android 4.0, text on the action bar NEVER shows

Question

I am trying to use the new api's from google, specifically the action bar.

When the build was set at api 10, if I pressed the menu button, I got nice looking menu options, each with a picture and icon. When using api 14, No matter what I try, it always puts the icon in the action bar with NO text. I have tried everything I can think of. I gave it the "with text" property, changed the text to a single character (in case it was a room issue), but nothing.

I have seen this done before, even in the developer guide at android.developer, but I can't seem to find an answer as to HOW to get it to show up.

Answer 1

I suspect that it was a conscious decision by the Android developers to never display a single menu item's text and icon on a narrow action bar. But if you really want to do so, you can use android:actionLayout in your menu.xml file. The Android ActionBar documentation has a slightly better explanation.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">     <item android:id="@+id/menu_foo"           android:title="@string/menu_foo"           android:icon="@drawable/ic_menu_foo"           android:showAsAction="always"           android:actionLayout="@layout/action_button_foo" /> </menu> 

Then create your action_button_foo.xml layout:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <TextView xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"     android:layout_width="wrap_content"     android:layout_height="wrap_content"     android:paddingTop="14dp"     android:paddingBottom="14dp"     android:gravity="center"     android:text="@string/menu_foo"     android:drawableLeft="@drawable/ic_menu_foo"     android:background="@drawable/bg_btn_action_bar"     android:clickable="true" /> 

and use a selector for its background bg_btn_action_bar.xml, so it changes color when you tap it:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> <selector xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">     <item         android:state_pressed="true"         android:drawable="@drawable/bg_action_bar_pressed" />     <item         android:drawable="@color/transparent" /> </selector> 

Now you'll need to make your custom view handle click events. In your Activity, I like to do this, so that I can handle the click in onOptionsItemSelected along with all my other, non-custom items.

@Override public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {     getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.my_menu, menu);      final MenuItem item = menu.findItem(R.id.menu_foo);     item.getActionView().setOnClickListener(new OnClickListener() {         @Override         public void onClick(View v) {             onOptionsItemSelected(item);         }     });      return super.onCreateOptionsMenu(menu); } 

Answer 2

This is definitely the same thing I've observed on my Nexus S running 4.0.4. My app uses an action bar with several tabs that are implemented as fragments. My various fragments make adjustments to the menu options displayed on the action bar while the their tab is visible.

This appears to be a bug in ICS, because it performs consistently as follows, both on my Nexus S and in the emulator (both HVGA and WVGA800):

1. In portrait mode, my logo/up button appears on the top row of the action bar, tabs appear on the second row, and any actions appear as icons only (no text) in the right side of the top row.
2. But if when I rotate to landscape, the action bar collapses to a single row, and tabs move up to the top bar as a spinner (drop-down list) next to my up button. But notably, then the text appears next to my action icons.

I noticed some other glitches with the tab spinner that lead me to believe that this little corner of ICS is a bit messy/buggy. If I tell the application to split the action bar on narrow displays (by adding android:uiOptions="splitActionBarWhenNarrow" in the manifest, ICS always pushes those items to the bottom bar, even though there's still plenty of room at the top. And even with the extra bar, it still doesn't display the text, just the icon.

On my Xoom running 4.0.4, tabs and action items always appear the way you'd expect them to appear because there's plenty of room.

Workaround: if you really want text on the action bar in portrait mode, you need to give up the icon. Remove the icon from your menu item and the text will appear. This isn't exactly what we're after though.

I've posted a bug report here: https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=30180.