Android Programming Tutorials

Menus and Messages

Step #3: Define the Option Menu.......................................................

Now, we need to create an option menu and arrange for it to be displayed

when the user clicks the [MENU] button.

The menu itself can be defined as a small piece of XML. Enter the following

as LunchList/res/menu/option.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">

<item android:id="@+id/toast"

android:title="Raise Toast"

android:icon="@drawable/toast"

/>

</menu>

This code relies upon an icon stored in LunchList/res/drawable/toast.png.

Find something suitable to use, preferably around 32px high.

Then, to arrange for the menu to be displayed, add the following method to

LunchList:

@Override

public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {

new MenuInflater(this).inflate(R.menu.option, menu);

return(super.onCreateOptionsMenu(menu));

}

Note that you will also need to define imports for android.view.Menu and

android.view.MenuInflater for this to compile cleanly.

At this point, you can rebuild and reinstall the application. Click the

[MENU] button, from either tab, to see the option menu with its icon:

60