach to the menu is in Honeycomb (and beyond).
If I set my version to < 11 the menu hotkey appears at the bottom and everything works as it did in pre honeycomb days.
terrific.
however, if I set my versino to 11+ then the hotkey no longer appears and now the menu button is in the top right corner... it's missing the icons, but at least the menu options still work as before.
great...
HOWEVER
if I'm running my app full screen AND it's an v11+ then my menu is simply gone.
I notice that the Kindle app offers something akin to a toggle. When you tap anywhere on the screen that isn't a button of some kind, the app flips from fullscreen mode to regular mode and the menu appears at the top.
Is this something that the App developers did manually, or is there a feature of Honeycomb that I haven't noticed that facilitates this full/non-full screen toggle for apps that have menues semi-automatically?
I dont think Honeycomb has the feature you described. It is something specific to Kindle app.
I need to compensate for the lack of a physical (or even a "soft") menu button on Android 3 tablets. The app I'm working on generally hides the title bar for its activities, but I can't do that if I want the action bar to appear on a tablet. Is there something in the API that I can use to determine whether a device has a menu button?
If I can't find such a function, the only thing I can think of to do is to never hide the title bar on Android 3.0 and later, but that bothers me for two reasons:
I believe Android 3.0 (or a later API) will eventually support phones, which will probably have menu buttons
I would prefer not to hard code that SDK version (perhaps I could never hide the title bar for Android 3.0 and above, but then I run the risk of not hiding the title bar on phones)
LeffelMania has the right idea, but there is a caveat: If you target SDK 11 (3.0) and use a no-title-bar theme or override with a custom title of some sort, you will be just plain menu-less, because on Honeycomb devices with the target set to 11 the options-menu lives in the title bar itself instead of a fake menu button in the bottom status bar. So be careful there! (You can work around this by setting a lower target, or targeting style resources to v11 to use a one of the Holo themes with a titlebar in that case).
DEPRECATED: This answer is no longer accurate, given changes to the Android framework and design guidelines.
Android phones are guaranteed to have a Menu button. All phones pre-Honeycomb have Menu buttons, and Honeycomb features an ever-present software button. If you use the proper callbacks that tie into the Menu button (onCreateOptionsMenu(), onOptionsItemSelected(), etc) you will be safe to receive those callbacks on any device running Android.
As of API level 14, ViewConfiguration.hasPermanentMenuKey() is available to indicate whether a permanent menu key is present.