onCreateOptionsMenu called after onResume on JB 4.2

Question

I have the following fragment in my application:

public class MyFragment extends SherlockListFragment implements LoaderManager.LoaderCallbacks<Cursor> {
  private MenuItem refresh = null;

  @Override
  public void onActivityCreated(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onActivityCreated(savedInstanceState);
    setHasOptionsMenu(true);

    //.....

    // NPE here
    refresh.setActionView(R.layout.indeterminate_progress_action);
    getActivity().getSupportLoaderManager().initLoader(0, null, this);
  }

  @Override
  public void onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu, MenuInflater inflater) {
    inflater.inflate(R.menu.refresh_menu, menu);
    refresh = (MenuItem) menu.findItem(R.id.menu_item_refresh);
  }

  @Override
  public void onLoadFinished(Loader<Cursor> loader, Cursor data) {
    mAdapter.swapCursor(data);
    refresh.setActionView(null);
  }
}

Basically when the user starts the Activity I want to display a progress spinner, in the actionbar, until the loader completes. Prior to Android 4.2 everything worked fine. On Android 4.2 I get the following error:

11-24 13:37:14.811: E/AndroidRuntime(17850): Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException
11-24 13:37:14.811: E/AndroidRuntime(17850):    at com.MyApp.library.fragments.MyFragment.onActivityCreated(TabFragment.java:65)

After adding some break point I realized onCreateOptionsMenu was getting called after onActivityCreated. Is there another life cycle event I can use? Is there a better was to achieve the desired effect?

Answer 1

I've used onPrepareOptionsMenu in this way to achieve what you are trying to do. (not tested but should give you an idea.)

private boolean mIsLoading = true;

@Override
public void onPrepareOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
    super.onPrepareOptionsMenu(menu);
    refresh = (MenuItem) menu.findItem(R.id.menu_item_refresh);
    if (!mIsLoading) {
        refresh.setActionView(null);
    }
}

@Override
public void onLoadFinished(Loader<Cursor> loader, Cursor data) {
    mAdapter.swapCursor(data);
    mIsLoading = false;
    getActivity().invalidateOptionsMenu();
}