Show menu items in action bar

Menu items are showing on action BAR

Android action bar was used to maintain a consistent navigation across the application. Menu list button show on action bar.

Screen shot

Android - Navigation

Overview of Action Bar

Action bar mainly contains four functional areas. They are app icon, view control, action buttons and action overflow.
App Icon – App branding logo or icon will be displayed here.
View Control – A dedicated space to display app title. Also provides option to switch between views by adding spinner or tabbed navigation.
Action Buttons – Some important actions of the app can be added here.
Action Overflow – All unimportant action will be shown as a menu.

Here the important xml attributes should be known are

android:icon – Defines the icon of the action item.
android:title – Title for the icon.
android:showAsAction – Defines the visibility of the action item. It accepts following values.

ifRoom	Displays the icon if there is space available on the screen
never	Never places this icon on the action bar
always	Forces to display the icon always irrespective of space available. This way is not suggested.
withText	Displays a text along with the icon. Normally the text value defined by android:title will be displayed
collapseActionView	Defines the action layout associated with it. This action view defined usingandroid:actionLayout or android:actionViewClass

Example

Add menu title set as res/values/strings.xml


<resources>

    ....
    <string name="entries">ENTRIES</string>
    <string name="entrieslist">ENTRIES LIST</string>
    <string name="salesreport">SALES REPORT</string>
    <string name="logout">LOGOUT</string>


</resources>

Create a new xml file under res ⇒ menu named main_actions.xml and add the following code. 

Here each <item> indicates each action item.

<?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/entries"
        android:title="@string/entries"
        app:showAsAction="never"
        />

    <item
        android:id="@+id/entrieslist"
        android:title="@string/entrieslist"
        app:showAsAction="never"
        />

    <item
        android:id="@+id/salesreport"
        android:title="@string/salesreport"
        app:showAsAction="never"
        />

    <item
        android:id="@+id/logout"
        android:title="@string/logout"
        app:showAsAction="never"
        />
</menu>


Now open your main activity class and do the following in onCreateOptionsMenu() method.


public class RptsalesreportActivity extends AppCompatActivity {


    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_rptsalesreport);

         ...............
    } 


    @Override
    public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
        MenuInflater inflater = getMenuInflater();
        inflater.inflate(R.menu.main_actions, menu);

        return super.onCreateOptionsMenu(menu);
    }


    @Override
    public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item) {

         switch (item.getItemId()) {
        case R.id.entries:
            // code here
            return true;
        case R.id.entrieslist:
            //code here
            return true;
        case R.id.salesreport:
            //code here
            return true;
        case R.id.logout:
            //code here
            return true;      
        default:
            return super.onOptionsItemSelected(item);
        }
        
    }


}

Handling Action Bar Icon Click Events

Open your main activity and override onOptionsItemSelected() method. This method accepts menu item as a parameter. Selected action item can be identified by using it’s id. 

Related Links

Event Handling in Android

Transfer Data Between Activities Using Intent
Android Programming Tips

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