How to add a Dropdown item on the action bar

Question

In my Android Honeycomb application I use Tabs as the navigation style. I would like to add one item next to the overflow button, but I want that item to be a dropdown list, and the user will be able to select an option there, but not related to navigation. What is the easiest way since I'm using mActionBar.setNavigationMode(ActionBar.NAVIGATION_MODE_TABS);

Is it possible to do it without using a custom view?

Check the 4 link : These links help for you http://fizzylogic.azurewebsites.net/2012/03/05/mono-for-android-by-example-the-action-bar/ https://github.com/StylingAndroid/StylingActionBar https://github.com/StylingAndroid/BasicActionBar — Kumar, Oct 11 '12 at 11:00

score 223 · Accepted Answer · edited Jan 14 '13 at 13:52

223

First option:

menu/options.xml:

<item
    android:icon="@drawable/ic_menu_sort"
    android:showAsAction="ifRoom">
    <menu>
        <item
            android:id="@+id/menuSortNewest"
            android:title="Sort by newest" />
        <item
            android:id="@+id/menuSortRating"
            android:title="Sort by rating" />
    </menu>
</item>

Second option:

menu/options.xml:

<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <item
        android:id="@+id/menuSort"
        android:showAsAction="ifRoom"
        android:actionLayout="@layout/action_sort"  />
</menu>

layout/action_sort.xml:

<Spinner xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:background="@drawable/ic_menu_refresh"
    android:entries="@array/order" />

Docs for menu resources - http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/resources/menu-resource.html

edited Jan 14 '13 at 13:52

gregm

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answered Nov 29 '11 at 15:03

fhucho

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Great answer! Btw., you can also include icons in the submenu. – Valentin Despa Dec 08 '12 at 11:02
7

how do I respond to a click of the spinner? – gregm Jan 14 '13 at 14:47
2

This does not work for Android 2.2. The app is crashing. Do you have a solution? – tobias Mar 31 '13 at 09:16
3

Use ActionBarSherlock...they hadn't introduced ActionBar back in Android 2.2 and therefore ActionBarSherlock allows you to back date these features. http://actionbarsherlock.com/ – edwoollard Jul 04 '13 at 20:18
Is it possible to set customLayout and Submenu at the same time, Im trying it for long time – Thamilan S Oct 30 '13 at 01:23
what happen if you are in tab navigation mode? – Shihab Uddin Jun 05 '14 at 17:07
what is '@array/order' this here and what we can add? – Shailendra Madda Oct 29 '14 at 12:10
Thank you very much,Working fine, But my question is how to handle OnItemSelectedListener for this spinner? – sandeepmaaram Nov 29 '14 at 15:47
4

@Sandeep Maram You can get spinner by `Spinner spinner = (Spinner)menu.findItem(R.id.menuPeriodType).getActionView()` in `onCreateOptionsMenu()`. Then set the item select listener. – Lahiru Chandima Jan 08 '15 at 07:02
The first option doesn't seem to work as of Android 7.0. – CoderSpinoza Nov 23 '17 at 08:18

Alen Siljak · Answer 2 · 2017-11-08T09:04:27.250

Absolutely the best and and the simplest answer I found so far is here.

Basically, no need for custom layout in this case. Just set the actonViewClass:

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

  <item android:id="@+id/spinner"
    yourapp:showAsAction="ifRoom"
    yourapp:actionViewClass="android.widget.Spinner" /> <== this is all that's required
</menu>

And then handle it in onCreateOptionsMenu, as usual:

@Override
public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
    getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.menu_layout, menu);
    MenuItem item = menu.findItem(R.id.spinner);
    Spinner spinner = (Spinner) MenuItemCompat.getActionView(item); // get the spinner
    spinner.setAdapter(adapter); 
    spinner.setOnItemSelectedListener(onItemSelectedListener);

This is by far the simplest and cleanest solution. Credits to François Poyer, the original author.

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 28 '16 at 06:57

It will work as dropdown only

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto">
    <!--<item-->
    <!--android:id="@+id/save_contact"-->
    <!--android:icon="@drawable/edit_new"-->
    <!--android:title="Save Contact"-->
    <!--app:showAsAction="never" />-->

    <item
        android:id="@+id/send_money"
        android:icon="@drawable/edit_new"
        android:title="Send Money"
        app:showAsAction="never" />

    <item
        android:id="@+id/request_money"
        android:icon="@drawable/edit_new"
        android:title="Request money"
        app:showAsAction="never" />

    <item
        android:id="@+id/recharge"
        android:icon="@drawable/edit_new"
        android:title="Recharge"
        app:showAsAction="never" />
</menu>

inside fragment

setHasOptionsMenu(true)

@Override
public void onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu, MenuInflater inflater) {
    inflater.inflate(R.menu.chat_details_menu, menu);


    super.onCreateOptionsMenu(menu, inflater);
}

How to add a Dropdown item on the action bar

3 Answers3

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