How to show action items at the bottom using Toolbar

Question

main.xml

<item
    android:id="@+id/action_back"
    android:orderInCategory="100"
    app:showAsAction="always"
    android:icon="@drawable/ic_action_back"
    android:title="@string/back"/>

<item
    android:id="@+id/action_save"
    android:orderInCategory="100"
    app:showAsAction="always"
    android:icon="@drawable/ic_action_save"
    android:title="@string/save"/>

<item
    android:id="@+id/action_sort"
    android:orderInCategory="100"
    app:showAsAction="always"
    android:icon="@drawable/ic_action_sort_dark"
    android:title="@string/sort"/>

<item
    android:id="@+id/action_new"
    android:orderInCategory="100"
    app:showAsAction="always"
    android:icon="@drawable/ic_new"
    android:title="@string/new_menu"/>

Manifest.xml

<activity
    android:name="com.app.FileFragmentActivity"
    android:uiOptions="splitActionBarWhenNarrow"
    android:label="@string/app_name" >
</activity>

Output:

Requirement:

I want to show action items at the bottom like in the two screenshots above (marked in red).
I am using Toolbarusing appcompat-v7 library.

Answer 1

As stated in this post (click) android:uiOptions="splitActionBarWhenNarrow" has been removed in Lollipop. Though this is not that big of a deal since you can simply use two Toolbars - one at the top and one at the bottom.

Following some basic example code:

Layout

<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent">

    <android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar
        android:id="@+id/toolbar_top"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:background="?attr/colorPrimary"
        android:minHeight="?attr/actionBarSize" />

    <android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar
        android:id="@+id/toolbar_bottom"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:background="?attr/colorPrimary"
        android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"
        android:minHeight="?attr/actionBarSize" />

    <LinearLayout
        android:layout_below="@id/toolbar_top"
        android:layout_above="@id/toolbar_bottom"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content" />

</RelativeLayout>

Code

private void initToolbars() {
    Toolbar toolbarTop = (Toolbar) findViewById(R.id.toolbar_top);
    setSupportActionBar(toolbarTop);

    Toolbar toolbarBottom = (Toolbar) findViewById(R.id.toolbar_bottom);
    toolbarBottom.setOnMenuItemClickListener(new Toolbar.OnMenuItemClickListener() {
        @Override
        public boolean onMenuItemClick(MenuItem item) {
            switch(item.getItemId()){
                case R.id.action_settings:
                    // TODO
                    break;
                // TODO: Other cases
            }
            return true;
        }
    });
    // Inflate a menu to be displayed in the toolbar
    toolbarBottom.inflateMenu(R.menu.menu_main);
}

Result

Note: Handling when to show two Toolbars or just one is something you have to do manually

Answer 2

If you want to make something like this (from the docs)

or this (from your question)

then use a Bottom Navigation Bar rather than a Toolbar. It is now included in the support library and isn't hard to set up. See this answer for the detailed directions:

• How to add a Bottom Navigation Bar