Android setting custom actionbar

Question

In my project i would to set a custom actionBar (with a custom layout) after a specific action. I have this simple Activity:

import android.os.Bundle;
import android.support.v7.app.ActionBarActivity;
import android.view.Menu;
import android.view.MenuItem;


public class MainActivity2 extends ActionBarActivity {

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.activity_main_activity2);
}


@Override
public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
    // Inflate the menu; this adds items to the action bar if it is present.
    getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.menu_main_activity2, menu);
    return true;
}

@Override
public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item) {
    switch (item.getItemId()) {
        case R.id.action_settings:
            //apriImpostazioni ();
            return true;
        case R.id.information_item:
            //apriInformazioni ();
            return true;
        case R.id.search_item:
            apriBarraRicerca ();
            System.out.println ("IL BOTTONE RICERCA E' PREMUTO");
            return true;
        default:
            return super.onOptionsItemSelected(item);
    }
}

private void apriBarraRicerca () {
    getActionBar ().setCustomView(getLayoutInflater().inflate(R.layout.search_layout, null));
}

}

Where "menu_main_activity2" is this xml:

<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
tools:context="zipangulu.myapplication.MainActivity2">
<item android:id="@+id/action_settings"    android:title="@string/action_settings"
    android:orderInCategory="100" app:showAsAction="never" />
<item android:id="@+id/information_item"
    android:title="Info"
    android:icon="@drawable/info"
    android:orderInCategory="100"
    app:showAsAction="always"/>
<item android:id="@+id/search_item"
    android:title="Search"
    android:icon="@drawable/search_icon"
    android:orderInCategory="100"
    app:showAsAction="always"/>
</menu>

I would, pressing the search_item on the main actionbar, set a custom actionBar whith this layout:

<?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="wrap_content"
android:background="#4584d3">

<ImageButton
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:id="@+id/back_button"
    android:background="@null"
    android:src="@drawable/back_icon"/>

<AutoCompleteTextView
    android:layout_width="0dp"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:layout_weight="6"
    android:id="@+id/campo_ricerca"/>

<Spinner
    android:layout_width="0dp"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:layout_weight="2"
    android:spinnerMode="dropdown"
    android:id="@+id/spinner_anno"/>

<ImageButton
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:src="@drawable/search_icon"
    android:id="@+id/avvia_ricerca"/>

</LinearLayout>

But at runtime I have a NullPointerException in the body of "apriBarraRicerca" method..why?How can I fix this problem?

EDIT: as suggested I replaced "getActionBar ()" with "getSupportActionBar ()", now I don't have any exception but nothing happens.

EDIT2: I added getSupportActionBar().setDisplayShowCustomEnabled(true); and now my custom actionbar is visible but not as i want, look at the following image: http://bit.ly/1Dc2kGg The bar is visible but cutted, and are visible also the items of the previous actionBar..

Answer 1

You can try do the same thing with the android.support.v7.widget.ToolBar

Your Layout which you can populate as you desire:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:background="#688A08"
        android:layout_height="?attr/actionBarSize">
</android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar>

You have to modify the values->styles.xml:

<resources>
    <style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.NoActionBar">
    </style>
</resources>

And the in the onCreate() method you do the following:

Toolbar tb = (Toolbar)findViewById(R.id.top_bar);
if(tb != null){
    setSupportActionBar(tb);
}

Hope it helps!!!