How to display custom view in ActionBar?

Solution 1:

There is a trick for this. All you have to do is to use RelativeLayout instead of LinearLayout as the main container. It's important to have android:layout_gravity="fill_horizontal" set for it. That should do it.

Solution 2:

I struggled with this myself, and tried Tomik's answer. However, this didn't made the layout to full available width on start, only when you add something to the view.

You'll need to set the LayoutParams.FILL_PARENT when adding the view:

//I'm using actionbarsherlock, but it's the same.
LayoutParams layout = new LayoutParams(LayoutParams.FILL_PARENT, LayoutParams.FILL_PARENT);
getSupportActionBar().setCustomView(overlay, layout);

This way it completely fills the available space. (You may need to use Tomik's solution too).

Solution 3:

This is how it worked for me (from above answers it was showing both default title and my custom view also).

ActionBar.LayoutParams layout = new ActionBar.LayoutParams(LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT, LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT);
// actionBar.setCustomView(view); //last view item must set to android:layout_alignParentRight="true" if few views are there 
actionBar.setCustomView(view, layout); // layout param width=fill/match parent
actionBar.setDisplayShowCustomEnabled(true);//must other wise its not showing custom view.

What I noticed is that both setCustomView(view) and setCustomView(view,params) the view width=match/fill parent. setDisplayShowCustomEnabled (boolean showCustom)

Solution 4:

The answers from Tomik and Peterdk work when you want your custom view to occupy the entire action bar, even hiding the native title.

But if you want your custom view to live side-by-side with the title (and fill all remaining space after the title is displayed), then may I refer you to the excellent answer from user Android-Developer here:

https://stackoverflow.com/a/16517395/614880

His code at bottom worked perfectly for me.

Solution 5:

For example, you can define a layout file which contains a EditText element.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<EditText xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:id="@+id/searchfield"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:inputType="textFilter" >

</EditText>

you can do

public class MainActivity extends Activity {

  @Override
  protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

    ActionBar actionBar = getActionBar();
    // add the custom view to the action bar
    actionBar.setCustomView(R.layout.actionbar_view);
    EditText search = (EditText) actionBar.getCustomView().findViewById(R.id.searchfield);
    search.setOnEditorActionListener(new OnEditorActionListener() {

      @Override
      public boolean onEditorAction(TextView v, int actionId,
          KeyEvent event) {
        Toast.makeText(MainActivity.this, "Search triggered",
            Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
        return false;
      }
    });
    actionBar.setDisplayOptions(ActionBar.DISPLAY_SHOW_CUSTOM
        | ActionBar.DISPLAY_SHOW_HOME);


    }