How to creates menus in Android

In android application menu is one of the important user interface entity which provides some action options for a particular view. In this tutorial i am discussing about creating android menus.

The final output of menu tutorial will be like below image

In this tutorial we are creating a simple menu with 6 menu items. On clicking on single menu item a simple Toast message will be shown.

1. Create a new project File ⇒ New ⇒ Android Project and give activity name as AndroidMenusActivity.
2. Now create an XML file under res/layout folder and name it as menu.xml.
3. Open menu.xml file and type following code. In the following code we are creating a single menu with 6 menu items. Each menu item has an icon and title for display the label under menu icon. Also we have id for each menu item to identify uniquely.

» menu.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">     <!-- Single menu item          Set id, icon and Title for each menu item     -->     <item android:id="@+id/menu_bookmark"           android:icon="@drawable/icon_bookmark"           android:title="Bookmark" />       <item android:id="@+id/menu_save"           android:icon="@drawable/icon_save"           android:title="Save" />       <item android:id="@+id/menu_search"           android:icon="@drawable/icon_search"           android:title="Search" />       <item android:id="@+id/menu_share"           android:icon="@drawable/icon_share"           android:title="Share" />       <item android:id="@+id/menu_delete"           android:icon="@drawable/icon_delete"           android:title="Delete" />        <item android:id="@+id/menu_preferences"           android:icon="@drawable/icon_preferences"           android:title="Preferences" /> </menu>

4. Now open your main Activity class file (AndroidMenusActivity.java) and type following code. In the following code each menu item is identified by its ID in switch case statement.

» AndroidMenusActivity.java

package com.androidhive.androidmenus;   import android.app.Activity; import android.os.Bundle; import android.view.Menu; import android.view.MenuInflater; import android.view.MenuItem; import android.widget.Toast;   public class AndroidMenusActivity extends Activity {     @Override     public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {         super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);         setContentView(R.layout.main);     }           // Initiating Menu XML file (menu.xml)     @Override     public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu)     {         MenuInflater menuInflater = getMenuInflater();         menuInflater.inflate(R.layout.menu, menu);         return true;     }           /**      * Event Handling for Individual menu item selected      * Identify single menu item by it's id      * */     @Override     public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item)     {                   switch (item.getItemId())         {         case R.id.menu_bookmark:             // Single menu item is selected do something             // Ex: launching new activity/screen or show alert message             Toast.makeText(AndroidMenusActivity.this, "Bookmark is Selected", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();             return true;           case R.id.menu_save:             Toast.makeText(AndroidMenusActivity.this, "Save is Selected", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();             return true;           case R.id.menu_search:             Toast.makeText(AndroidMenusActivity.this, "Search is Selected", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();             return true;           case R.id.menu_share:             Toast.makeText(AndroidMenusActivity.this, "Share is Selected", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();             return true;           case R.id.menu_delete:             Toast.makeText(AndroidMenusActivity.this, "Delete is Selected", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();             return true;           case R.id.menu_preferences:             Toast.makeText(AndroidMenusActivity.this, "Preferences is Selected", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();             return true;           default:             return super.onOptionsItemSelected(item);         }     }      }

5. Finally run your project by right clicking on your project folder ⇒ Run As ⇒ 1 Android Application to test your application. On Android Emulator click on Menu Button to launch menu.

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