Show dropdown programmatically in ActionBar / ActionBarSherlock

Question

I have an activity using ActionBarSherlock with ActionBar.NAVIGATION_MODE_LIST.

When entering the page I want the spinner in the action bar to expand programmatically after it's populated with items so the user needs to pick an item. As of now the first item in the adapter is selected automatically.

I can't figure out a nice way to expand the spinner in the action bar programmatically. Do I need to use a custom view to achieve this behavior?

I've looked on the action bar with the HierarchyViewer and the spinner does not have an id set. Any ideas?

Answer 1

Here is code how I create custom action bar with actiobBarSherlock

 private void createCustomActionBar() {

    List<SiteLink> links = new ArrayList<SiteLink>();
    links.add(...)  
    LinksAdapter linkAdapter = new LinksAdapter(this, R.layout.external_link, links);

    View customNav = LayoutInflater.from(this).inflate(R.layout.custom_show_action_bar, null);
    IcsSpinner spinner = (IcsSpinner)customNav.findViewById(R.id.spinner);
    spinner.setAdapter(linkAdapter);


    ImageView refresh = (ImageView) customNav.findViewById(R.id.refresh);
    refresh.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
        @Override
        public void onClick(View view) {
            ...
        }
    });

    ImageView settings = (ImageView) customNav.findViewById(R.id.settings);
    settings.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
        @Override
        public void onClick(View view) {
            ...
        }
    });

    getSupportActionBar().setCustomView(customNav, new ActionBar.LayoutParams(Gravity.RIGHT));
    getSupportActionBar().setDisplayShowCustomEnabled(true);

}

Adapter

private static class LinksAdapter extends ArrayAdapter<SiteLink> {

    private List<SiteLink> strings;
    private Context context;

    private LinksAdapter(Context context, int textViewResourceId, List<SiteLink> objects) {
        super(context, textViewResourceId, objects);
        this.strings = objects;
        this.context = context;
    }

    @Override
    public int getCount() {
        if (strings == null) return 0;
        return strings.size();
    }

    @Override
    public SiteLink getItem(int position) {
        return super.getItem(position);
    }


    // return views of drop down items
    @Override
    public View getDropDownView(int position, View convertView, ViewGroup parent) {

        final SiteLink siteLink = strings.get(position);
        LayoutInflater inflater = (LayoutInflater) context.getSystemService(Context.LAYOUT_INFLATER_SERVICE);
        // at 0 position show only icon

        TextView site = (TextView) inflater.inflate(R.layout.external_link, null);
        site.setText(siteLink.getName());

        site.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
            @Override
            public void onClick(View view) {
                Intent i = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW, Uri.parse(siteLink.getUrl()));
                context.startActivity(i);
            }
        });
        return site;


    }


    // return header view of drop down
    @Override
    public View getView(int position, View convertView, ViewGroup parent) {
        LayoutInflater inflater = (LayoutInflater) context.getSystemService(Context.LAYOUT_INFLATER_SERVICE);
        return inflater.inflate(R.layout.icon, null);
    }
}

Layout

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
              android:layout_width="fill_parent"
              android:layout_height="fill_parent"
               android:gravity="right"
        >


    <com.actionbarsherlock.internal.widget.IcsSpinner
        android:id="@+id/spinner"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="fill_parent"
        android:paddingRight="20dp"
        android:layout_gravity="center"
            />

     <ImageView  android:layout_width="fill_parent"
                 android:layout_height="fill_parent"
                 android:src="@drawable/ic_navigation_refresh"
                 android:paddingRight="20dp"
                 android:paddingLeft="10dp"
                 android:layout_gravity="center"
                 android:background="@drawable/action_buttons_background"
                 android:id="@+id/refresh"/>


    <ImageView  android:layout_width="fill_parent"
                android:layout_height="fill_parent"
                android:src="@drawable/ic_action_settings"
                android:paddingRight="20dp"
                android:background="@drawable/action_buttons_background"
                android:layout_gravity="center"
                android:id="@+id/settings"/>

</LinearLayout>

to expand spinner call

 (getSupportActionBar().getCustomView().findViewById(R.id.spinner)).performClick();