How can I refresh the ActionBar when onPrepareOptionsMenu switched menu entries?

Question

Within my apps I often enable/disable menu entries and do make them visible from onPrepareOptionsMenu.

Today I started to add the android:showAsAction menu attribute

Answer 1

My method of choice is to create a helper class. For example:

class VersionHelper
{
    static void refreshActionBarMenu(Activity activity)
    {
        activity.invalidateOptionsMenu();
    }
}

Now in your code above, replace invalidateOptionsMenu(); with:

if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= 11)
{
    VersionHelper.refreshActionBarMenu(this);
}

Credit for this method goes to CommonsWare (search for HoneycombHelper, and check out his books - highly recommended)

Answer 2

Thanks to the accepted answer. I am using ActionBarActivity. in this class you can use

supportInvalidateOptionsMenu();

Answer 3

getActivity().invalidateOptionsMenu();

gets the job done.

Answer 4

Also make sure you are not calling

myAppCompatActivity.setToolbarTitle("some dynamic title");

shortly after you have refreshed your menu.

I had the issue that the drawables would not show up even if there was room for them to be displayed. Once I did an orientation change the drawables then appeared.. ?

In Summary:

MainActivity:

public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {

    private boolean showMenu = true;

    public void setShowMenu(boolean show) {
        showMenu = show;
        supportInvalidateOptionsMenu();
    }

    @Override
    public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
        getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.my_menu, menu);
        menu.findItem(R.id.menu_share).setVisible(showMenu);
        // menu.findItem(...
        return true;
    }
}

FragmentNoMenu:

public abstract class FragmentNoMenu extends Fragment {

    protected MainActivity mainActivity;

    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setHasOptionsMenu(true);
        mainActivity = (MainActivity) getActivity();
        if (mainActivity != null) {
            mainActivity.setShowMenu(false);
        }
    }

}

FragmentWithMenu:

public abstract class FragmentWithMenu extends Fragment {

    protected MainActivity mainActivity;

    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setHasOptionsMenu(true);
        mainActivity = (MainActivity) getActivity();
        if (mainActivity != null) {
            mainActivity.setShowMenu(true);
        }
    }

}

Answer 5

Kudos to @Klaasvaak for showing us the way here. I use the following which works on both pre- and post- API Level 11:

private void invalidOptionsMenuHelper() {
    if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= 11) {
        invalidateOptionsMenu();

    } else if (mOptionsMenu != null) {
        mOptionsMenu.clear();
        onCreateOptionsMenu(mOptionsMenu);
    }
}

Of course, you must save a reference to the menu (mOptionsMenu in this case) which I accomplish via:

@Override
public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
    mOptionsMenu = menu;

    //... create and manage the menu normally
}

Answer 6

I am not sure you have seen it already, but if you use the actionbar extensively, and plan on supporting lower API's (>8), take a look at the actionBarSherlock library. It will make it so you do not have to section your actionBar code for lower and Higher API's, and then you can just run:

runOnUiThread(new Runnable(){
  @Override
  public void run(){
    supportInvalidateOptionsMenu();
  }
});