Android ActionBar - Push custom view to bottom of screen

Question

I\'ve got a split ActionBar, and I\'m trying to add functionality almost identical to google play\'s \'Now playing\'..

I can get menu items to appear at the bottom of th

Answer 1

So I managed to find a dirty solution to this.. Well, dirty in my amateurish opinion..

In the oncreateOptionsMenu, I've inflated a menu called option_menu like so:

@Override
public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
        new MenuInflater(this).inflate(R.menu.option_menu, menu);

And in the xml for that option_menu item, I've implemented an actionViewClass, and in this case I've used relative layout (I'm guessing I could've just used View..?):

<item
    android:id="@+id/layout_item"
    android:actionViewClass="android.widget.RelativeLayout"
    android:showAsAction="always|withText"
    android:title="Text 1"/>

</menu>

So then I inflated an xml layout, and added it to the layout_item defined in my menu:

    @Override
    public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
        new MenuInflater(this).inflate(R.menu.option_menu, menu);
        relativeLayout = (RelativeLayout) menu.findItem(R.id.layout_item)
                .getActionView();

        View inflatedView = getLayoutInflater().inflate(R.layout.now_playing,
                null);

        relativeLayout.addView(inflatedView);

        return (super.onCreateOptionsMenu(menu));
    }

Please feel free to edit/enhance this answer as you see fit.

Answer 2

I've done a solution based on yours, including custom layout on top + custom layout on bottom + title/subtitle + home icon. Here is the code:

public class SplitABActivity extends Activity{
@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

    ActionBar ab = getActionBar();
    ab.setTitle("Action Bar Title");
    ab.setSubtitle("Action Bar Subtitle");
    ab.setDisplayShowHomeEnabled(true);

    LayoutInflater inflater = (LayoutInflater) getSystemService(Activity.LAYOUT_INFLATER_SERVICE);
    RelativeLayout layout = (RelativeLayout) inflater.inflate(R.layout.ab_custom_layout, null);
    ab.setCustomView(layout);
    ab.setSplitBackgroundDrawable(new ColorDrawable(Color.BLUE));
    ab.setDisplayOptions(ActionBar.DISPLAY_SHOW_CUSTOM  | ActionBar.DISPLAY_SHOW_HOME | ActionBar.DISPLAY_SHOW_TITLE);
}

@Override
public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
    MenuInflater inflater = getMenuInflater();
    inflater.inflate(R.menu.menu_including_layout, menu);
    RelativeLayout layout = (RelativeLayout) menu.findItem(R.id.layout_item).getActionView();
    View v = getLayoutInflater().inflate(R.layout.ab_bottom_layout, null);
    layout.addView(v); 

    return super.onCreateOptionsMenu(menu);
}
}

ab_custom_layout.xml

<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:gravity="right"
    >
   <TextView android:id="@+id/element1" 
       android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content"
       android:textColor="#fff"
       android:background="#ff0000"
       android:text="Element 1"/>

   <TextView
       android:id="@+id/element2" 
        android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:textColor="#000"
        android:background="#f0f0f0"
        android:layout_toRightOf="@+id/element1"
       android:text="Element 2"/>

</RelativeLayout>

menu_including_layout.xml

<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" >

<item android:id="@+id/action1"
    android:title="Action 1"
      android:icon="@android:drawable/ic_dialog_alert"
      android:showAsAction="ifRoom" />

<item android:id="@+id/action2"
    android:title="Action 2"
      android:icon="@android:drawable/ic_dialog_info"
      android:showAsAction="ifRoom" />

<item
android:id="@+id/layout_item"
android:actionViewClass="android.widget.RelativeLayout"
android:showAsAction="always|withText"
android:title="Layout Item"/>
 </menu>

ab_bottom_layout.xml

<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
 >

<TextView 
    android:id="@+id/bottom_layout_txt_status"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:text="Click this button"/>

<ImageButton android:id="@+id/bottom_layout_btn_chat"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:src="@android:drawable/ic_menu_camera"
    android:layout_toRightOf="@+id/bottom_layout_txt_status"
    android:contentDescription="@string/app_name"/>
</RelativeLayout>

Code works perfect for me. I can see the split ActionBar when my tablet is on portrait. On landscape it is wide enough to store all the items on the top.

Hope it helps