How to Create Menus in Android Application.

Menus:

Creating the Menu Helper Methods:

1. Using Eclipse, create a new Android project and name it as Menus.

2. In the MainActivity.java file, add the following statements in bold:

package com.sartaj.Menus;

import android.app.Activity;

import android.os.Bundle;

import android.view.Menu;

import android.view.MenuItem;

import android.widget.Button;

import android.widget.Toast;

public class MainActivity extends Activity {

/** Called when the activity is first created. */

@Override

public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {

super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

setContentView(R.layout.main);

}

private void CreateMenu(Menu menu)

{

MenuItem mnu1 = menu.add(0, 0, 0, “Item 1”);

{

mnu1.setAlphabeticShortcut(‘a’);

mnu1.setIcon(R.drawable.icon);

}

MenuItem mnu2 = menu.add(0, 1, 1, “Item 2”);

{

mnu2.setAlphabeticShortcut(‘b’);

mnu2.setIcon(R.drawable.icon);

}

MenuItem mnu3 = menu.add(0, 2, 2, “Item 3”);

{

mnu3.setAlphabeticShortcut(‘c’);

mnu3.setIcon(R.drawable.icon);

}

MenuItem mnu4 = menu.add(0, 3, 3, “Item 4”);

{

mnu4.setAlphabeticShortcut(‘d’);

}

menu.add(0, 4, 4, “Item 5”);

menu.add(0, 5, 5, “Item 6”);

menu.add(0, 6, 6, “Item 7”);

}

private boolean MenuChoice(MenuItem item)

{

switch (item.getItemId()) {

case 0:

Toast.makeText(this, “You clicked on Item 1”,Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();

return true;

case 1:

Toast.makeText(this, “You clicked on Item 2”,Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();

return true;

case 2:

Toast.makeText(this, “You clicked on Item 3”,Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();

return true;

case 3:

Toast.makeText(this, “You clicked on Item 4”,Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();

return true;

case 4:

Toast.makeText(this, “You clicked on Item 5”,Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();

return true;

case 5:

Toast.makeText(this, “You clicked on Item 6”,Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();

return true;

case 6:

Toast.makeText(this, “You clicked on Item 7”,Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();

return true;

}

return true;

}

}

Options Menu:

1.    Using the same project created in the previous section, add the following statements in bold to the MainActivity.java file:

     

package com.sartaj.Menus;

import android.app.Activity;

import android.os.Bundle;

import android.view.Menu;

import android.view.MenuItem;

import android.widget.Button;

import android.widget.Toast;

public class MainActivity extends Activity {

/** Called when the activity is first created. */

@Override

public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {

super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

setContentView(R.layout.main);

}

@Override

public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {

super.onCreateOptionsMenu(menu);

CreateMenu(menu);

return true;

}

@Override

public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item)

{

super.onOptionsItemSelected(item);

MenuChoice( item);

return true;

}

private void CreateMenu(Menu menu)

{

//...

}

private boolean MenuChoice(MenuItem item)

{

//...

}

}

Context Menu:

1.    Using the same project created in the previous section, add the following statements in bold to the MainActivity.java file:

2.     

package com.sartaj.Menus;

import android.app.Activity;

import android.os.Bundle;

import android.view.Menu;

import android.view.MenuItem;

import android.widget.Button;

import android.widget.Toast;

import android.view.View;

import android.view.ContextMenu;

import android.view.ContextMenu.ContextMenuInfo;

public class MainActivity extends Activity {

/** Called when the activity is first created. */

@Override

public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {

super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

setContentView(R.layout.main);

Button btn = (Button) findViewById(R.id.btn1);

btn.setOnCreateContextMenuListener(this);

}

@Override

public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {

super.onCreateOptionsMenu(menu);

CreateMenu(menu);

return true;

}

@Override

public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item)

{

super.onOptionsItemSelected(item);

MenuChoice( item);

return true;

}

@Override

public void onCreateContextMenu(ContextMenu menu, View view,ContextMenuInfo menuInfo)

{

super.onCreateContextMenu(menu, view, menuInfo);

CreateMenu(menu);

}

@Override

public boolean onContextItemSelected(MenuItem item)

{

super.onContextItemSelected(item);

 MenuChoice(item);

 return true;

}

private void CreateMenu(Menu menu)

{

//...

}

private boolean MenuChoice(MenuItem item)

{

//...

}

}

NOTE: Notice that the shortcut keys for the menu items do not work. To enable the shortcuts keys, you need to call the setQuertyMode() method of the Menu object, like this:

Context menu do not show icon at all,so there is no need to draw icon in case of Context menu.

’

private void CreateMenu(Menu menu)

{

menu.setQwertyMode(true);

MenuItem mnu1 = menu.add(0, 0, 0, “Item 1”);

{

mnu1.setAlphabeticShortcut(‘d’);

mnu1.setIcon(R.drawable.icon);

}

//...

}