Cannot Add an ActionView to the Actionbar using ActionBarCompat from Holoeverywhere

Question

I have updated holoeverywhere version in my project so I not longer use ActionBarSherlock (ABS) but ActionBarCompact (ABC)

The problem I have is when using MenuItemCompat.getActionView(aMenuItem) I always get a null value.

The exact code I have is:

public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.dashboard_menu, menu);

_itemNotifications = menu.findItem(R.id.notifications);
_containerViewItemNotifications = (LinearLayout) MenuItemCompat.getActionView(_itemNotifications);
_viewItemNotifications = (TextView) _containerViewItemNotifications.findViewById(R.id.ActionViewDashboard);
_containerViewItemNotifications.setOnClickListener(new OnClickListener() {
    @SuppressLint("NewApi")
    public void onClick(View v) {
    if (android.os.Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= 16) {
        _viewItemNotifications.setBackground(getResources().getDrawable(R.drawable.qnotificacion_disbled));
    } else {
        _viewItemNotifications.setBackgroundDrawable(getResources().getDrawable(R.drawable.qnotificacion_disbled));
    }
    _viewItemNotifications.setText(R.string.empty);
    onOptionsItemSelected(_itemNotifications);
    }
});

_itemAnotateResult = menu.findItem(R.id.menu_anotate_result);

return super.onCreateOptionsMenu(menu);
}

where MenuItemCompat.getActionView(_itemNotifications) is always a null value

My XML menu file is like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto" >

<item
    android:id="@+id/notifications"
    android:actionLayout="@layout/actionview_dashboard"
    android:title="@string/customize"        
    app:showAsAction="ifRoom"/>
<item
    android:id="@+id/menu_anotate_result"
    android:title="@string/anotate"
    android:visible="false"
    app:showAsAction="ifRoom|withText"/>

</menu>

How can I overcome this? I have tried to follow a similar approach to what is explained for SearchViewItem on android's documentation but no success at all

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

I think the problem lies with the fact that ABC does not support custom ActionLayouts. I found a person who faced a similar problem which he resolved successfully. While adding SearchView, note that he used app:actionViewClass. Could you try to use app:actionLayout and see if it works for you?