Can I use Databinding for Options menu in Android Studio?

Question

The following code is from the project architecture-samples, you can see it here.

I know that I can use such as viewDataBinding.viewmodel to access layout control or data.

But in the following code, I find val view = activity?.findViewById<View>(R.id.menu_filter) ?: return is appear, it's a traditional code.

Is there a way to access Options menu with Databinding or Viewbinding technology ？

class TasksFragment : Fragment() {

    override fun onCreateView(
        inflater: LayoutInflater,
        container: ViewGroup?,
        savedInstanceState: Bundle?
    ): View? {
        viewDataBinding = TasksFragBinding.inflate(inflater, container, false).apply {
            viewmodel = viewModel
        }
        setHasOptionsMenu(true)
        return viewDataBinding.root
    }

    override fun onOptionsItemSelected(item: MenuItem) =
        when (item.itemId) {
            R.id.menu_clear -> {
                viewModel.clearCompletedTasks()
                true
            }
            R.id.menu_filter -> {
                showFilteringPopUpMenu()
                true
            }
            R.id.menu_refresh -> {
                viewModel.loadTasks(true)
                true
            }
            else -> false
        }


  private fun showFilteringPopUpMenu() {
        val view = activity?.findViewById<View>(R.id.menu_filter) ?: return

        PopupMenu(requireContext(), view).run {
            menuInflater.inflate(R.menu.filter_tasks, menu)

            setOnMenuItemClickListener {
                viewModel.setFiltering(
                    when (it.itemId) {
                        R.id.active -> TasksFilterType.ACTIVE_TASKS
                        R.id.completed -> TasksFilterType.COMPLETED_TASKS
                        else -> TasksFilterType.ALL_TASKS
                    }
                )
                true
            }
            show()
        }
    }

    ...
}


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

    <data>

        <import type="android.view.View" />

        <import type="androidx.core.content.ContextCompat" />

        <variable
            name="viewmodel"
            type="com.example.android.architecture.blueprints.todoapp.tasks.TasksViewModel" />

    </data>
    ...
</layout>

Answer 1

As states in the docs:

View binding is a feature that allows you to more easily write code that interacts with views. Once view binding is enabled in a module, it generates a binding class for each XML layout file present in that module. An instance of a binding class contains direct references to all views that have an ID in the corresponding layout.

In most cases, view binding replaces findViewById.

Look at the bold words, you notice that View Binding only works for XML layout (located in res/layout), whereas the menus are located in res/menu.

Also, View Binding uses findViewById, whereas menus use menu.findItem(R.id.menu_id), thus it is not possible.