How to set two custom actionbar button in left and right in android?

Question

I am Using Sherlock library and i also implement with myself. My problem is that i added two items in menu, now i want 1 item in left of actionbar and second in right of act

Answer 1

Additionally to Tomik's answer. You need to add

ab.setDisplayShowCustomEnabled(true);

in onCreate method, otherwise custom view does not appear (at least for me).

Answer 2

You can create such action bar, but it's little more complicated than inflating a menu. Menu created in onCreateOptionsMenu() method will be always aligned to right, placed in split action bar or hidden under the menu key.

If you want your action bar to contain just two menu items - one on the left edge and the other on the right edge - you have to create custom view in the action bar.

The custom view layout will be something like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
                android:layout_width="fill_parent"
                android:layout_height="fill_parent">
    <ImageButton android:src="@drawable/ic_menu_item1"
                 android:background="?attr/actionBarItemBackground"
                 android:layout_width="?attr/actionBarSize"
                 android:layout_height="match_parent"
                 android:scaleType="centerInside"
                 android:id="@+id/item1"
                 android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"
                 android:layout_alignParentTop="true"/>

    <ImageButton android:src="@drawable/ic_menu_item2"
                 android:background="?attr/actionBarItemBackground"
                 android:layout_width="?attr/actionBarSize"
                 android:layout_height="match_parent"
                 android:scaleType="centerInside"
                 android:id="@+id/item2"
                 android:layout_alignParentRight="true"
                 android:layout_alignParentTop="true"/>
</RelativeLayout>

Define in the theme that you want to use custom view. The theme should contain:

<style name="MyTheme" parent="@style/Theme.Sherlock">
    <item name="actionBarStyle">@style/MyActionBarStyle</item>
    <item name="android:actionBarStyle">@style/MyActionBarStyle</item>
</style>

<style name="MyActionBarStyle" parent="@style/Widget.Sherlock.ActionBar">
    <item name="displayOptions">showCustom</item>
    <item name="android:displayOptions">showCustom</item>
</style>

Set the custom view in the activity (or fragment):

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

    ActionBar ab = getSherlock().getActionBar();
    LayoutInflater li = LayoutInflater.from(this);
    View customView = li.inflate(R.layout.my_custom_view, null);
    ab.setCustomView(customView);

    ImageButton ibItem1 = (ImageButton) customView.findViewById(R.id.item1);
    ibItem1.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
        @Override
        public void onClick(View view) {
            // ...
        }
    });

    ImageButton ibItem2 = (ImageButton) customView.findViewById(R.id.item2);
    ibItem2.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
        @Override
        public void onClick(View view) {
            // ...
        }
    });
}

You have to add the click listeners for the menu items. You cannot use onOptionsItemSelected() in this case.