Adding spinner to ActionBar (not Navigation

I have added a spinner to my ActionBar using the second option from the answer here .

How to I add a spinner adapter to the spinner? I tried using a Spinner object as Google describes here but get a null Spinner object.

Anybody know how to do this? I don't want the spinner to be in the navigation area of the action bar but in with the other action items (I am using the split action bar).

Thanks for the help!

Solution 1:

I know this is an old question, but just in case someone stumbles on it (as I did) and still looks for a complete answer, here is how to do it using the compatibility library, so that it works from to v7 (Android 2.1 Eclair) to current v19 (Android 4.4 KitKat):

In menu_layout.xml:

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

  <item android:id="@+id/spinner"
    yourapp:showAsAction="ifRoom"
    yourapp:actionViewClass="android.widget.Spinner" />
</menu>

Using http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto namespace aliased as yourapp enables you to use the attributes showAsAction and actionViewClass that do not exist on older versions of Android.

Then in your Activity code:

@Override
public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
    getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.menu_layout, menu);
    MenuItem item = menu.findItem(R.id.spinner);
    Spinner spinner = (Spinner) MenuItemCompat.getActionView(item);
    spinner.setAdapter(adapter); // set the adapter to provide layout of rows and content
    spinner.setOnItemSelectedListener(onItemSelectedListener); // set the listener, to perform actions based on item selection

Et voilà!

Solution 2:

I know you ditched the spinner, but I'll give some hints here in case other people is having the same problem or you come to develop the same pattern in a different app

• If you got null is because you didn't properly specify the IDs. Double check the IDs.
• on of the links you showed over complicated stuff by specifying a actionLayout that is just a spinner, you can just specify an actionViewClass="android.widget.Spinner" that will do the trick.

• then in the OnCreateOptionsMenu you do:

  inflater.inflate(R.menu.my_menu, menu); // inflate the menu
  Spinner s = (Spinner) menu.findItem(R.id.my_menu_spinner).getActionView(); // find the spinner
  SpinnerAdapter mSpinnerAdapter = ArrayAdapter.createFromResource(getActivity().getActionBar()
          .getThemedContext(), R.array.my_menu_spinner_list, android.R.layout.simple_spinner_dropdown_item); //  create the adapter from a StringArray
  s.setAdapter(mSpinnerAdapter); // set the adapter
  s.setOnItemSelectedListener(myChangeListener); // (optional) reference to a OnItemSelectedListener, that you can use to perform actions based on user selection
  

happy coding...

Solution 3:

Well, I ditched the Spinner idea for using a submenu. I realized that the spinner was for selecting things that stayed selected; submenus seamed to be a better UI fit.