How can I change the Options menu background for A

Question

I have the same standard options menu, but I want to change the background of the items from white to black. I've seen many postings about how to do it, but those don't work for 2.3.

Does anyone know of a working menu inflater with a custom-colored background compatible with version 2.3?

**ATTENTION** NO IMAGE PLACEMENT!!! NO CODE FROM OTHER POSTINGS, BECAUSE IVE TRIED THEM ALL HERE!!!

Answer 1

See if following solution solves your problem....

AndroidMenifest.xml

<application android:icon="@drawable/ic_launcher" android:label="@string/app_name" android:theme="@style/CustomTheme">

menu/options.xml

<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <item android:id="@+id/option_1" android:title="Android"/>
    <item android:id="@+id/option_2" android:title="iPhone"/>
    <item android:id="@+id/option_3" android:title="iPad"/>
</menu>

styles.xml

<resources>
    <style name="CustomTheme" parent="android:Theme">
        <!-- Panel attributes -->
        <!-- <item name="android:panelBackground">@drawable/menu_bg</item> -->
        <item name="android:panelFullBackground">@drawable/menu_full_bg</item> 
            <!--    <item name="android:panelColorBackground">#FF0000</item> -->
    </style>

    <!-- <drawable name="menu_bg">#DDDAAA</drawable> -->
    <drawable name="menu_full_bg">#000FFF</drawable>

</resources>

StackoverflowActivity.java

public class StackoverflowActivity extends Activity {

    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.main);
    }

    @Override
    public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
        getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.options, menu);
        return true;
    }

}

Answer 2

i have used the code as shown below on 2.3.1 version and it works and just call in onCreat method addOptionsMenuHackerInflaterFactory();

private static final int COLOR_MENU_ID = Menu.FIRST;
private static final int EMBOSS_MENU_ID = Menu.FIRST + 1;
private static final int BLUR_MENU_ID = Menu.FIRST + 2;


@Override
public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
    super.onCreateOptionsMenu(menu);

    menu.add(0, COLOR_MENU_ID, 0, "Color").setShortcut('3', 'c');
    menu.add(0, EMBOSS_MENU_ID, 0, "Emboss").setShortcut('4', 's');
    menu.add(0, BLUR_MENU_ID, 0, "Blur").setShortcut('5', 'z');
    return true;
}

@Override
public boolean onPrepareOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
    super.onPrepareOptionsMenu(menu);
    return true;
}

@Override
public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item) {

    return super.onOptionsItemSelected(item);
}
@SuppressWarnings("rawtypes")
static Class       IconMenuItemView_class = null;
@SuppressWarnings("rawtypes")
static Constructor IconMenuItemView_constructor = null;

// standard signature of constructor expected by inflater of all View classes
@SuppressWarnings("rawtypes")
private static final Class[] standard_inflater_constructor_signature = 
new Class[] { Context.class, AttributeSet.class };

protected void addOptionsMenuHackerInflaterFactory()
{
    final LayoutInflater infl = getLayoutInflater();

    infl.setFactory(new Factory()
    {
        public View onCreateView(final String name, 
                                 final Context context,
                                 final AttributeSet attrs)
        {
            if (!name.equalsIgnoreCase("com.android.internal.view.menu.IconMenuItemView"))
                return null; // use normal inflater

            View view = null;

            // "com.android.internal.view.menu.IconMenuItemView" 
            // - is the name of an internal Java class 
            //   - that exists in Android <= 3.2 and possibly beyond
            //   - that may or may not exist in other Android revs
            // - is the class whose instance we want to modify to set background etc.
            // - is the class we want to instantiate with the standard constructor:
            //     IconMenuItemView(context, attrs)
            // - this is what the LayoutInflater does if we return null
            // - unfortunately we cannot just call:
            //     infl.createView(name, null, attrs);
            //   here because on Android 3.2 (and possibly later):
            //   1. createView() can only be called inside inflate(),
            //      because inflate() sets the context parameter ultimately
            //      passed to the IconMenuItemView constructor's first arg,
            //      storing it in a LayoutInflater instance variable.
            //   2. we are inside inflate(),
            //   3. BUT from a different instance of LayoutInflater (not infl)
            //   4. there is no way to get access to the actual instance being used
            // - so we must do what createView() would have done for us
            //
            if (IconMenuItemView_class == null)
            {
                try
                {
                    IconMenuItemView_class = getClassLoader().loadClass(name);
                }
                catch (ClassNotFoundException e)
                {
                    // this OS does not have IconMenuItemView - fail gracefully
                    return null; // hack failed: use normal inflater
                }
            }
            if (IconMenuItemView_class == null)
                return null; // hack failed: use normal inflater

