How to add a RelativeLayout as menu item - Android

Question

I have an XML for menu with an item and a group . I intend to add a RelativeLayout as a menu item in the XML, so that it looks like:

<menu>
    <item1/>
    <item2
         <RelativeLayout>
               <TextView1/>
               <TextView2/>
         <RelativeLayout>
    />
</menu>

Can this be accomplish in the Layout XML, or programmatically? If not, a work around would be helpful. Thanks.

Answer 1

Create a layout file with a view you want and then use it like this -

<item
    android:id="@+id/menu_refresh"
    android:title="@string/refresh"
    yourapp:showAsAction="never"
    android:actionLayout="@layout/my_custom_layout"/>

To edit your text view -

@Override
public boolean onPrepareOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {

    //Get a reference to your item by id
    MenuItem item = menu.findItem(R.id.menu_refresh);

    //Here, you get access to the view of your item, in this case, the layout of the item has a RelativeLayout as root view but you can change it to whatever you use
    RelativeLayout rootView = (RelativeLayout)item.getActionView();

    //Then you access to your control by finding it in the rootView
    TextView textview1 = (TextView) rootView.findViewById(R.id.text1);

    //And from here you can do whatever you want with your text view

    return true;
}

Answer 2

Important Point :

To use Relativelayout or any Other Layout you have to use actionLayout as @Jack's retarded code Answer. But Keep in mind that.

android:actionLayout="@layout/my_custom_layout" is not work you have to use app:actionLayout="@layout/my_custom_layout"

Because If you're using ActionbarSherlock or AppCompat , the android: namespace will not work for MenuItems . This is because these libraries use custom attributes that mimic the Android APIs since they did not exist in earlier versions of the framework.

Answer 3

You can't put it in the menu.xml directly, you have to use the android:actionLayout attribute.

It works like this:

menu.xml

<menu>
    <item ... android:actionLayout="@layout/custom_layout"/>
</menu>

custom_layout.xml

<RelativeLayout ...>
    <TextView .../>
    <TextView .../>
<RelativeLayout>