AlwaysShowAction.md.html

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(#) Usage of `showAsAction=always`

!!! WARNING: Usage of `showAsAction=always`
   This is a warning.

Id
:   `AlwaysShowAction`
Summary
:   Usage of `showAsAction=always`
Severity
:   Warning
Category
:   Usability
Platform
:   Android
Vendor
:   Android Open Source Project
Feedback
:   https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/new?component=192708
Since
:   Initial
Affects
:   Kotlin and Java files and resource files
Editing
:   This check runs on the fly in the IDE editor
Implementation
:   [Source Code](https://cs.android.com/android-studio/platform/tools/base/+/mirror-goog-studio-main:lint/libs/lint-checks/src/main/java/com/android/tools/lint/checks/AlwaysShowActionDetector.java)
Tests
:   [Source Code](https://cs.android.com/android-studio/platform/tools/base/+/mirror-goog-studio-main:lint/libs/lint-tests/src/test/java/com/android/tools/lint/checks/AlwaysShowActionDetectorTest.java)
Copyright Year
:   2012

Using `showAsAction="always"` in menu XML, or
`MenuItem.SHOW_AS_ACTION_ALWAYS` in Java code is usually a deviation
from the user interface style guide.Use `ifRoom` or the corresponding
`MenuItem.SHOW_AS_ACTION_IF_ROOM` instead.

If `always` is used sparingly there are usually no problems and behavior
is roughly equivalent to `ifRoom` but with preference over other
`ifRoom` items. Using it more than twice in the same menu is a bad
idea.

This check looks for menu XML files that contain more than two `always`
actions, or some `always` actions and no `ifRoom` actions. In Java code,
it looks for projects that contain references to
`MenuItem.SHOW_AS_ACTION_ALWAYS` and no references to
`MenuItem.SHOW_AS_ACTION_IF_ROOM`.

!!! Tip
   This lint check has an associated quickfix available in the IDE.

(##) Example

Here is an example of lint warnings produced by this check:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~text
res/menu-land/actions.xml:6:Warning: Prefer "ifRoom" instead of "always"
[AlwaysShowAction]
    android:showAsAction="always|collapseActionView"
    ------------------------------------------------
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here is the source file referenced above:

`res/menu-land/actions.xml`:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~xml linenumbers
&lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?&gt;
&lt;menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"&gt;

    &lt;item
        android:id="@+id/menu_search"
        android:showAsAction="always|collapseActionView"
        android:actionViewClass="android.widget.SearchView" /&gt;

    &lt;group android:id="@+id/reader_items"&gt;

        &lt;item
            android:id="@+id/menu_table_of_contents"
            android:showAsAction="always"
            android:actionLayout="@layout/action_table_of_contents" /&gt;

        &lt;item
            android:id="@+id/menu_settings"
            android:showAsAction="always" /&gt;

        &lt;item android:id="@+id/menu_mode"
            android:showAsAction="never" /&gt;

        &lt;item
            android:id="@+id/menu_buy"
            android:showAsAction="never" /&gt;

        &lt;item
            android:id="@+id/menu_about"
            android:showAsAction="never" /&gt;

        &lt;item
            android:id="@+id/menu_share"
            android:showAsAction="never" /&gt;

        &lt;item
            android:id="@+id/menu_keep"
            android:checkable="true"
            android:showAsAction="never" /&gt;

        &lt;item
            android:id="@+id/menu_d"
            android:showAsAction="never" /&gt;

        &lt;item
            android:id="@+id/menu_help"
            android:showAsAction="never" /&gt;

    &lt;/group&gt;

    &lt;group android:id="@+id/search_items"&gt;

        &lt;item
            android:id="@+id/menu_table_of_contents"
            android:showAsAction="always"
            android:actionLayout="@layout/action_table_of_contents" /&gt;

        &lt;item android:id="@+id/menu_search_exit"
              android:showAsAction="never" /&gt;

    &lt;/group&gt;

&lt;/menu&gt;
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You can also visit the
[source code](https://cs.android.com/android-studio/platform/tools/base/+/mirror-goog-studio-main:lint/libs/lint-tests/src/test/java/com/android/tools/lint/checks/AlwaysShowActionDetectorTest.java)
for the unit tests for this check to see additional scenarios.

The above example was automatically extracted from the first unit test
found for this lint check, `AlwaysShowActionDetector.testXmlMenus`.
To report a problem with this extracted sample, visit
https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/new?component=192708.

(##) Suppressing

You can suppress false positives using one of the following mechanisms:

* Adding the suppression attribute `tools:ignore="AlwaysShowAction"`
  on the problematic XML element (or one of its enclosing elements).
  You may also need to add the following namespace declaration on the
  root element in the XML file if it's not already there:
  `xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"`.

* Using a suppression annotation like this on the enclosing
  element:

  ```kt
  // Kotlin
  @Suppress("AlwaysShowAction")
  fun method() {
     problematicStatement()
  }
  ```

  or

  ```java
  // Java
  @SuppressWarnings("AlwaysShowAction")
  void method() {
     problematicStatement();
  }
  ```

* Using a suppression comment like this on the line above:

  ```kt
  //noinspection AlwaysShowAction
  problematicStatement()
  ```

* Using a special `lint.xml` file in the source tree which turns off
  the check in that folder and any sub folder. A simple file might look
  like this:
  ```xml
  &lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?&gt;
  &lt;lint&gt;
      &lt;issue id="AlwaysShowAction" severity="ignore" /&gt;
  &lt;/lint&gt;
  ```
  Instead of `ignore` you can also change the severity here, for
  example from `error` to `warning`. You can find additional
  documentation on how to filter issues by path, regular expression and
  so on
  [here](https://googlesamples.github.io/android-custom-lint-rules/usage/lintxml.md.html).

* In Gradle projects, using the DSL syntax to configure lint. For
  example, you can use something like
  ```gradle
  lintOptions {
      disable 'AlwaysShowAction'
  }
  ```
  In Android projects this should be nested inside an `android { }`
  block.

* For manual invocations of `lint`, using the `--ignore` flag:
  ```
  $ lint --ignore AlwaysShowAction ...`
  ```

* Last, but not least, using baselines, as discussed
  [here](https://googlesamples.github.io/android-custom-lint-rules/usage/baselines.md.html).

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