Manually inflating custom view yields different layouts for ActionBar custom view

Question

Custom view from resource:

// Set up the action bar.
final ActionBar actionBar = getActionBar();
actionBar.setNavigationMode(ActionBar.NAVIGATION_MODE_STANDARD);
actionBar.setCustomView(R.layout.custom_action_bar);
actionBar.setDisplayOptions(ActionBar.DISPLAY_SHOW_CUSTOM);

the result is:
enter image description here

Custom view manually inflated:

// Set up the action bar.
final ActionBar actionBar = getActionBar();
actionBar.setNavigationMode(ActionBar.NAVIGATION_MODE_STANDARD);
LayoutInflater inflater = (LayoutInflater) this .getSystemService(Context.LAYOUT_INFLATER_SERVICE);
View view = inflater.inflate(R.layout.custom_action_bar, null);
actionBar.setCustomView(view);
actionBar.setDisplayOptions(ActionBar.DISPLAY_SHOW_CUSTOM);

the result is:
enter image description here

custom_action_bar.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:orientation="horizontal" 
    android:weightSum="3">

    <TextView 
        android:id="@+id/bar_title1"
        android:layout_width="0dp"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_weight="1"
        android:textColor="@color/White"
        android:text="title1"/>
    <TextView 
        android:id="@+id/bar_title2"
        android:layout_width="0dp"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_weight="1"
        android:textColor="@color/White"
        android:text="title2"/>
    <TextView 
        android:id="@+id/bar_title3"
        android:layout_width="0dp"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_weight="1"
        android:textColor="@color/White"
        android:text="title3"/>

</LinearLayout>

The first layout shown here is the correct one, because it has weights on its widgets. The second attempt should produce the same result, but it does not.

can you change in custom_action_bar.xml i have chnaged android:layout_width = fill_parent and removed android:weightSum=3 Can you share the result if it works for you ? — Roll no1, Jul 08 '13 at 08:25
@Rollno1 I tried it. Your solution works, the `fill_parent` part is not needed (`fill_parent` is equivalent to `match_parent`). Removing the `weightsum` attribute does the trick. — ilomambo, Jul 08 '13 at 08:30

score 13 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 08 '13 at 08:20

13

Actually, the issue here is that in second case ActionBar needs additonal layout parameters:

    final ActionBar actionBar = getActionBar();
    actionBar.setNavigationMode(ActionBar.NAVIGATION_MODE_STANDARD);
    LayoutInflater inflater = (LayoutInflater) this.getSystemService(Context.LAYOUT_INFLATER_SERVICE);
    View view = inflater.inflate(R.layout.custom_action_bar, null);
    actionBar.setCustomView(view, new ActionBar.LayoutParams(ViewGroup.LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT, ViewGroup.LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT));
    actionBar.setDisplayOptions(ActionBar.DISPLAY_SHOW_CUSTOM);

So, it covers all ActionBar area. Looks like by default WRAP_CONTENT llayout parameters get applied to custom view.

answered Jul 08 '13 at 08:20

sandrstar

12,503
8
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Interesting. I tried your code and you are right. Even though the custom layout has `match_parent` already defined for width and height. – ilomambo Jul 08 '13 at 08:24
Right, but in order to be applied parent ViewGroup should be passed to inflate(). Actually, ActionBarImpl uses internal ViewGroup during inflation in method setCustomView(int resId) - e.g. setCustomView(LayoutInflater.from(getThemedContext()).inflate(resId, mActionView, false)); – sandrstar Jul 08 '13 at 08:39
I was getting absolutely crazy to match all the space with my custon action bar. Finally I did it adding the LayoutParams as sandrstar said. – rolgalan Nov 18 '14 at 11:40

score 9 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 03 '14 at 22:57

9

Another options is to let the ActionBar do the work for you (in this case I'm showing how to do it with the support version).

// Set your custom view
getSupportActionBar().setCustomView(R.layout.custom_action_bar);

// Get the inflated view
View view = getSupportActionBar().getCustomView();

// Do what you want with the view (set the title, custom font etc.)
TextView actionBarTitle = (TextView) view.findViewById(R.id.action_bar_title);
...

// set the custom flag
getSupportActionBar().setDisplayOptions(ActionBar.DISPLAY_SHOW_CUSTOM)

answered Feb 03 '14 at 22:57

petrocket

1,458
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3

Smart move Mr.! IMHO this should be the accepted answer. Using Layout Inflater with a 'null' as the root view is the 'root of all evil' for many layout problems as layout_* params that are parent related are ignored upon inflation. – Maciej Pigulski Jul 08 '14 at 09:35
Great answer! Solved my layout problem immediately. – Matthias Robbers Oct 18 '14 at 16:30
@MaciejPigulski 'null' in root is not root-cause, root-cause is in missed understanding of why 'root' is needed in the first place, Only way to fix it - RTFM. – sandrstar Jan 31 '15 at 10:54
@sandrstar, thanks for your valuable insight, especially for the RTFM part, so helpful! – Maciej Pigulski Feb 02 '15 at 12:01

Manually inflating custom view yields different layouts for ActionBar custom view

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