Android adding a submenu to a menuItem, where is addSubMenu()?

Question

I want to add a submenu inside my OptionsMenu to a menuItem, programatically according to my parameters. I\'ve checked \"MenuItem\" in android sdk and there is no addSubMenu

Answer 1

You should consider use a ActionProvider instead.

public class MyActionProvider extends ActionProvider {

    private Context mContext;

    public MyActionProvider(Context context) {
        super(context);

        mContext = context;
    }

    @Override
    public View onCreateActionView() {
        //LayoutInflater layoutInflater = LayoutInflater.from(mContext);
        return null;
    }

    @Override
    public void onPrepareSubMenu(SubMenu subMenu) {
        super.onPrepareSubMenu(subMenu);

        subMenu.clear();

        subMenu.add("menu 1");
        subMenu.add("menu 2");
        subMenu.add("menu 3");
    }

    @Override
    public boolean hasSubMenu() {
        return true;
    }

    @Override
    public boolean onPerformDefaultAction() {
        return super.onPerformDefaultAction();
    }
}

Answer 2

Here's a complete answer which builds on the idea of using a placeholder but uses mostly xml to add the submenu.

If you have a menu like so called main_menu.xml:

<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
<item android:title="My Menu"
    android:id="@+id/my_menu_item">
    <!-- A empty SubMenu -->
    <menu></menu>
</item>
</menu>

Create another menu sub_menu.xml which will be used in my_menu_item:

<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
  <item android:title="SubMenu One"
    android:id="@+id/submenu_one" />
  <item android:title="SubMenu Two"
    android:id="@+id/submenu_two" />
  <item android:title="SubMenu Three"
    android:id="@+id/submenu_three" />
</menu>

In your onCreateOptionsMenu:

public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
   // Inflate your main_menu into the menu
   getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.main_menu, menu);

   // Find the menuItem to add your SubMenu
   MenuItem myMenuItem = menu.findItem(R.id.my_menu_item);

   // Inflating the sub_menu menu this way, will add its menu items 
   // to the empty SubMenu you created in the xml
   getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.sub_menu, myMenuItem.getSubMenu());

}

This solution is nice since the inflater handles most of the work.