Android action bar options menu item custom selectable background

Question

I'm trying to use the default android action bar with a custom view:

<style name="ActionBar" parent="android:Widget.Material.ActionBar.Solid">
    <item name="android:displayOptions">showCustom</item>
    <item name="android:customNavigationLayout">@layout/customNavigationLayout</item>
</style>

The options menu contains a single item which should always show with text:

<item
    android:id="@+id/action_cancel"
    android:showAsAction="always|withText"
    android:title="@string/action_cancel" />

Now I'm having the issue with the selectable background, which is still the size of an action icon:

How can I setup the action bar to apply a selectable background which fills the whole box of the item?

Eatables

Answer 1

You can try setting the android:actionBarItemBackground attribute in styles, like so:

<style name="AppTheme" parent="android:Theme.Material">
    ...
    <item name="android:actionBarItemBackground">?android:selectableItemBackground</item>
</style>

Isabelisabelita

Answer 2

Use one of the following solutions:

Solution 1:

Add <item name="actionButtonStyle">@style/ActionButtonStyle</item> to your base application theme with for exmaple:

<style name="ActionButtonStyle" parent="android:Widget.Material.Button">
            <item name="android:textColor">@android:color/black</item>
            <item name="android:textSize">16sp</item>
            <item name="android:background">@drawable/button_background</item>
</style>

and

button_background

<selector xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <item android:state_pressed="true"
            android:drawable="@color/colorAccent"/>
    <item android:state_focused="true"
            android:drawable="@color/colorPrimaryDark"/>
    <item android:drawable="@color/colorPrimary"/>
</selector>

Solution 2:

Use menuItem.setActionView to apply a custom layout to your menu item as follows:

layout_action_cancel (custom menu item layout):

<Button
        xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:text="Cancel"
        android:id="@+id/b_action_cancel"
        android:gravity="center"
        android:background="@drawable/button_background">
</Button>

Then in your onCreateOptionsMenu apply the custom Layout to the menu item:

@Override
    public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
        MenuInflater menuInflater = getMenuInflater();
        menuInflater.inflate(R.menu.menu, menu);
        LayoutInflater layoutInflater = getLayoutInflater();
        View layout = layoutInflater.inflate(R.layout.layout_action_cancel, null, false);
        menu.getItem(0).setActionView(layout);
        return super.onCreateOptionsMenu(menu);
    }

and in onPrepareOptionsMenu set an OnClick Listener (replacing the onOptionsItemSelected)

@Override
    public boolean onPrepareOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
        View layout = menu.getItem(0).getActionView();
        if(layout instanceof Button){
            Button b_action_cancel = layout.findViewById(R.id.b_action_cancel);
            b_action_cancel.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
                @Override
                public void onClick(View view) {
                    //your code
                }
            });
        }
        return super.onPrepareOptionsMenu(menu);
    }

Spleenful

I guess this will work. It looks nice on this end. But I really don't want to configure that much just for a menu item. I'd assume it's possible without a big hassle, just with some theme attributes maybe. – Eatables

Answer 3

You can try applying drawable withe selected and normal state at menu item property :

<item
    android:id="@+id/action_cancel"
    android:showAsAction="always|withText"
    android:title="@string/action_cancel" 
    android:icon="@drawable/mybuttonbackground" />

Byelection

The icon will replace the text or show at the start of it. The text or its background is unaffected by it. So sadly this doen't work for me. – Eatables