Menu

Menu are a common user interface component in many types of applications. To provide a familiar and consistent user experience, you should use the Menu APIs to present user actions and other options in your activities.

Beginning with Android 3.0 (API level 11), Android-powered devices are no longer required to provide a dedicated Menu button. With this change, Android apps should migrate away from a dependence on the traditional 6-item menu panel and instead provide an app bar to present common user actions.

Although the design and user experience for some menu items have changed, the semantics to define a set of actions and options is still based on the Menu APIs. This guide shows how to create the three fundamental types of menus or action presentations on all versions of Android:

Options menu and app bar

The options menu is the primary collection of menu items for an activity. It's where you should place actions that have a global impact on the app, such as "Search," "Compose email," and "Settings."

See the section about Creating an Options Menu.

Context menu and contextual action mode

A context menu is a floating menu that appears when the user performs a long-click on an element. It provides actions that affect the selected content or context frame.

The contextual action mode displays action items that affect the selected content in a bar at the top of the screen and allows the user to select multiple items.

See the section about Creating Contextual Menus.

Popup menu

A popup menu displays a list of items in a vertical list that's anchored to the view that invoked the menu. It's good for providing an overflow of actions that relate to specific content or to provide options for a second part of a command. Actions in a popup menu should not directly affect the corresponding content—that's what contextual actions are for. Rather, the popup menu is for extended actions that relate to regions of content in your activity.

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Author : Android Code Tutorial