Android create custom overflow menu item

Question

I want to create a custom overflow menu item in my ActionBar in addition at the Setting item like described in the image below:

Action bar

But if there is few space in the ActionBar I don't want that the Item1 and Item2 go into the Setting item as overflow, but into "my overflow item".

this is my menu xml code:

<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
<item
    android:icon="@android:drawable/ic_menu_agenda"  
    android:title="Item1"
    android:showAsAction="ifRoom|withText" />

<item
    android:icon="@android:drawable/ic_menu_add"  
    android:title="Item2"
    android:showAsAction="ifRoom|withText" />

<item android:id="@+id/pick_action_provider"
    android:icon="@android:drawable/ic_menu_sort_by_size" 
    android:showAsAction="always"
    android:title="Overflow" >
     <menu>  
        <item android:id="@+id/action_sort_size"  
              android:icon="@android:drawable/ic_menu_camera"  
              android:title="Item3" />  
        <item android:id="@+id/action_sort_alpha"  
              android:icon="@android:drawable/ic_menu_sort_alphabetically"  
              android:title="Item4" />  
    </menu>  
</item>

<item
    android:id="@+id/action_settings"
    android:orderInCategory="100"
    android:showAsAction="never"
    android:title="@string/action_settings"/></menu>

score 9 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 23 '14 at 14:51

This will help you. I had coded this for overflow menu

In menu/main.xml file

<item
    android:id="@+id/overflow"
    android:orderInCategory="100"
    android:showAsAction="always"
    android:icon="@drawable/ic_overflow"
    android:title="">
    <menu>
        <item
            android:id="@+id/facebook"
            android:title="Facebook"/>

        <item
            android:id="@+id/Twitter"
            android:title="Twitter"/>

        <item
            android:id="@+id/Youtube"
            android:title="Youtube"/>
    </menu>
</item>

And here is your java code:

@Override
public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {

    getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.main, menu);

    return true;

}

@Override
public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item) {

    // Handle action bar actions click

    super.onOptionsItemSelected(item);
    if(item.getItemId() == R.id.facebook){
        Toast.makeText(Getstarted.this, "Option pressed= facebook",Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
    }
    else if(item.getItemId() == R.id.Youtube){
        Toast.makeText(Getstarted.this, "Option pressed= youtube",Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
    }
    else if(item.getItemId() == R.id.Twitter){
        Toast.makeText(Getstarted.this, "Option pressed= twitter",Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
    }
    return true;    

}

Thanks, but android:showAsAction="always" -->app:showAsAction="always" — Arnab, Jun 30 '15 at 10:03

score 0 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:13

0

See these links

http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/173121/Android-Menus-My-Way

http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/ui/actionbar.html#Dropdown

and i suggest you to use actionbarsherlock to create a custom overflow menu

See this answer to know how to create overflow menu item using actionbar sherlock

ActionbarSherlock does not include "overflow" section of Action Bar (on Android 2.1)

edited May 23 '17 at 12:13

Community

1
1

answered Jun 05 '13 at 10:35

Shruti

1
13
55
95

I don't want to use external library or the drop down menu because it is a navigation type and not an overflow menu, and I'm developed for android 4+ – lory105 Jun 21 '13 at 19:11

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Sep 14 '14 at 03:12

You most probably have to remove the setting item in the menu i.e. @+id/action_settings.

If you still want it to be there, just remove it's "showAsActionAttribute" or exchange it to

android:showAsAction="always"

For Item1 and Item2: Add their showAsAction attributes as android:showAsAction="ifRoom|withText"

Hope that helps.

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Sep 28 '14 at 05:08

The best way to do what you want to achieve is to inflate a custom ActionBar .

Do the following steps.

1)Create a XML RelativeLayout

2) Include a menu item and tag inside the XML

3) Inflate the action bar via the ActionBar class.

4) That's it you're done!!

Warning: Don't forget to use the compatibility library!! There are some dependencies in it for the above to work.

score 0 · Answer 5 · edited Oct 07 '14 at 12:43

when click item from actionbar

PopupMenu popup = new PopupMenu(MainActivity.this, v);
popup.getMenuInflater().inflate(
                            R.mymenu xml , popup.getMenu());



mymenu.xml
<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
<item
    android:icon="@android:drawable/ic_menu_agenda"  
    android:title="Item1"
     android:showAsAction="ifRoom" />

<item
    android:icon="@android:drawable/ic_menu_add"  
    android:title="Item2"
    android:showAsAction="ifRoom" />

