Android ContextMenu Tutorial with Examples

Android ContextMenu
An example of Context Menu
Appendix: Long pressing period

1. Android ContextMenu

When you are not able to allocate any space of your user interface for an essential function, you can use a Context Menu. The Context Menu is a floating menu on display in order to respond a long press, namely 500 milliseconds by default. The Context Menu may contain multiple Menu Items and Sub Menus.

In Android, a standard long press duration is 500 milliseconds. You can have this value by calling the ViewConfiguration.getLongPressTimeout() method. Users can adjust this value in Settings, which will work for all the applications on the device.

As an application developer, you cannot set a different value for "the long press period", however, you can definitely use some tricks to simulate a long press with customizing period of time as well as handle some related actions. (See more in the appendix at the end of the article.)

When a View is registered to a Long-Press event, the system will call the onCreateContextMenu() method to create and display the Context Menu.

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

    this.button = (Button) this.findViewById(R.id.button_test);

    this.registerForContextMenu(this.button);
}

@Override
public void onCreateContextMenu(ContextMenu menu, View view, ContextMenu.ContextMenuInfo menuInfo) {
    super.onCreateContextMenu(menu, view, menuInfo);

    menu.setHeaderTitle("Context Menu");

    MenuInflater inflater = getMenuInflater();
    inflater.inflate(R.menu.layout_context_menu, menu);
}

// You may not need "Android Resource File" to have a ContextMenu.
// Using Java to create Context Menu.
public void onCreateContextMenu_2(ContextMenu menu, View view, ContextMenu.ContextMenuInfo menuInfo) {
    super.onCreateContextMenu(menu, view, menuInfo);

    menu.setHeaderTitle("Context Menu");

    // groupId, itemId, order, title
    MenuItem menuItemUpload = menu.add(1, 1, 1, "Upload");
    MenuItem menuItemBookmark = menu.add(2, 2, 2, "Bookmark");  

    // groupId, itemId, order, title
    SubMenu subMenuShare=  menu.addSubMenu(3, 3, 3, "Share");
    subMenuShare.add(4, 31, 1, "Google" );
    subMenuShare.add(5, 32, 2, "Instagram");
}

When users click on a Menu Item, the onContextItemSelected() method is called.

@Override
public boolean onContextItemSelected(MenuItem item) {

    switch (item.getItemId()) {
        case R.id.menuItem_bookmark:
            Toast.makeText(this, "Bookmark", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
            break;
        case R.id.menuItem_upload:
            Toast.makeText(this, "Upload", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
            break;
        case R.id.menuItem_facebook:
            Toast.makeText(this, "Share Facebook", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
            break;
        case R.id.menuItem_instagram:
            Toast.makeText(this, "Share Instagram", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
            break;
        default:
            Toast.makeText(this, item.getTitle(), Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
            break;
    }
    return true;
}

You can use the XML Android Resource File to design the interface of a Context Menu. Nonetheless, the Context Menu of an application is quite simple, so creating a Context Menu completely from Java code is also a good choice (See more in the example below).

Note: Some attributes of the <item> (Menu Item) have no effect when placed in a Context Menu, for example:

app:showAsAction
android:icon (Not work in Android 3.0+/API 11+)

Android OptionMenu
Android PopupMenu

2. An example of Context Menu

Alright, now we will set an example of the Context Menu. Let's preview the example:

On Android Studio, create a new project.

Name: ContextMenuExample
Package name: org.o7planning.contextmenuexample

Note: Since Android 3.0 (API 11), Context Menu have not supported icons, but you can copy some icons below into the drawable folder to support older Android devices, or you can skip this step.


icon_upload.png	icon_bookmark.png	icon_share.png

The main interface of the application is extremely simple, with only one Button. When users long press on the Button, a Context Menu will be displayed.

activity_main.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    tools:context=".MainActivity">

    <Button
        android:id="@+id/button_test"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_marginTop="48dp"
        android:text="Long Press Me"
        app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent" />
    
</androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout>

On Android Studio, select:

