The document discusses the Android action bar and ActionBarSherlock library. It describes the action bar's components like the app icon, view control, action buttons, and overflow. It also covers backward compatibility with ActionBarSherlock, split and contextual action bars, ABS requirements and classes. The key points are that the native action bar was introduced in API 11 but ABS supports back to API 2.x, and ABS will use the native implementation on API 14+. It provides tips on action bar implementation and ABS usage.

1. Action Bar – AB
&
ActionBarSherlock - ABS

2. Content
 Action Bar
 General Organization Action Bar
 Split Action Bar
 Contextual Action Bar
 ActionBarSherlock
 Requirements
 Code Snippets
 Summary
 Questions

3. Action bar
 The action bar is a window feature that identify
the application and user location, and provides
user actions and navigation modes
 Action bar offers users a consistent interface
across application.
 Introduced in API level 11 (Android 3.0
Honeycomb)

4. Backward Compatibility
 ActionBar class is not available in older versions
of Android (< 3.0).
 Alternate: ActionBarSherlock (ABS) library
helps creating Action bar, back up to android 2.x
 Other option: Action Bar Compatibility (see
sample app in API Demos)

5. General Organization
1. App Icon
2. View Control
3. Action Buttons
4. Action Overflow

6. 1. App Icon
 Establishes app's identity
 Displays Up caret to the left of the app icon, to
navigate up the hierarchy.

7. 2. View control
 If your app displays data in different views, this
segment of the action bar allows users to switch
views.
i. Drop-down menus
ii. Tab controls
iii. Custom Navigation
 App title or longer branding information can also
use this space.

8. 3. Action Buttons
 Action buttons on the action bar surface your
app's most important activities.
 Actions that don't fit in the action bar are moved
automatically to the action overflow.
Action buttons used throughout the Gmail application

9. 4. Action overflow
 Action overflow provides access to frequently used
actions.
 The overflow icon only appears on phones that
have no menu hardware keys.
 Phones with menu keys display the action overflow
when the user presses the key.
Action overflow is pinned to the right side.

10. Split Action Bars
 There are three possible locations to split action
bar content.
1. Main action bar
2. Top bar
3. Bottom bar
 Note: Available on Android 4.0 (API level 14) and
higher, for native AB, or use ABS for backward
compatibility

12. AB on Different Screen Sizes
Gmail App

13. How many items will fit in the main
action bar?
 Action buttons in the main action bar may not
occupy more than 50% of the bar's width.
 Action buttons on bottom action bars can use the
entire width.

14. How many actions will fit in the
main action bar?
 Density-independent pixels (dp) determine the
number of items in action bar.
 smaller than 360 dp = 2 icons
 360-499 dp = 3 icons
 500-599 dp = 4 icons
 600 dp and larger = 5 icons

15. Contextual Action Bar
 A contextual action bar (CAB) is a temporary
action bar.
 It overlays the app's action bar for the duration of
a particular sub-task.
 CABs are most typically used for tasks that
involve acting on selected data or text.

16. Contextual Action Bar
 Like normal Action Bar, CAB also support split
action bar.
 ActionMode represents a contextual mode (or
CAB) of the user interface.
 Dismiss the CAB via
i. Navigation bar's Back button
ii. CAB's checkmark button

17. Contextual Action Bar

18. ActionBarSherlock (ABS)
 ActionBarSherlock is a standalone library.
 It allows developer to develop apps with action
bar on Android API level 2.x and up.
 Current version: 4.2.0 — 08-10-2012
 Developed by : Jake Wharton

19. ActionBarSherlock (ABS)
 The library will automatically use native Action
Bar implementation on Android 4.0 or above.
 On Android 3.x (Honeycomb), app will prefer ABS
over native Action Bar.

20. ABS Requirements
 It is required that both ABS library and your
project are compiled with Android 4.0 or newer.
 It is also required that you are compiling with JDK
1.6 in both, your editor and build systems.

21. ABS Theme Requirements
 The ABS library provides three core themes.
 Theme.Sherlock
 Theme.Sherlock.Light
 Theme.Sherlock.Light.DarkActionBar
 One of above theme is must for all activities
having action bar.
 Custom Theme

22. Native AB VS ABS
Native AB classes ABS library classes
 Activity  SherlockActivity
 FragmentActivity  SherlockFragmentActivity
 Fragment  SherlockFragment
 ListFragment  SherlockListFragment
 ListActivity  SherlockListActivity
 DialogFragment  SherlockDialogFragment

23. ABS Common Imports
 Ensure that you are using these types where
appropriate
 com.actionbarsherlock.app.ActionBar
 com.actionbarsherlock.view.Menu
 com.actionbarsherlock.view.MenuItem
 com.actionbarsherlock.view.MenuInflater
Note: ABS contain same classes that are named
same as their native counterparts

24. ABS and Proguard
 Add the following lines in proguard.cfg, to ensure
proper functionality of the library:
-keep class android.support.v4.app.** { *; }
-keep interface android.support.v4.app.** { *; }
-keep class com.actionbarsherlock.** { *; }
-keep interface com.actionbarsherlock.** { *; }
-keep attributes *Annotation*

25. Action Bar – Menu xml
 Create XML file in /res/menu/my_menu

26. Action Bar

27. Action Bar

28. Menu Item

29. Split Action Bar
 Update AndroidManifest.xml

30. Tabs

31. ActionMode (CAB)

33. What else ?
 Action Providers i.e.  Search
 Settings
 Share Action Provider  Overlay
 Navigation Mode  Static Attachment
 No need to extend
 Progress SherlockActivity etc
 Indeterminate Progress  Implement
 Horizontal Progress Bar OnCreateOptionsMenuListe
ner

34. Summary
 Native Action bar - Introduced in Android API 11
(Android 3.0 Honeycomb)
 ActionBarSherlock support API 2.x and above.
 ABS library will automatically use native Action
Bar implementation on Android 4.0 or above.
 Be careful while importing classes, ABS have
same class names as native AB.
 Split Action bar
 Contextual Action bar

35. Questions