Checkbox on left of an item in NavigationView

Question

I'm using the design support library's NavigationView, and in the menu it uses I have included the following:

<item android:title="Check The CheckBox"
      app:actionViewClass="android.support.v7.widget.AppCompatCheckBox"/>

Which solved half my problem as now I had a checkbox, however I wished to to have the CheckBox appear where usually the icon is placed, much like how it is done in the Google Calendar app with the list of calendars

Answer 1

Menu items have a checkable attribute.

<item android:title="Check The CheckBox"
    android:checkable="true"/>

You can also <group> several checkable items together.

<group android:checkableBehavior="all">
    <item android:title="Check The CheckBox"/>
</group>

Answer 2

In order to have your CheckBox appear on the left of your menu items your best bet is to set the icon of your menu items as a checked or unchecked image (depending on the checked state of your menu items). I've just had a look at the Google Calendar app and this is what it appears to be doing. Also, the Android Menus documentation alludes to this:

Note: Menu items in the Icon Menu (from the options menu) cannot display a checkbox or radio button. If you choose to make items in the Icon Menu checkable, you must manually indicate the checked state by swapping the icon and/or text each time the state changes.