Android Question updating menu items

[Marco Nissen]

Hi

if I added a menu using AddMenu and also included images, is there any way to update the image later on?

The reason is, I display a mail envelope to allow the user to access the mailbox.
If there is a new incoming email which is unread, the image should change to indicate this.

I found something for Android in general, but not for B4A
Sample discussion is here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/11006749/change-icons-in-actionbar-dynamically

Thank you
Marco

 

[NJDude]

As far as I know, that feature is not yet supported by B4A.

 

[Marco Nissen]

Yes, but Erel: can you suggest a way to support this? Like enumerating the existing menu items for an Activity and then through direct API access modifying an image or text? e.g. gmail now uses this for notification of unread items

 

[Erel]

It is not possible to change the menu icons. You can add a custom view to the action bar: http://www.b4x.com/android/forum/th...er-actionbar-library.36786/page-3#post-226174

You can add a Panel and then add or remove items from this panel.

 

[Marco Nissen]

sounds great, I'll try this. thanks!

 

[Marco Nissen]

It is not possible to change the menu icons. You can add a custom view to the action bar: http://www.b4x.com/android/forum/th...er-actionbar-library.36786/page-3#post-226174

You can add a Panel and then add or remove items from this panel.

Just tried it out. It sort of works, but I have to add empty buttons to the menu, just to have enough room to place the customized bar.
and the events for the customized panel are not trigged, but the events for the empty buttons
replacing the picture works fine, so there might be some internal confusing about which events should be triggered

Does that make any sense?

Activity.AddMenuItem3("", "btnmail", LoadBitmap(File.DirAssets, "empty.png"), True)
Activity.AddMenuItem3("", "btnmenu", LoadBitmap(File.DirAssets, "empty.png"), True)
Dim jo As JavaObject = bar
dim alternateMenu As Panel
alternateMenu.Initialize("altMenu")
alternateMenu.LoadLayout("alternateMenuMain")
jo = jo.GetField("bar")
jo.RunMethod("setDisplayShowCustomEnabled", Array As Object(True))
jo.RunMethod("setCustomView", Array As Object(alternateMenu))
btnMail.SetBackgroundImage(LoadBitmap(File.DirAssets,"730-envelope-selected.png"))

Sub btnmail_click
    StartActivity(MessagesList)
End Sub

 

[Erel]

The problem is that the transparent menu items catch the touch events.

Try to add a Panel to alternateMenu panel and then change its width.

 

[Marco Nissen]

I added this

alternateMenu.Width=100dip

But I get this exception.

(Main, 87) Panel.LoadLayout should only be called after the panel was added to its parent. (warning #1001)
java.lang.NullPointerException

    at anywheresoftware.b4a.objects.ViewWrapper.setWidth(ViewWrapper.java:124)
    at com.wurzelkraut.Stash2Go.main._activity_create(main.java:809)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invokeNative(Native Method)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:515)
    at anywheresoftware.b4a.BA.raiseEvent2(BA.java:174)
    at com.wurzelkraut.Stash2Go.main.afterFirstLayout(main.java:98)
    at com.wurzelkraut.Stash2Go.main.access$100(main.java:16)
    at com.wurzelkraut.Stash2Go.main$WaitForLayout.run(main.java:76)
    at android.os.Handler.handleCallback(Handler.java:733)
    at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:95)
    at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:136)
    at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:5001)
    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:785)
    at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:601)
    at dalvik.system.NativeStart.main(Native Method)
sending message to waiting queue of uninitialized activity (submitjob)

 

[Erel]

Try to add a Panel to alternateMenu panel and then change its width.

Try to add a Panel to this panel and then set the width of the second panel.

 

[Marco Nissen]

Try to add a Panel to this panel and then set the width of the second panel.

just moved it after the call "setcustomview", then it worked without an exception.
however, the buttons are then not aligned to the right side, but appear right after the title (i.e. somewhere in the middle of the bar)

I guess I leave it with the above workaround, but it does not feel right