AppCompat - Item not showing in action bar for API levels v8-13

Question

I have one item I want to always display in the action bar using the AppCompat library. It's just a sub menu using the default overflow image.

This is not working for me on API levels v8-13 and I've done everything the developer guide says, including adding my own namespace.

I'm using a custom style which has Theme.AppCompat as its parent (below).

This is my first post so I don't have enough reputation points to post an image of the activity, but the item is missing from the action bar and the menu appears on the bottom when I press the menu button.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!!

AndroidManifest.xml:

<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    package="com.myproject"
    android:installLocation="auto"
    android:versionCode="1"
    android:versionName="1.0" >

    <uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="8" />

    <application
        android:debuggable="true"
        android:icon="@drawable/my_app_icon"
        android:label="@string/app_name"
        android:theme="@style/CustomActionBarTheme" >
        <uses-library android:name="com.google.android.maps" />

        <activity
            android:name=".ui.MainActivity"
            android:label="@string/app_name"
            android:launchMode="singleTop" >
            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />

                <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
            </intent-filter>
        </activity>
    </application>

</manifest>

menu.xml

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

    <item
        android:id="@+id/overflow"
        MyApp:icon="@drawable/abc_ic_menu_moreoverflow_normal_holo_dark"
        MyApp:showAsAction="always"
        android:icon="@drawable/abc_ic_menu_moreoverflow_normal_holo_dark"
        android:showAsAction="always">
        <menu>
            <item
                android:id="@+id/action_about"
                android:icon="@drawable/about_icon"
                android:title="About"/>
            <item
                android:id="@+id/action_feedback"
                android:icon="@drawable/feedback_icon"
                android:title="Feedback"/>
            <item
                android:id="@+id/action_settings"
                android:icon="@drawable/settings_icon"
                android:title="@string/action_settings"/>
        </menu>
    </item>

</menu>

styles.xml

<resources>
    <style name="CustomActionBarTheme" parent="@style/Theme.AppCompat">
        <item name="android:actionBarStyle">@style/MyActionBar</item>
        <item name="actionBarStyle">@style/MyActionBar</item>
    </style>

    <style name="MyActionBar" parent="@style/Widget.AppCompat.ActionBar">
        <item name="android:titleTextStyle">@style/TitleTextStyle</item>
        <item name="android:background">@drawable/abc_ab_bottom_solid_dark_holo</item>
        <item name="titleTextStyle">@style/TitleTextStyle</item>
        <item name="background">@drawable/abc_ab_bottom_solid_dark_holo</item>
    </style>

    <style name="TitleTextStyle" parent="@style/TextAppearance.AppCompat.Widget.ActionBar.Title">
        <item name="android:textStyle">bold</item>
    </style>
</resources>

MainActivity.java

package com.myproject;
...
public class MainActivity extends BaseActivity {

    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreateEqually(savedInstanceState);
        ActivityHelper.setLayoutTitle(this, R.layout.main, R.string.main, getSupportActionBar());
    }

    ...

}

BaseActivity.java

package com.myproject;

import android.support.v7.app.ActionBarActivity;
...

public class BaseActivity extends ActionBarActivity {

    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    }

    public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
        return true;
    }

    public boolean onPrepareOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
        return MenusHelper.displayMenu(this, menu);
    }

    ...
}

MenusHelper.java

package com.myproject;
...

public final class MenusHelper {

    ...

    public static boolean displayMenu(BaseActivity currentActivity, Menu menu) {
        // clear former menus
        menu.clear();
        MenuInflater inflater = new MenuInflater(currentActivity);
        inflater.inflate(R.menu.menu, menu);

        return true;
    }

    ...
}

ActivityHelper.java

package com.myproject;

import android.support.v7.app.ActionBar;
...

public final class ActivityHelper {
    ...

    public static void setLayoutTitle(Activity activity, int layoutId, String titleStr, ActionBar actionBar) {
        activity.setContentView(layoutId);
        actionBar.setTitle(titleStr);
        actionBar.setDisplayHomeAsUpEnabled(true);
    }

}

Answer 1

Try to put the code for MenusHelper.displayMenu(this, menu); into the onCreateOptionsMenu() rather than onPrepareOptionsMenu() and also do the necessary modification.

@Override
public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {

    getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.menu, menu);

    // In case you have an item
    MenuItem shareItem = menu.findItem(R.id.menu_share);

    // To retrieve the Action Provider
    mActionProvider = (ShareActionProvider)
    MenuItemCompat.getActionProvider(shareItem);

    return super.onCreateOptionsMenu(menu);
}

Make sure your Menu in your XML looks like this:

<item
    android:id="@+id/share"
    android:title="@string/menu_share"
    yourapp:actionProviderClass="android.support.v7.widget.ShareActionProvider"
    yourapp:showAsAction="ifRoom|withText"/>

Answer 2

the problem is this

android:showAsAction="always"

that needs to be

youpackagename:showAsAction="always"

actually looking over it again you declared that twice

android:icon="@drawable/abc_ic_menu_moreoverflow_normal_holo_dark"
android:showAsAction="always"

remove that bit