Change options menu during runtime - invalidateOptionsMenu()

Question

I am creating a menu where one of the items is used the lock an object. When this item is clicked, the menu should be recreated with a button to unlock the item. I created t

Answer 1

invalidateOptionsMenu() was added to give us the ability to force onCreateOptionsMenu() to be called again. onPrepareOptionsMenu() is still called every time you call the menu.

What you are trying to achieve above is a good example of when to use invalidateOptionsMenu() but because of backwards compatibility you will need to do both:

if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= 11) {
  invalidateOptionsMenu();
}


@Override
public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu){
    if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= 11) {
        selectMenu(menu);
    }
    return true;
}

@Override
public boolean onPrepareOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
    if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT < 11) {
        selectMenu(menu);
    }
    return true;
}

private void selectMenu(Menu menu) {
    menu.clear();
    MenuInflater inflater = getMenuInflater();

    if (locked) {
        inflater.inflate(R.menu.changing_menu2, menu);
    }
    else {
        inflater.inflate(R.menu.changing_menu1, menu);
    }
}