How to add a Toolbar to Application in Android Studio.

How to add a Toolbar to Application in Android Studio and add menu items to it.

In this tutorial am going to show you how to add a Toolbar to the application.Then add Search and settings menu.

Open Android Studio and create a new project

Project name: ToolbarExample
Next Open Manifest.xml file and add this.
Create the MainActivity.java and ensure you check Backwards compatibility(AppCompat) checkbox.

  android:theme="@style/Theme.AppCompat.Light.NoActionBar">

This code will ensure that NoActionBar is created this giving us the chance to define our own Toolbar.

AndroidManifest.xml code

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"

package="net.techoverload.www.toolbarexample">

<application

android:allowBackup="true"

android:icon="@mipmap/ic_launcher"

android:label="@string/app_name"

android:roundIcon="@mipmap/ic_launcher_round"

android:supportsRtl="true"

android:theme="@style/Theme.AppCompat.Light.NoActionBar">

<activity android:name=".MainActivity">

<intent-filter>

<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />

<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />

</intent-filter>

</activity>

</application>

</manifest>

Create a folder under res> and name it menu.
Inside menu create a xml file and name it toolbar_menu.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"

xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto">

<item

android:id="@+id/action_search"

android:title="Search"

android:icon="@drawable/ic_action_search"

app:showAsAction="ifRoom"

/>

</menu>

activity_main.xml code

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<android.support.constraint.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="net.techoverload.www.toolbarexample.MainActivity">

<android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar

android:id="@+id/my_toolbar"

android:layout_width="match_parent"

android:layout_height="?attr/actionBarSize"

android:background="@color/colorPrimaryDark"

android:theme="@style/ThemeOverlay.AppCompat.ActionBar"

app:popupTheme="@style/ThemeOverlay.AppCompat.Light"

/>

<TextView

android:layout_width="wrap_content"

android:layout_height="wrap_content"

android:text="Hello World!"

app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="parent"

app:layout_constraintLeft_toLeftOf="parent"

app:layout_constraintRight_toRightOf="parent"

app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent" />

</android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout>

MainActivity.java

package net.techoverload.www.toolbarexample;

import android.support.v7.app.AppCompatActivity;

import android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar;

import android.os.Bundle;

import android.view.Menu;

import android.view.MenuInflater;

import android.view.MenuItem;

public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {

@Override

protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {

super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

Toolbar toolbar=(Toolbar)findViewById(R.id.my_toolbar);

setSupportActionBar(toolbar);

}

public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu)

{

MenuInflater inflater=getMenuInflater();

inflater.inflate(R.menu.toolbar_menu,menu);

return true;

}

}

Note:
For this project to work, make sure you add image asset icon and label it "ic_action_search"

Download Source code here

Output Screenshots