Implementing an effective and user friendly share action in your ActionBar
is made even easier with the introduction of
ActionProvider
in Android 4.0 (API Level 14). An
, once attached to a menu item in the action bar, handles both the appearance and behavior of that item. In the case of
ActionProvider
ShareActionProvider
, you provide a share intent and it does the rest.
Note: ShareActionProvider
is available starting with API Level 14 and higher.
Update Menu Declarations
To get started with ShareActionProviders
, define the
android:actionProviderClass
attribute for the corresponding <item>
in your
menu resource file:
<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"> <item android:id="@+id/menu_item_share" android:showAsAction="ifRoom" android:title="Share" android:actionProviderClass="android.widget.ShareActionProvider" /> ... </menu>
This delegates responsibility for the item's appearance and function to
. However, you will need to tell the provider what you would like to share.
ShareActionProvider
Set the Share Intent
In order for ShareActionProvider
to function, you must provide it a share intent. This share intent should be the same as described in the
Sending Content to Other Apps lesson, with action ACTION_SEND
and additional data set via extras like
EXTRA_TEXT
and EXTRA_STREAM
. To assign a share intent, first find the corresponding
MenuItem
while inflating your menu resource in your
or
ActivityFragment
. Next, call
MenuItem.getActionProvider()
to retreive an instance of
ShareActionProvider
. Use setShareIntent()
to update the share intent associated with that action item. Here's an example:
private ShareActionProvider mShareActionProvider; ... @Override public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) { // Inflate menu resource file. getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.share_menu, menu); // Locate MenuItem with ShareActionProvider MenuItem item = menu.findItem(R.id.menu_item_share); // Fetch and store ShareActionProvider mShareActionProvider = (ShareActionProvider) item.getActionProvider(); // Return true to display menu return true; } // Call to update the share intent private void setShareIntent(Intent shareIntent) { if (mShareActionProvider != null) { mShareActionProvider.setShareIntent(shareIntent); } }
You may only need to set the share intent once during the creation of your menus, or you may want to set it and then update it as the UI changes. For example, when you view photos full screen in the Gallery app, the sharing intent changes as you flip between
photos.
For further discussion about the ShareActionProvider
object, see the
Action Bar guide.