new ActionBarDrawerToggle when using AppCompatActivity

Question

Today Google updated the AppCompat library to version 22.1.0, and we can now use AppCompatActivity instead of ActionBarActivity. This means we no longer need to have a Toolbar view in our activity layout.

The problem is that in order to create a Drawer toggle button, I cannot use new ActionBarDrawerToggle anymore, because it expects a Toolbar parameter, which will not exist.

How am I supposed to add the toggle button to the ActionBar now?

Out of curiosity - who's saying that *"we no longer need to have a Toolbar view in our activity layout"*? I can't find any reference for this. — reVerse, Apr 21 '15 at 22:42
The new `AppCompatActivity` already features a toolbar (which I believe can be removed/hidden if you want), so you don't need to add another one — Guilherme, Apr 21 '15 at 23:15
The `AppCompatActivity` features an `ActionBar` per default. You still have to modify the Theme to `Theme.AppCompat.NoActionBar` and add a `Toolbar` to your layout. — reVerse, Apr 22 '15 at 07:24

Brahim Bouaboud · Answer 1 · 2015-04-28T14:18:43.317

A possible solution

Activity:

import android.os.Bundle;
import android.support.v4.widget.DrawerLayout;
import android.support.v7.app.ActionBarDrawerToggle;
import android.support.v7.app.AppCompatActivity;
import android.view.MenuItem;

public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity 
{

    DrawerLayout drawerLayout;
    ActionBarDrawerToggle toggle;

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState)
    {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
        drawerLayout = (DrawerLayout) findViewById(R.id.drawer_layout);
        getSupportActionBar().setDisplayHomeAsUpEnabled(true);
        getSupportActionBar().setHomeButtonEnabled(true);
        toggle = new ActionBarDrawerToggle
            (
                    this,
                    drawerLayout,
                    R.string.navigation_drawer_open,
                    R.string.navigation_drawer_close
            )
            {
            };
        drawerLayout.setDrawerListener(toggle);
        toggle.syncState();

    }

    @Override
    public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item)
    {
        if (toggle.onOptionsItemSelected(item))
        {
            return true;
        }
        return super.onOptionsItemSelected(item);
    }
}

Layout:

<android.support.v4.widget.DrawerLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:id="@+id/drawer_layout"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    tools:context=".MainActivity">

    <FrameLayout
        android:id="@+id/container"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent" />


    <ListView
        android:id="@+id/list_drawer"
        android:layout_width="240dp"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        android:layout_gravity="start"
        android:background="#f1f2f7"
        android:choiceMode="singleChoice"
        android:divider="@android:color/transparent" />

</android.support.v4.widget.DrawerLayout>

Style :

<resources>


    <style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar">
    </style>

</resources>

It's important that your app inherit the AppCompat theme.

If you replaced the actionbar by a toolbar do not forget to put back the actionbar by removing this line in the styles.xml :

<item name="windowActionBar">false</item>

Gradle :

dependencies {
    compile fileTree(dir: 'libs', include: ['*.jar'])
    compile 'com.android.support:support-v4:22.1.1'
    compile 'com.android.support:appcompat-v7:22.1.1'
}

I put this code on github : https://github.com/bbouabou/AppCompatActivity-With-ActionBarDrawerToggle .

How do I get the hamburger icon? According to the material guidelines, it should be used, but this code gives you a simple back arrow? — Mr Pablo, Aug 18 '15 at 16:13
@MrPablo: You probably missed something, this code should give you hamburger icon when drawer is closed and arrow when drawer is open. — Brahim Bouaboud, Aug 27 '15 at 13:48
@BrahimBouaboud yea, I went back and rewrote the code and it's working now — Mr Pablo, Aug 27 '15 at 14:59
I am habituated with Toolbar. Suddenly, I got the same requirement for my current project. I searched a lot for couple of hours, finally got this to boost up my confidence. Thanks. :) — Noundla Sandeep, Mar 30 '16 at 12:57

score 5 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 28 '15 at 14:46

As per official docs, the ActionBarDrawerToggle class from v7 features a toolbar-independent constructor:

public ActionBarDrawerToggle (Activity activity, DrawerLayout drawerLayout, int openDrawerContentDescRes, int closeDrawerContentDescRes)

This will work with the default ActionBar provided through activity. So, as always, either:

you inherit from an action bar theme, and call new ActionBarDrawerToggle(...);
you inherit from a .NoActionBar theme, instantiate/inflate a Toolbar object, and call new ActionBarDrawerToggle(..., Toolbar t, ...)

Looks to me that nothing changed with the ActionBarActivity refactoring.

really works after swithcing from v4 to v7 support library – Subtle Fox Mar 11 '16 at 14:32 — Subtle Fox, Mar 11 '16 at 14:32

score 4 · Answer 3 · answered May 11 '15 at 19:52

4

If you're using Android Studio's default Navigation Drawer setup, then I found success by changing NavigationDrawerFragment.java's ActionBarDrawerToggle class from v4 to v7 in the import statement and omitting the Toolbar argument from the ActionBarDrawerToggle constructor.

answered May 11 '15 at 19:52

SQLiteNoob

2,958
3
29
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hi @SQLiteNoon, please can you show your new constructor. Mine does have these parameters (new ActionBarDrawerToggle(getActivity, DrawerLayout, R.drawable.ic_drawer,"open, "close" – Val Okafor May 18 '15 at 23:33

score -3 · Answer 4 · answered Apr 28 '15 at 13:12

-3

I couldn't find a way to use the AppCompatActivity's default toolbar, so the workaround I used was to use the Theme.AppCompat.NoActionBar theme and manually add the toolbar to the XML like I was doing before.

answered Apr 28 '15 at 13:12

Guilherme

7,839
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Where have you read `AppCompatActivity` has a default `Toolbar`? – natario Apr 28 '15 at 14:37

new ActionBarDrawerToggle when using AppCompatActivity

4 Answers4