<item android:id="@+id/pick_action_provider"
    android:icon="@android:drawable/ic_menu_sort_by_size" 
    android:showAsAction="ifRoom"
    android:title="Overflow" >
     <menu>  
        <item android:id="@+id/action_sort_size"  
        android:showAsAction="ifRoom|withText"
              android:icon="@android:drawable/ic_menu_camera"  
              android:title="Item3" />  
        <item android:id="@+id/action_sort_alpha" 
android:showAsAction="ifRoom|withText"      
              android:icon="@android:drawable/ic_menu_sort_alphabetically"  
              android:title="Item4" />  
    </menu>  
</item>

<item
    android:id="@+id/action_settings"
    android:orderInCategory="100"
   android:showAsAction="ifRoom"
    android:title="@string/action_settings"/></menu>

Could you explain why and how this answers the question? What is your code doing? — Ben, Oct 07 '14 at 12:43

score 0 · Answer 6 · edited Oct 17 '14 at 09:47

0

Try using

<item .... <any_damn_name>:showAsAction="ifRoom|withText" />

do not forget to add

<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" xmlns:<any_damn_name>="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"

And try to have separate menus for fragment and global (Settings in Global.xml menu file)

Make sure you inflate both in correct order.

edited Oct 17 '14 at 09:47

Mo.

26,306
36
159
225

answered Oct 17 '14 at 09:23

mr_anderson

3
2

score 0 · Answer 7 · edited Nov 04 '14 at 18:49

menu.xml:

<item android:id="@+id/game"
      android:icon="@drawable/menu_addnew"
      android:title="game"
      android:showAsAction="ifRoom"/>
<item android:id="@+id/help"
      android:icon="@drawable/menu_addnew"
      android:title="help" />

abc.class file makes these changes:

@Override
public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
    MenuInflater inflater = getMenuInflater();
    inflater.inflate(R.menu.game_menu, menu);
    return true;
}

@Override
public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item) {
    // Handle item selection
    switch (item.getItemId()) {
        case R.id.game:
            Game();
            return true;
        case R.id.help:
            Help();
            return true;
        default:
            return super.onOptionsItemSelected(item);
    }
}

See Menus documentation.

score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Dec 02 '14 at 05:52

Create a style for the overflow menu and pass in a content description

<style name="Widget.ActionButton.Overflow" parent="@android:style/Widget.Holo.ActionButton.Overflow">
    <item name="android:contentDescription">@string/accessibility_overflow</item>
</style>

<style name="Your.Theme" parent="@android:style/Theme.Holo.Light.DarkActionBar">
    <item name="android:actionOverflowButtonStyle">@style/Widget.ActionButton.Overflow</item>
</style>

Call ViewGroup.findViewsWithText and pass in your content description. Somewhat like this:

@Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

    // The content description used to locate the overflow button
    final String overflowDesc = getString(R.string.accessibility_overflow);
    // The top-level window
    final ViewGroup decor = (ViewGroup) getWindow().getDecorView();
    // Wait a moment to ensure the overflow button can be located
    decor.postDelayed(new Runnable() {

        @Override
        public void run() {
            // The List that contains the matching views
            final ArrayList<View> outViews = new ArrayList<>();
            // Traverse the view-hierarchy and locate the overflow button
            decor.findViewsWithText(outViews, overflowDesc,
                    View.FIND_VIEWS_WITH_CONTENT_DESCRIPTION);
            // Guard against any errors
            if (outViews.isEmpty()) {
                return;
            }
            // Do something with the view
            final ImageButton overflow = (ImageButton) outViews.get(0);
            overflow.setImageResource(R.drawable.ic_action_overflow);

        }

    }, 1000);
}

@Override
public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
    // Add a dummy item to the overflow menu
    menu.add("Overflow");
    return super.onCreateOptionsMenu(menu);
}

View.findViewsWithText was added in API level 14 only. So please try to do a method by you own as like this:

public static void findViewsWithText(List<View> outViews, ViewGroup parent, String targetDescription) {
    if (parent == null || TextUtils.isEmpty(targetDescription)) {
        return;
    }
    final int count = parent.getChildCount();
    for (int i = 0; i < count; i++) {
        final View child = parent.getChildAt(i);
        final CharSequence desc = child.getContentDescription();
        if (!TextUtils.isEmpty(desc) && targetDescription.equals(desc.toString())) {
            outViews.add(child);
        } else if (child instanceof ViewGroup && child.getVisibility() == View.VISIBLE) {
            findViewsWithText(outViews, (ViewGroup) child, targetDescription);
        }
    }
}

This is not a tested code. So if there any issues while you implemented,please let me know.

is there a way to add a custom Layout in the tag within the menu? not the action view. the expanded "dropdown" part? — filthy_wizard, Apr 17 '19 at 14:28

Android create custom overflow menu item

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