            if (IconMenuItemView_constructor == null)
            {
                try
                {
                    IconMenuItemView_constructor = 
                    IconMenuItemView_class.getConstructor(standard_inflater_constructor_signature);
                }
                catch (SecurityException e)
                {
                    return null; // hack failed: use normal inflater
                }
                catch (NoSuchMethodException e)
                {
                    return null; // hack failed: use normal inflater
                }
            }
            if (IconMenuItemView_constructor == null)
                return null; // hack failed: use normal inflater

            try
            {
                Object[] args = new Object[] { context, attrs };
                view = (View)(IconMenuItemView_constructor.newInstance(args));
            }
            catch (IllegalArgumentException e)
            {
                return null; // hack failed: use normal inflater
            }
            catch (InstantiationException e)
            {
                return null; // hack failed: use normal inflater
            }
            catch (IllegalAccessException e)
            {
                return null; // hack failed: use normal inflater
            }
            catch (InvocationTargetException e)
            {
                return null; // hack failed: use normal inflater
            }
            if (null == view) // in theory handled above, but be safe... 
                return null; // hack failed: use normal inflater


            // apply our own View settings after we get back to runloop
            // - android will overwrite almost any setting we make now
            final View v = view;
            new Handler().post(new Runnable()
            {
                public void run()
                {
                    v.setBackgroundColor(Color.BLUE);

                    try
                    {
                        // in Android <= 3.2, IconMenuItemView implemented with TextView
                        // guard against possible future change in implementation
                        TextView tv = (TextView)v;
                        tv.setTextColor(Color.RED);
                    }
                    catch (ClassCastException e)
                    {
                        // hack failed: do not set TextView attributes
                    }
                }
            });

            return view;
        }
    });
}

the output for backround blue and textcolor red as shown below

Answer 3

i was searching for the same stuff but when i installed my application in my Samsung galaxy Y which is having version 2.3.6 . i got black background for optionmenu automatically.although the emulator displays me white background for same menu.i don't know how it is working like that,but i got what i want.so i left it unaltered.
Here is the code:

@Override
public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
    super.onCreateOptionsMenu(menu);

    MenuInflater inflater1 = getMenuInflater();
    inflater1.inflate(R.menu.scfmenu, menu);

    return true;
}



@Override
public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item) {

    switch (item.getItemId()) {
    case R.id.settings:
        Intent i = new Intent(getApplicationContext(), prefsActivity.class);
        startActivity(i);
        break;
    case R.id.logout:
        Intent j = new Intent(getApplicationContext(), LoginActivity.class);
        startActivity(j);
        break;
    }

    return super.onOptionsItemSelected(item);
}

Answer 4

I found this funny post from codeproject. You can custom everything you want: bk color, icon. And you can change the menu style with this:

  mMenu.setItemsPerLineInLandscapeOrientation(8);
  mMenu.setItemsPerLineInPortraitOrientation(4);

Note: it is a trick to add view look like option menu. Hope this help!

Answer 5

The below code is working fine 2.3.6(test on device and emulator). It is almost copied & combined from different sites from google search

@Override
public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
    MenuInflater inflater = getMenuInflater();
    inflater.inflate(R.menu.menu, menu);
    setMenuBackground();
    return super.onCreateOptionsMenu(menu);
}

protected void setMenuBackground() {
    getLayoutInflater().setFactory(new Factory() {
     @Override
                public View onCreateView(final String name, final Context context,
                        final AttributeSet attrs) {

                    if (name.equalsIgnoreCase("com.android.internal.view.menu.IconMenuItemView")) {

                        try { // Ask our inflater to create the view
                            final LayoutInflater f = getLayoutInflater();
                            final View[] view = new View[1];
                            try {
                                view[0] = f.createView(name, null, attrs);
                            } catch (InflateException e) {
                                hackAndroid23(name, attrs, f, view);
                            }
                            // Kind of apply our own background
                            new Handler().post(new Runnable() {
                                public void run() {
                                    view[0].setBackgroundColor(Color.BLUE);

                                }
                            });
                            return view[0];
                        } catch (InflateException e) {
                        } catch (ClassNotFoundException e) {

                        }
                    }
                    return null;
                }
            });
        }

        static void hackAndroid23(final String name,
                final android.util.AttributeSet attrs, final LayoutInflater f,
                final View[] view) {
            try {
                f.inflate(new XmlPullParser() {
                    @Override
                    public int next() throws XmlPullParserException, IOException {
                        try {
                            view[0] = (TextView) f.createView(name, null, attrs);
                        } catch (InflateException e) {
                        } catch (ClassNotFoundException e) {
                        }
                        throw new XmlPullParserException("exit");
                    }