File > New > Android Resource File

File name: layout_context_menu.xml
Resource type: Menu

On Android Studio, start with designing the interface of the Context Menu:

Then set ID, Title and Icon for the Menu Items:

layout_context_menu.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<menu xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <item
        android:id="@+id/menuItem_upload"
        android:icon="@drawable/icon_upload"
        android:title="Upload" />
    <item
        android:id="@+id/menuItem_bookmark"
        android:icon="@drawable/icon_bookmark"
        android:title="Bookmark" />
    <item
        android:id="@+id/menuItem_share"
        android:icon="@drawable/icon_share"
        android:title="Share">
        <menu>
            <item
                android:id="@+id/menuItem_facebook"
                android:title="Facebook" />
            <item
                android:id="@+id/menuItem_instagram"
                android:title="Instagram" />
        </menu>
    </item>
</menu>

MainActivity.java

package org.o7planning.contextmenuexample;

import androidx.appcompat.app.AppCompatActivity;

import android.annotation.SuppressLint;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.util.Log;
import android.view.ContextMenu;
import android.view.MenuInflater;
import android.view.MenuItem;
import android.view.SubMenu;
import android.view.View;
import android.widget.Button;
import android.widget.Toast;

public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {

    private static final String LOG_TAG = "ContextMenuExample";

    private Button button;

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

        this.button = (Button) this.findViewById(R.id.button_test);

        this.registerForContextMenu(this.button);
    }

    @SuppressLint("RestrictedApi")
    @Override
    public void onCreateContextMenu(ContextMenu menu, View view, ContextMenu.ContextMenuInfo menuInfo) {
        super.onCreateContextMenu(menu, view, menuInfo);

        menu.setHeaderTitle("Context Menu");

        MenuInflater inflater = getMenuInflater();
        inflater.inflate(R.menu.layout_context_menu, menu);

        // com.android.internal.view.menu.ContextMenuBuilder
        Log.i(LOG_TAG, ">>>>> Menu class: " + menu.getClass().getName());
        // com.android.internal.view.menu.MenuBuilder
        Log.i(LOG_TAG, ">>>>> Menu superclass: " + menu.getClass().getSuperclass().getName());
    }

    // You may not need "Android Resource File" to have a ContextMenu.
    // Using Java to create Context Menu.
    @SuppressLint("RestrictedApi")
    public void onCreateContextMenu_2(ContextMenu menu, View view, ContextMenu.ContextMenuInfo menuInfo) {
        super.onCreateContextMenu(menu, view, menuInfo);

        menu.setHeaderTitle("Context Menu");

        // groupId, itemId, order, title
        MenuItem menuItemUpload = menu.add(1, 1, 1, "Upload");
        MenuItem menuItemBookmark = menu.add(2, 2, 2, "Bookmark");
        menuItemUpload.setIcon(R.drawable.icon_upload);
        menuItemBookmark.setIcon(R.drawable.icon_bookmark);


        // groupId, itemId, order, title
        SubMenu subMenuShare=  menu.addSubMenu(3, 3, 3, "Share");
        subMenuShare.setIcon(R.drawable.icon_share);

        subMenuShare.add(4, 31, 1, "Google" );
        subMenuShare.add(5, 32, 2, "Instagram");
    }

    @Override
    public boolean onContextItemSelected(MenuItem item) {

        switch (item.getItemId()) {
            case R.id.menuItem_bookmark:
                Toast.makeText(this, "Bookmark", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
                break;
            case R.id.menuItem_upload:
                Toast.makeText(this, "Upload", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
                break;
            case R.id.menuItem_facebook:
                Toast.makeText(this, "Share Facebook", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
                break;
            case R.id.menuItem_instagram:
                Toast.makeText(this, "Share Instagram", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
                break;
            default:
                Toast.makeText(this, item.getTitle(), Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
                break;
        }
        return true;
    }
}

3. Appendix: Long pressing period

TODO

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Android ContextMenu Tutorial with Examples

1. Android ContextMenu

2. An example of Context Menu

3. Appendix: Long pressing period

TODO

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