Action buttons doesn't show up on Action Bar? [duplicate]

Question

I am following the tutorial on developer.android.com and trying to add items on action bar.

Although i added all the code the search action shows as an overflow element instead of an action button element. I tried on 4" and 7" virtual devices with soft keyboard option.

Here is the

main_activity_actions.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" >
<!-- Search, should appear as action button -->
<item android:id="@+id/action_search"
    android:icon="@drawable/ic_action_search"
    android:title="@string/action_search"
    android:showAsAction="ifRoom" />
<!-- Settings, should always be in the overflow -->
<item android:id="@+id/action_settings"
    android:title="@string/action_settings"
    android:showAsAction="never" />
</menu>

Here is the MainActivity.java 's onCreateOptionsMenu method.

 @Override
    public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {

        // Inflate the menu; this adds items to the action bar if it is present.
        getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.main_activity_actions, menu);
        return super.onCreateOptionsMenu(menu);
    }

I want to learn what causes this problem.

Latimer

Could you provide a screen shot with the overflow visible? – Hyp

This doesn't seem like a duplicate of that question... – Kittie

Answer 1

This is because if you use the support AppCompat ActionBar library and ActionBarActivity you should create your menus in a different than the standard way of creating xml menus in ActioBarSherlock or the default ActionBar.

So try this code :

<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" 
      xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto">
      <item android:id="@+id/action_search"
          android:icon="@drawable/ic_action_search"
          android:title="@string/action_search"
          app:showAsAction="always"  />
      <item android:id="@+id/action_compose"
          android:icon="@drawable/ic_action_compose"
          android:title="@string/action_compose" 
          app:showAsAction="always"/>
</menu>

Balmoral

For anyone else with this same problem the 'xmlns' namespaces at the top of the xml definition are important. – Beachcomber

@Beachcomber - why those are important ?? – Rostov

@Rostov - As in it wouldn't work for me without those declarations. Perhaps obvious to someone else but at the time it wasn't to me. – Beachcomber

Thanks, this line [xmlns:app="schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"] works for me. – Rostov

@Rostov The namespace declaration must be written in order to achieve Support Library compatibility which is used for older API levels. Read more here: Support Library – Weighin

@Balmoral G : Your knowledge just saved my day... Thanks a ton !!! – Untried

For me it just display 2 icons =( i need more, even doing all this "tricks" – Troupe

@Muthuraja, i have the same code but the action button isn't showing in the actionbar?? – Pigweed

Answer 2

Though the issue is resolved, let me post an answer with more information, may be found helpful by anyone later.

Now, the issue is you have used android:showAsAction="ifRoom" and android:showAsAction="never", instead if you would want to make action button always visible then use android:showAsAction="always"

FYI, android:showAsAction can take either of any values:

android:showAsAction=["ifRoom" | "never" | "withText" | "always" | "collapseActionView"]

You can read more about Menu Resource

Try