Action items systematically stacked in the action overflow, in actionbar

Question

i'm struggling with the ActionBar in android.

heres my problem: my Action items are not shown in the ActionBar, instead they are stacked in the action overflow, no matter what i do ..

i have spent a hole day looking for a solution to this but i can't seem to find whats missing .. :-s

i tried setting android:showAsAction to "Always" : it didnt work. when i change ifRoom to Always, the logcat says : testmenu.xml:5: error: Error: String types not allowed (at 'showAsAction' with value 'Always'). + it doesnt campile at all.

i've tried a lots of differents utorials and posts here , but unfortunately i cant find a solution..

heres my code:

Mainactivity.java package com.locklock;

import android.app.ActionBar;
import android.app.ActionBar.Tab;
//import android.support.v7.app.ActionBar.Tab;
//import android.support.v7.app.ActionBarActivity;
//import android.support.v7.app.ActionBar;
import android.app.ActionBar.TabListener;
import android.app.FragmentTransaction;
import android.content.Context;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.support.v4.app.Fragment;
import android.support.v7.app.ActionBarActivity;
import android.util.Log;
import android.view.LayoutInflater;
import android.view.Menu;
import android.view.MenuItem;
import android.view.View;
import android.view.ViewGroup;
import android.widget.Toast;

public class MainActivity extends ActionBarActivity implements TabListener {

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

    if (savedInstanceState == null) {
        getSupportFragmentManager().beginTransaction()
                .add(R.id.container, new PlaceholderFragment())
                .commit();
    }

    // Set up the action bar to show tabs.     
    final ActionBar actionBar= getActionBar();
    actionBar.setNavigationMode(ActionBar.NAVIGATION_MODE_TABS);
    //        actionBar.setDisplayShowTitleEnabled(false);

    // adding tabs
    ActionBar.Tab tab1=actionBar.newTab();
    tab1.setText("TEST");
    tab1.setTabListener(this);

    ActionBar.Tab tab2=actionBar.newTab();
    tab2.setText("EVENTS");
    tab2.setTabListener(this);

    ActionBar.Tab tab3=actionBar.newTab();
    tab3.setText("USERS");
    tab3.setTabListener(this);

    ActionBar.Tab tab4=actionBar.newTab();
    tab4.setText("SETTINGS");
    tab4.setTabListener(this);

    actionBar.addTab(tab1);
    actionBar.addTab(tab2);
    actionBar.addTab(tab3);
    actionBar.addTab(tab4);        

   // tab = getActionBar.newTab();
   // tab.setText(tabText);
   // tab.setIcon(R.drawable.tab_icon);

}


@Override
public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {

    // Inflate the menu; this adds items to the action bar if it is present.
    getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.action_users, menu);
    //return true;        
    //MenuInflater Mymenu = getMenuInflater();
    //Mymenu.inflate(R.menu.action_users, menu);

    return super.onCreateOptionsMenu(menu);        
}


@Override
public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item) {
    // Handle action bar item clicks here. The action bar will
    // automatically handle clicks on the Home/Up button, so long
    // as you specify a parent activity in AndroidManifest.xml.
    int id = item.getItemId();
    switch (id) {
        case R.id.action_settings:
            // todo
            return true;
        case R.id.action_add_user:
            Context context = getApplicationContext();
            CharSequence text = "Hello toast!";
            int duration = Toast.LENGTH_SHORT;
            Toast toast = Toast.makeText(context, text, duration);
            toast.show();
            return true;
        case R.id.action_set_permission:
            // todo
            return true;
        case R.id.action_delete_user:
            // todo
            return true;
        default:
            return super.onOptionsItemSelected(item);
    }

    //if (id == R.id.action_settings) {
    //    return true;
    // }
    // return super.onOptionsItemSelected(item);
}

/**
 * A placeholder fragment containing a simple view.
 */
public static class PlaceholderFragment extends Fragment {

    public PlaceholderFragment() {
    }

    @Override
    public View onCreateView(LayoutInflater inflater, ViewGroup container,
            Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        View rootView = inflater.inflate(R.layout.fragment_main, container, false);
        return rootView;
    }
}

@Override
public void onTabReselected(Tab arg0, FragmentTransaction arg1) {
    // TODO Auto-generated method stub
    Log.e("mytag","test");
}


@Override
public void onTabSelected(Tab arg0, FragmentTransaction arg1) {
    // TODO Auto-generated method stub
    Log.d("mytag","xxxx");
}


@Override
public void onTabUnselected(Tab arg0, FragmentTransaction arg1) {
    // TODO Auto-generated method stub
    //Log.d("mytag","xxxx");
}


}

action_users.xml

<!-- Add User -->
<item android:id="@+id/action_add_user"
      android:icon="@drawable/ic_action_remove"
      android:title="@string/add_user"
      android:showAsAction="ifRoom" />

 <!-- Set permission for a User-->
<item android:id="@+id/action_set_permission"
      android:icon="@drawable/ic_action_remove"
      android:title="@string/set_permission"
      android:showAsAction="ifRoom" /> 

 <!-- delete User-->
<item android:id="@+id/action_delete_user"
      android:icon="@drawable/ic_action_remove"
      android:title="@string/delete_user"
      android:showAsAction="ifRoom" /> 

androidmanifest.xml

 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> 
   <manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    package="com.locklock"
    android:versionCode="1"
    android:versionName="1.0" >

    <uses-sdk
        android:minSdkVersion="18"
        android:targetSdkVersion="19" />

    <application
        android:allowBackup="true"
        android:icon="@drawable/ic_launcher"
        android:label="@string/app_name"
        android:theme="@style/AppTheme" 
        android:uiOptions="splitActionBarWhenNarrow" >
        <activity
            android:name="com.locklock.MainActivity"
            android:label="@string/app_name" >
            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />

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

</manifest>

can anyone outhere take a quick look into this please?

in advance, thanks a lot .

Answer 1

after a few days of testing , i finally found the answer .

in the xml menu file, i had to change this :

<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:myappname="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto" >
    <item android:id="@+id/action_search"
      android:icon="@drawable/ic_action_search"
      android:title="@string/action_search"
      myappname:showAsAction="always"  />    
</menu>

to this:

<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" 
xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
tools:context="com.myappname.MainActivity" >

<item android:id="@+id/action_search"
      android:icon="@drawable/ic_action_search"
      android:title="@string/action_search"
      app:showAsAction="always" /> 
</menu>

and it worked .

Answer 2

Try to set yourapp in action_users.xml

<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
  xmlns:yourapp="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto" >
    <item android:id="@+id/action_search"
      android:icon="@drawable/ic_action_search"
      android:title="@string/action_search"
      yourapp:showAsAction="ifRoom"  />
...
</menu>