Develop Reference

Initially Hidden MenuItem Not Shown When setVisible(true) is Called

I have a basic problem where an initially hidden MenuItem is unable to be toggled to visible. As a caveat, I am using ActionBarSherlock, but I wanted to see if anyone knew if this was a known issue of Android or I am doing something terrible before investigating whether this is an issue inside of ABS. Code as follows:
#Override
public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
MenuInflater inflater = getSupportMenuInflater();
inflater.inflate(R.menu.menu_xml, menu);
mMenuItem = menu.findItem(R.id.menu_item);
mMenuItem.setVisible(false);
return true;
}
// Somewhere elsewhere
// MenuItem is never visible after this line is executed
mMenuItem.setVisible(true);
I have also tried to move the mMenuItem assignment and visibility into a call to onPrepareOptionsMenu but the same behavior is shown.
Thanks!

The problem is you are not telling Android that it needs to update the menu. This drove me nuts for the last hour until I figured out a solution. I don't think it's as apparent on pre-HC because menu items aren't always visible on the screen like they are in HC+.
On your activity, simply call:
if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.HONEYCOMB) {
this.invalidateOptionsMenu();
}
That will trigger a call to the onCreateOptionsMenu() event again, so if you're setting the visibility in that function for initialization you'll need to take into account then if you want the option to show or not.

I had the same problem and I found out that setVisible(true) works when there is at least another MenuItem visible. I hope this can be helpful to someone.

I understand this is old question.
But I've solved it by placing inside onPrepareOptionMenu() {...}
private boolean mShowVisible=false;
#Override
public boolean onPrepareOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
menu.findItem(R.id.menu_item).setVisible(mShowVisible);
return super.onPrepareOptionsMenu(menu);
}
whenever you want to set visible or not just call it as:
mShowVisible = true; // or false
invalidateOptionMenu();

I found that using a view's post(Runnable) method to setVisible does the trick, so something like...
view.post(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
menu.findItem(id).setVisible(true);
}
});

Dimming option menu/android

Okay, so I have an option menu for my current app and it is the same with every class. okay, so I would like to know how to dim the options that are included in the menu when the selected class is already selected. For example, I have the Main Home on my option menu. When I am at the Main Home screen...it does appear on the option menu to click. How in the heck do you dim this? I tried looking on the android development page..but had no luck.. yet, I see it on other apps and it is driving me crazy! Surely, I am sure it is easy to mark the code out..but how can you do it! it is driving be bananas!
http://developer.android.com/guide/practices/ui_guidelines/menu_design.html#dim_hide_menu_items

You can override onPrepareOptionsMenu and disable the relevant menu item(s).
#Override
public boolean onPrepareOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
boolean ok = super.onPrepareOptionsMenu(menu);
if (ok) {
MenuItem item = menu.findItem(id_for_this_screen);
if (item != null) {
item.setEnabled(false);
}
}
return ok;
}

save an editText

I have an editText (R.id.editText1).
But when i exit the activity and restart it, the text is gone.
So i thought that i make an option menu.
#Override
public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
menu.add(0, MENU_SAVE, 0, "Save");
menu.add(1, MENU_GET, 1, "Get");
return true;
}
#Override
public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item) {
switch (item.getItemId()) {
case MENU_SAVE:
Here i must save the editText1
return true;
case MENU_GET:
Here i must get the editText1 that i have saved
return true;
}
return false;
But i don't now how to save an editText and how to load it.
I hope you can help me, because i'm newbe to android.
Gaauwe
Edit:
I found the answer on my own.
If you have also problems you can go to:
http://www.edumobile.org/android/android-beginner-tutorials/state-persistence/
Gaauwe

Try using a SharedPrefrences to save the value in an edittext.

Depends on how long you want to persist the data and how big the text is. Checkout this page on Android.com
http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/data/data-storage.html

SharedPrefrences is an easy way to do this.

option item selection in Dialog menu

I have been running into some troubles recently and I think I need your help :).
I am currently trying to show a menu on top of a dialog, I know that it could be far easier to launch a new activity yet doing so would compell me to store/pass a lot of data.
I managed to show an optionmenu by writing a custom dialog and rewriting the oncreateOptionMenu method.
My problem is I can't get any listener to these button, I tried to rewrite the onoptionitemselectedmethod but nothing happens.
Ps: my dialog is nearly full screen so i can't see the activity dialog (i didn't find any put on top method)
I would be glad to try any solution you could provide.
Thanks a lot
public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
super.onCreateOptionsMenu(menu);
menu.add(Menu.NONE,0,Menu.NONE,c.getString(R.string.home));
menu.add(Menu.NONE,4,Menu.NONE,c.getString(R.string.report));
return true;
}
public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item) {
super.onOptionsItemSelected(item);
if(item.getItemId()==0){
getOwnerActivity().startActivity(new Intent(c,Home.class).setFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP));
}
else
if(l>1)
getOwnerActivity().startActivity(new Intent(c,report.class).setFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP));
else
dismiss();
return true;
}

Maybe this little snippet out of my app helps you:
private static final int REFRESH_ID = Menu.FIRST + 1;
public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
boolean result = super.onCreateOptionsMenu(menu);
menu.add(0, REFRESH_ID, 0, R.string.menu_refresh).setIcon(R.drawable.and_refresh);
return result;
}
public boolean onMenuItemSelected(int featureId, MenuItem item) {
switch (item.getItemId()) {
case REFRESH_ID: {
// Do whatever you want here!
return true;
}
}
return super.onMenuItemSelected(featureId, item);
}
As you can see, I've got constants for my menu-items. Those items get the Menu.First + n number as integer. For every item, I count it up. Easier, then change it everytime ;)
And in the onMenuItemSelected you can switch those constants easily.
Hope that helps!

android: any tutorials on creating menus for apps?

I need a very simple menu which probably contains only one or two items: settings/options, where pressing one of them should show some customer defined parameters (is it called dialog), e.g., number of results shown. Is there any good tutorial on creating such kind of menus? I've looked at the "notepad" example in android, it doesn't really help.

Depending on what you're asking for, these are either "Options Menus" or "Context Menus", and creating them is very easy. Here's a link to the page on the Developers' Website explaining how to do menus.
Here's a basic example of code for options menus, adapted from my game:
public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu){
// Define your menu, giving each button a unique identifier numbers
// (MENU_PAUSE, etc)
// This is called only once, the first time the menu button is clicked
menu.add(0, MENU_PAUSE, 0, "Pause").setIcon(android.R.drawable.ic_media_pause);
menu.add(0, MENU_RESUME, 0, "Resume").setIcon(android.R.drawable.ic_media_play);
return true;
}
public boolean onPrepareOptionsMenu(Menu menu){
// This is called every time the menu button is pressed. In my game, I
// use this to show or hide the pause/resume buttons depending on the
// current state
}
public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item){
// and this is self explanatory
boolean handled = false;
switch (item.getItemId()){
case MENU_PAUSE:
pauseGame();
handled = true;
break;
case MENU_RESUME:
resumeGame();
handled = true;
break;
}
return handled;
}
Edit: See the comments for some details on AlertDialogs