Android: When is onCreateOptionsMenu called during Activity lifecycle?

Question

I put a couple of breakpoints in onCreate (one at the beginning, and one at the end of the method), and I also put one at the beginning of onCreateOptionsMenu. The onCreate method is called first, and before it finishes onCreateOptionsMenu is called.

I'm trying to separate the Fragment navigation code in my app, so I have a couple of objects that I delegate onCreateOptionsMenu to depending on if the app is running on phone/tablet (I'm using screen size to determine this, my layout file for large screens has a View I check for after the layout is inflated). The problem I'm having is, I create these objects in onCreate, and I'm getting a null pointer exception when I reference the object in onCreateOptionsMenu.

Answer 1

The onCreate method is called first, and before it finishes onCreateOptionsMenu is called.

That will be true on devices and apps with an official Honeycomb-style action bar. If there is no action bar, onCreateOptionsMenu() should not get called until the user calls up the menu, typically by pressing the MENU button.

(I'm using screen size to determine this, my layout file for large screens has a View I check for after the layout is inflated)

That test will break very shortly, once Ice Cream Sandwich ships. From what I can tell, ICS phones will have action bars (though perhaps not system bars).

Answer 2

In my case on Android 2.3 and with FragmentActivity from v4-support library the order of life-cycle methods invoke is following:

07-18 18:29:21.629  20183-20183/? I/onCreate:
07-18 18:29:21.719  20183-20183/? I/onStart: 
07-18 18:29:21.719  20183-20183/? I/onResume: 
07-18 18:29:21.739  20183-20183/? I/onCreateOptionsMenu:

Answer 3

I found if in onResume() I call

invalidateOptionsMenu();

then onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) is called afterward - as per the activity life cycle (I think that's the correct term here), as indicated by @tir38

@Override
public void onResume() {
    super.onResume();
    invalidateOptionsMenu();
}

Answer 4

Addition in above answer, In case of ICS and Honeycomb onCreateOptionsMenu is called after onCreate and onPostCreate while in Gingerbread and earlier versions it is called after onCreate but before onPostCreate. Thats the only difference I found.

Answer 5

In my experience ActionBarActivity from support v7 onCreateOptionsMenu() called in setContentView() method in the middle of onCreate() it is appear on 4.1.1.

But on 4.4 another story onCreateOptionMenu() called after onCreate(). Also I don't know it may be immediately after, maybe not. But is fact after. I didn't test on other versions but 4.1.1 is first where I had have a trouble with init order.

Answer 6

i suggest to create a callback-function in your fragment to avoid timing issues with onResume() and onCreateOptionsMenu().

doing the following works flawless for me:

1. create and add your fragment to your activity
2. leave a reference of this fragment in your activity
3. create a public method doSomethingWithTheMenu() in your fragment
4. call this method from within your activity when onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) is called.

example:

@Override
public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
    if (this.myFragment != null) {
        this.myFragment.doSomethingWithTheMenu(menu);
    }
    return true;
}