Menus in Android

Menus is a most important part of android application.menu are use for handle common features of activity.
In this tutorial we will learn about how to create menu in application with simple ways.

Type of Menu:-there are two type of menu in android 

1. Option menu
2. Context menu

1) Options menu

Now we will learn to create option menu with simple step.

1.Now first Create a folder named menu inside your project res directory.Now let us add a new xml file named menu_item.xml file 

2.add item in menu_item.xml.

<?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">

<!-- this is first for Search item-->

<item

        android:id="@+id/action_search1"

        android:title="Profile"

        android:orderInCategory="100"

        android:icon="@android:drawable/ic_menu_search"

        app:showAsAction="ifRoom" />

    <!-- this is use for Search item-->

    <item

        android:id="@+id/action_search"

        android:icon="@android:drawable/ic_menu_search"

        app:showAsAction="always"

        app:actionViewClass="android.support.v7.widget.SearchView"

        android:title="Search"/>

   <!-- this is use for setting option-->

    <item

        android:id="@+id/action_settings"

        android:title="@string/action_settings"

        android:orderInCategory="100"

        app:showAsAction="never" />

</menu>

3.Now we will implement the onCreateOptionsMenu() method  in Activity class and inflate the menu items created in the menu_item.xml. We will also override method OnOptionsItemSelected  for handle the events when user presses the menu option in android.

 @Override

    public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {

        // Inflate the menu; this adds items to the action bar if it is present.

        getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.home, menu);

        return true;

    }

    @Override

    public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item) {

        // Handle action bar item clicks here. The action bar will

        // automatically handle clicks on the Home/Up button, so long

        // as you specify a parent activity in AndroidManifest.xml.

        int id = item.getItemId();

        //noinspection SimplifiableIfStatement

        if (id == R.id.action_settings) {

            return true;

        }

        if(id == R.id.action_search){

       Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(), "Search action is  selected!" ,                                                   Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();

            return true;

        }

        return super.onOptionsItemSelected(item);

    }

1.output screen for three type menu item .

menu item 1 : this is SearchView item and it's :showAsAction="always" it mean this is always show on ActionBar.

menu item2 : this is TextView item and it's showAsAction="ifRoom" it mean this is show in ActionBar if space available on ActionBar otherwise it will open with menu item list as show on image like other menu(three dot).

other menu : this is contain all other menu like howAsAction="never properties menu item as well as showAsAction="ifRoom" item if no space on ActionBar.

2) Context menu

Now we will talk about to create option menu with simple step.

Context Menu is also useful part of application.When we want to open menu in long press of any view class and subClass of android.Context Menu appears when user long press on a View like ListView, GridView etc.

You must to register each view whenever  you want to associated with the context menu.

like this;-

   registerForContextMenu(lv); // lv is a List View

Lets take a exampke.

package com.example.contextmenuapp;

import java.util.ArrayList;

import android.app.ListActivity;

import android.graphics.Color;

import android.os.Bundle;

import android.view.ContextMenu;

import android.view.MenuItem;

import android.view.View;

import android.view.ContextMenu.ContextMenuInfo;

import android.widget.ArrayAdapter;

import android.widget.ListView;

import android.widget.TextView;

import android.widget.AdapterView.AdapterContextMenuInfo;

public class StudentActivity extends ListActivity

{

ListView lv;

ArrayList<String> list;

ArrayAdapter<String> adp;

@Override

protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {

lv = getListView();

list = new ArrayList<String>();

list.add("Dheeraj");

list.add("Manish");

list.add("Rohan");

list.add("Prakhar");

list.add("Pranav");

adp = new ArrayAdapter<String>(this,android.R.layout.simple_list_item_1,list);

lv.setAdapter(adp);

registerForContextMenu(lv);

super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

  }

  @Override

public void onCreateContextMenu(ContextMenu menu, View v,

ContextMenuInfo menuInfo) 

 {

      menu.add(0,1,0,"Red");

      menu.add(0,2,0,"Green");

      menu.add(0,3,0,"Blue");

 super.onCreateContextMenu(menu, v, menuInfo);

 }

    @Override

    public boolean onContextItemSelected(MenuItem item) 

    {

        int id = item.getItemId();

        AdapterContextMenuInfo minf = (AdapterContextMenuInfo) item.getMenuInfo();

        

            TextView tv = (TextView) minf.targetView;

       switch(id)

 {

 case 1:

 tv.setTextColor(Color.RED);

 break;

 case 2:

 tv.setTextColor(Color.GREEN);

 break;

 case 3:

 tv.setTextColor(Color.BLUE);

 break;

 }

     return super.onContextItemSelected(item);

    }

}

Your screen something like this:- 

after long press on list item 

Thanks You