Share button not working on app

Question

I am trying to put a share button in my action bar, and it crashes whenever I try to launch the app.

My error is below:

java.lang.UnsupportedOperationException: This is not supported, use MenuItemCompat.getActionProvider()
                                                                             at android.support.v7.view.menu.MenuItemImpl.getActionProvider(MenuItemImpl.java:644)
                                                                             at com.example.install.factapp.MainActivity.onCreateOptionsMenu(MainActivity.java:42)
                                                                             at android.app.Activity.onCreatePanelMenu(Activity.java:2646)
                                                                             at android.support.v4.app.FragmentActivity.onCreatePanelMenu(FragmentActivity.java:298)
                                                                             at android.support.v7.view.WindowCallbackWrapper.onCreatePanelMenu(WindowCallbackWrapper.java:85)
                                                                             at android.support.v7.app.AppCompatDelegateImplBase$AppCompatWindowCallbackBase.onCreatePanelMenu(AppCompatDelegateImplBase.java:241)
                                                                             at android.support.v7.app.AppCompatDelegateImplV7.preparePanel(AppCompatDelegateImplV7.java:1273)
                                                                             at android.support.v7.app.AppCompatDelegateImplV7.doInvalidatePanelMenu(AppCompatDelegateImplV7.java:1553)
                                                                             at android.support.v7.app.AppCompatDelegateImplV7.access$100(AppCompatDelegateImplV7.java:89)
                                                                             at android.support.v7.app.AppCompatDelegateImplV7$1.run(AppCompatDelegateImplV7.java:129)
                                                                             at android.os.Handler.handleCallback(Handler.java:733)
                                                                             at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:95)
                                                                             at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:146)
                                                                             at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:5602)
                                                                             at java.lang.reflect.Method.invokeNative(Native Method)
                                                                             at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:515)
                                                                             at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:1283)
                                                                             at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:1099)
                                                                             at dalvik.system.NativeStart.main(Native Method)

Here is my main.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <item
        android:id="@+id/shareButton"
        android:actionProviderClass="android.widget.ShareActionProvider"
        android:title="@string/app_name"
        android:showAsAction="always"/>
</menu>

And here is the main activity with everything, including imports so I can diagnose my probel:

import android.content.Intent;
import android.support.v7.app.AppCompatActivity;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.view.Menu;
import android.view.MenuItem;
import android.view.View;
import android.view.animation.Animation;
import android.view.animation.AnimationUtils;
import android.widget.LinearLayout;
import android.widget.ShareActionProvider;
import android.widget.TextView;

public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {

    TextView factBox;
    TextView factNumberBox;
    FactNumbers numbersHolder = new FactNumbers();
    Facts factHolder = new Facts();
    Backgrounds backs = new Backgrounds();
    LinearLayout bg;
    Animation scaleIn;
    Animation slideOut;
    private ShareActionProvider mShareActionProvider;

    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
        factBox = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.factTextBox);
        factNumberBox = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.numberBox);
        bg = (LinearLayout) findViewById(R.id.background);
    }

    public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
        getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.main, menu);
        mShareActionProvider = (ShareActionProvider) menu.findItem(R.id.shareButton).getActionProvider();
        mShareActionProvider.setShareIntent(getDefaultShareIntent());

        return super.onCreateOptionsMenu(menu);

    }

    private Intent getDefaultShareIntent(){
        Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_SEND);
        intent.setType("text/plain");
        intent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_SUBJECT, "SUBJECT");
        intent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_TEXT,"Extra Text");
        return intent;
    }

    public void genFact(View view) {
        factBox.setText(factHolder.nextFact());
        factNumberBox.setText(numbersHolder.nextFactNumbers());
        slideOut = AnimationUtils.loadAnimation(this, R.anim.slideout);
        factBox.startAnimation(slideOut);
    }

    public void previousFact(View view) {
        factBox.setText(factHolder.previousFact());
        factNumberBox.setText(numbersHolder.previousFactNumbers());
        scaleIn = AnimationUtils.loadAnimation(this, R.anim.slidein);
        factBox.startAnimation(scaleIn);
    }

    public void randomButton(View view) {
        factBox.setText(factHolder.randomButton());
        factNumberBox.setText(factHolder.randomNumber());
    }


}

Answer 1

You are using AppCompatActivity. This means that you have a variety of bugs.

First, you need to be using android.support.v7.widget.ShareActionProvider, not android.widget.ShareActionProvider.

Second, android:showAsAction and android:actionProviderClass need to be switched to app:showAsAction and app:actionProviderClass, as shown in the documentation for android.support.v7.widget.ShareActionProvider. You will also need to add xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto" to your root <menu> element.

Third, use MenuItemCompat to get the ShareActionProvider in your code, after changing the import to be android.support.v7.widget.ShareActionProvider.

This sample project demonstrates using appcompat-v7 and its edition of ShareActionProvider. My menu resource is:

  <item
    android:id="@+id/share"
    android:title="Share!"
    app:actionProviderClass="android.support.v7.widget.ShareActionProvider"
    app:showAsAction="ifRoom"/>

and the Java code uses MenuItemCompat:

/***
  Copyright (c) 2012 CommonsWare, LLC
  Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not
  use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain   a copy
  of the License at http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0. Unless required
  by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the
  License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,   WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS
  OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific
  language governing permissions and limitations under the License.

  From _The Busy Coder's Guide to Android Development_
    https://commonsware.com/Android
 */

package com.commonsware.android.sap;

import android.content.Intent;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.support.v4.view.MenuItemCompat;
import android.support.v7.app.AppCompatActivity;
import android.support.v7.widget.ShareActionProvider;
import android.text.Editable;
import android.text.TextWatcher;
import android.view.Menu;
import android.view.MenuItem;
import android.widget.EditText;
import android.widget.Toast;

public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity implements
    ShareActionProvider.OnShareTargetSelectedListener, TextWatcher {
  private ShareActionProvider share=null;
  private Intent shareIntent=new Intent(Intent.ACTION_SEND);
  private EditText editor=null;

  @Override
  public void onCreate(Bundle icicle) {
    super.onCreate(icicle);
    setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

    shareIntent.setType("text/plain");
    editor=(EditText)findViewById(R.id.editor);
    editor.addTextChangedListener(this);
  }

  @Override
  public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
    getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.actions, menu);

    MenuItem item=menu.findItem(R.id.share);

    share=(ShareActionProvider)MenuItemCompat.getActionProvider(item);
    share.setOnShareTargetSelectedListener(this);

    return(super.onCreateOptionsMenu(menu));
  }

  @Override
  public boolean onShareTargetSelected(ShareActionProvider source,
                                       Intent intent) {
    Toast.makeText(this, intent.getComponent().toString(),
                   Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();

    return(false);
  }

  @Override
  public void afterTextChanged(Editable s) {
    shareIntent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_TEXT, s.toString());
    share.setShareIntent(shareIntent);
  }

  @Override
  public void beforeTextChanged(CharSequence s, int start, int count,
                                int after) {
    // ignored
  }

  @Override
  public void onTextChanged(CharSequence s, int start, int before,
                            int count) {
    // ignored
  }
}
</menu>