How to open the ContextMenu in Android by Clicking a Button?
A context menu is conceptually similar to the menu displayed when the user performs a "right-click" on a PC. You should use a context menu to provide the user access to actions that pertain to a specific item in the user interface.
On Android, a context menu is displayed when the user performs a "long press" (press and hold) on an item.
Alternatively, if you need a button, you can implement the menu for the view and change the content dynamically.
Your question is bad and you should feel bad, given how readily available (if cryptic) the method behind this process is. This small tutorial helped me greatly.
http://www.mikeplate.com/2010/01/21/show-a-context-menu-for-long-clicks-in-an-android-listview/
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On android, whenever the user long-clicks on a text field, they get a context menu with options like 'copy' , 'paste', 'select all' etc. Now, I'm aware I cannot add my own items to this menu, system-wide - android won't and shouldn't let me. But I can write my own context menu from scratch, and whenever the user long-clicks on a text view, they will be given two options - 1. System context menu 2. My own menu.
I know this can be done, but I don't know what API calls to use, to achieve this.
Existing applications that do something similar:
Swype keyboard: This keyboard application overrides the system keyboard. So when user clicks on a text view to type something, they're given two options, namely - 1. Default system keyboard, or 2. Swype keyboard user installed. User also gets the option to make one of them the default.
Similarly, Go Launcher Ex: System wide whenever we press the 'Home' button, we get two options - to display the regular Home screen, or display the Go Launcher Home screen.
Any suggestions, or reference material are highly appreciated.
Thanks!
Both of your examples are accomplished using Intent filters. However, the EditText's context menu is not shown using an Intent, and therefore cannot be overridden in this way.
You can override the menu in your app using onContextMenu and related API's but there is no way to do so for other apps.
I would like to add a button in android when a user selects texts then clicks the context button (e.g. it shows copy, cut, paste, select all). Can someone please direct me to the libraries or some resource where I can potentially learn about this?
Trying to search for it, I'm kind of lost because I really don't even know where to start. Does android provide a direct library to access this? If so, in what namespace might I find these functions?
Thank you!
I would like to add a button in android when a user selects texts then clicks the context button (e.g. it shows copy, cut, paste, select all).
There is no "context button" in Android.
On an EditText widget, "Cut, Copy, Paste, Select All" is displayed in one of three ways:
Via a context menu. You can attempt to add menu items to this menu via onCreateContextMenu().
Via an action mode on Android 3.0+. You can call setCustomSelectionActionModeCallback() on the EditText to add new items to the action mode. Note that the action mode is not always displayed, due to either a bug or an inexplicable UI decision.
Via something else, as some Android 2.x device manufacturers elected to do their own thing for cut/copy/paste with an EditText that is not a context menu.
For copy and paste you can simply use-
ClipboardManager clipboard = (ClipboardManager) getSystemService(CLIPBOARD_SERVICE);
clipboard.getText() / clipboard.setText(yourText);
Just implement above lines on click of your button. And this is for Context Menus.
I want is a go from a menu that has a list of objects, if you select an option menu another list should appear.
The examples I found seemed to be for listview or webview.
There another way to make a selection from menu options?
So if I'm understanding your right, you want to launch a Context Menu from an Options Menu. You should not do this. From the android documentation:
A context menu is conceptually similar to the menu displayed when the user performs a "right-click" on a PC. You should use a context menu to provide the user access to actions that pertain to a specific item in the user interface. On Android, a context menu is displayed when the user performs a "long press" (press and hold) on an item.
You'd never do a "long press" on an Options Menu item. People just aren't used to doing that.
Try launching another activity instead or using a dialog.
If you have a fixed list of options in mind you might be looking for submenus, which are explained here: http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/ui/menus.html
If you are looking to dynamically build a list of options with an adapter you might find AlertDialog.Builder useful along with its setAdapter method.
I would like to create a context menu (long press on a textview) that will show a list of options.
Difference from regular context menu will be, that the use is different: user will long click on the textview, menu will popup, user will not release finger, point to the menu item, release finger. This will fire the action.
Any idea how ot do it?>Can you refer me to an example
I don't know how to fully achieve it. But this might help you. You can create a context menu as shown here.
Hope this helps.
Unless you have a very specific use case, I'd recommend against changing how the user expects a context menu to behave, and stay with the default behaviour. It can lead to quite a jarring user experience.
I have a button that says "Sort" and when a user normal/short presses the button, I want a menu to appear with the various sort options. Looking around online there doesn't seem to be a straight forward answer to which route is considered best practice. I'm looking to have a menu that looks similar to this:
with icons and text.
For an example, click the Layers button in the Google Maps app. It opens a list of options on a single short click. It has a title at the top and icons for each option. (The icons aren't super crucial)
Should I use a Context Menu? If so, how do I do it without a long press. Should it be a Spinner? If so how do I change the appearance to use a button instead of the normal drop down box.
Spinners are for stateful selection, which sounds like what you want here. The user will select one sort option from a list, and there is a concept of a "current" sort that stays visible to the user.
For something like the activity picker in your screenshot, Falmarri's suggestion of an AlertDialog is reasonable. The difference between choosing a sort and the activity picker is the "stateful selection" distinction. Spinners have a concept of a currently selected item already provided for you, dialogs are more general.
http://developer.android.com/reference/android/app/AlertDialog.html