OptionsMenu deprecated in Fragments ... Now what?

Context

In version 1.4.0 of the androidx.activity:activity dependency, Google introduced the new MenuHost interfaces for activities to make it easier to create menus from any component.

But it was not until June 29, 2022, when Google released version 1.5.0 of the androidx.fragment:fragment dependency, where it has officially deprecated the old onCreateOptionsMenu & onOptionsItemSelected override menu functions.

Comparing code

Before

Until before version 1.5.0, inflating a menu was done in the following way:

https://gist.github.com/figonzal1/240428d5afa5c82336668083b582c3ba

On the other hand, the management of click events was done in this way:

https://gist.github.com/figonzal1/290bdc681551bca4389f1ed7f919e3bd

This way had problems since the use of these fragment APIs generated a close dependency between the fragments and the containing activity, so they are not easy to test.

Now

Android provides a MenuHost and a MenuProvider , so menu creation and click handling are much simpler and no longer rely on the fragments menu APIs.

We only need to call the function addMenuProvider, which forces us to implement the functions to create a menu and the click event handler.

https://gist.github.com/figonzal1/70f465caed3ae7f7dd41bae4673d7cc1

If you noticed, optionally, we can tell the menuhost that the menu is subject to the fragment's life cycle. With this parameter, you can tell the menu at what point in the fragment's life cycle it should be visible (in this case, the resume state).

This comes in handy if you have customized menus for each fragment. At the moment of changing the fragment, the menu will do it with it, respecting its life cycle automatically.

That's all for today ❤

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