                    @Override
                    public void defineEntityReplacementText(String entityName,
                            String replacementText)
                            throws XmlPullParserException {
                        // TODO Auto-generated method stub

                    }

                    @Override
                    public int getAttributeCount() {
                        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
                        return 0;
                    }

                    @Override
                    public String getAttributeName(int index) {
                        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
                        return null;
                    }

                    @Override
                    public String getAttributeNamespace(int index) {
                        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
                        return null;
                    }

                    @Override
                    public String getAttributePrefix(int index) {
                        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
                        return null;
                    }

                    @Override
                    public String getAttributeType(int index) {
                        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
                        return null;
                    }

                    @Override
                    public String getAttributeValue(int index) {
                        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
                        return null;
                    }

                    @Override
                    public String getAttributeValue(String namespace,
                            String name) {
                        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
                        return null;
                    }

                    @Override
                    public int getColumnNumber() {
                        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
                        return 0;
                    }

                    @Override
                    public int getDepth() {
                        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
                        return 0;
                    }

                    @Override
                    public int getEventType() throws XmlPullParserException {
                        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
                        return 0;
                    }

                    @Override
                    public boolean getFeature(String name) {
                        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
                        return false;
                    }

                    @Override
                    public String getInputEncoding() {
                        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
                        return null;
                    }

                    @Override
                    public int getLineNumber() {
                        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
                        return 0;
                    }

                    @Override
                    public String getName() {
                        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
                        return null;
                    }

                    @Override
                    public String getNamespace() {
                        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
                        return null;
                    }

                    @Override
                    public String getNamespace(String prefix) {
                        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
                        return null;
                    }

                    @Override
                    public int getNamespaceCount(int depth)
                            throws XmlPullParserException {
                        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
                        return 0;
                    }

                    @Override
                    public String getNamespacePrefix(int pos)
                            throws XmlPullParserException {
                        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
                        return null;
                    }

                    @Override
                    public String getNamespaceUri(int pos)
                            throws XmlPullParserException {
                        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
                        return null;
                    }

                    @Override
                    public String getPositionDescription() {
                        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
                        return null;
                    }

                    @Override
                    public String getPrefix() {
                        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
                        return null;
                    }

                    @Override
                    public Object getProperty(String name) {
                        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
                        return null;
                    }

                    @Override
                    public String getText() {
                        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
                        return null;
                    }

                    @Override
                    public char[] getTextCharacters(
                            int[] holderForStartAndLength) {
                        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
                        return null;
                    }

                    @Override
                    public boolean isAttributeDefault(int index) {
                        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
                        return false;
                    }

                    @Override
                    public boolean isEmptyElementTag()
                            throws XmlPullParserException {
                        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
                        return false;
                    }

                    @Override
                    public boolean isWhitespace() throws XmlPullParserException {
                        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
                        return false;
                    }

                    @Override
                    public int nextTag() throws XmlPullParserException,
                            IOException {
                        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
                        return 0;
                    }

                    @Override
                    public String nextText() throws XmlPullParserException,
                            IOException {
                        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
                        return null;
                    }

                    @Override
                    public int nextToken() throws XmlPullParserException,
                            IOException {
                        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
                        return 0;
                    }

                    @Override
                    public void require(int type, String namespace, String name)
                            throws XmlPullParserException, IOException {
                        // TODO Auto-generated method stub

                    }

                    @Override
                    public void setFeature(String name, boolean state)
                            throws XmlPullParserException {
                        // TODO Auto-generated method stub

                    }

                    @Override
                    public void setInput(Reader in)
                            throws XmlPullParserException {
                        // TODO Auto-generated method stub

                    }

                    @Override
                    public void setInput(InputStream inputStream,
                            String inputEncoding) throws XmlPullParserException {
                        // TODO Auto-generated method stub

                    }

                    @Override
                    public void setProperty(String name, Object value)
                            throws XmlPullParserException {
                        // TODO Auto-generated method stub

                    }
                }, null, false);
            } catch (InflateException e1) {
                // "exit" ignored
            }
        }

Answer 6

In an ideal scenario, you shouldn't be doing that. Various devices would have different colors, as they decide. If you really really have to customize the menu item's backgrounds, then, I would suggest don't use it. Instead, create some kind of context menu, which you can fully customize as per your needs.

I know its probably not a solution you are asking for, but whatever workarounds you will be be doing for this, it might work for a few device, and would probably be a disaster for others.