Develop Bugs

[Q] menu button question

so i'm currently using a t-mobile g2, but i'm definitely considering the galaxy nexus being my next phone. might even switch to verizon for it (but most likely will just wait for it on t-mobile).
my question is, and this really probably applies to all ICS phones, but for now, mainly to the galaxy nexus, is what happens with the menu button with all my current apps? i'm sure that many devs will be updating their apps to take advantage of and deal with any and all changes, but as it is, like 99% of my apps using the menu button, and since there is none now, i was curious how that works... i know from what i've read that alot of the main system apps (browser, camera, email/gmail, calendar, etc) have a menu button built into the layout... but what about 3rd party apps?
this is just something i was wondering about. i'm sure once i have one in my hand it will all make sense, but figured i'd ask
Dave

My best guess is it will show up in the bottom bar, similar to how it works in Honeycomb.

jayzeroeee said:
My best guess is it will show up in the bottom bar, similar to how it works in Honeycomb.
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ok now i haven't messed with honeycomb at all, so does that mean the bar with the back/home/multitasking buttons is context sensitive and it could potentially change to include a menu button when needed with older apps?
thats what i was guessing...

polarbearmc said:
ok now i haven't messed with honeycomb at all, so does that mean the bar with the back/home/multitasking buttons is context sensitive and it could potentially change to include a menu button when needed with older apps?
thats what i was guessing...
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Click to collapse
Menu button will be there most of the time like in honeycomb
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda premium

rdy2go said:
Menu button will be there most of the time like in honeycomb
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i saw three or four hands-on and the bottom bar buttons have always been those three.
as far as i could understand, the menu is now raised by the "three dots" that appears contextually, often in the upper-right...
if i am right, it is at least a questionable choise i guess.

lorenx said:
i saw three or four hands-on and the bottom bar buttons have always been those three.
as far as i could understand, the menu is now raised by the "three dots" that appears contextually, often in the upper-right...
if i am right, it is at least a questionable choise i guess.
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Click to collapse
I think you are right.. menu is going to be included in the app itself.

androidbuff123 said:
I think you are right.. menu is going to be included in the app itself.
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Click to collapse
That only works for apps that are built for ICS. For apps that still rely on the hard menu button there will have to be some way to bring up the menu.

In honeycomb if there is a menu button present in the app there wont be a menu button on the bottom of the screen. If there is no menu button present in the app there will be one on the bottom of the app.
I'm sure it'll be just like that.
Sent from my Nexus S using xda premium

In ICS applications the menù button is "3 dots" in somewhere in the app.
In Gingerbread applications that runs in ICS, in the bar with back, home and multitasking buttons, will appear the "3 dots" button, that is like the "menù" button in GB.
esxuse me for my english.
source: hdblog.it

if the app doesn't support the menu button within the app, then you'll see a "three dots button" near the three soft button.

yea looks like a few of you have confirmed what i thought. the main "button" bar at the bottom is context sensitive and as needed a 4th, menu button will appear. but i'm sure most devs will start rebuilding their apps for ics in the future to not need it.
thanks!
actually starting to get really excited for this change.

I got a certain idea that since the buttons are from the screen, and therefore, rendered, modders will find a way to include more or less buttons, and even change their icon. I wouldn't be too surprised.

Quick screenshot from the second video of the mentioned HDblog showing the "three dots" menu button in apps that are not optimized for ics.
You can find it in the second video at around 7min 30 sec.

Here's also some good info regarding the soft-buttons and ICS from the SDK.
Controls for system UI visibility
Since the early days of Android, the system has managed a UI component known as the status bar, which resides at the top of handset devices to deliver information such as the carrier signal, time, notifications, and so on. Android 3.0 added the system bar for tablet devices, which resides at the bottom of the screen to provide system navigation controls (Home, Back, and so forth) and also an interface for elements traditionally provided by the status bar. In Android 4.0, the system provides a new type of system UI called the navigation bar. You might consider the navigation bar a re-tuned version of the system bar designed for handsets—it provides navigation controls for devices that don’t have hardware counterparts for navigating the system, but it leaves out the system bar's notification UI and setting controls. As such, a device that provides the navigation bar also has the status bar at the top.
To this day, you can hide the status bar on handsets using the FLAG_FULLSCREEN flag. In Android 4.0, the APIs that control the system bar’s visibility have been updated to better reflect the behavior of both the system bar and navigation bar:
The SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LOW_PROFILE flag replaces the STATUS_BAR_HIDDEN flag. When set, this flag enables “low profile" mode for the system bar or navigation bar. Navigation buttons dim and other elements in the system bar also hide. Enabling this is useful for creating more immersive games without distraction for the system navigation buttons.
The SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_VISIBLE flag replaces the STATUS_BAR_VISIBLE flag to request the system bar or navigation bar be visible.
The SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_HIDE_NAVIGATION is a new flag that requests the navigation bar hide completely. Be aware that this works only for the navigation bar used by some handsets (it does not hide the system bar on tablets). The navigation bar returns to view as soon as the system receives user input. As such, this mode is useful primarily for video playback or other cases in which the whole screen is needed but user input is not required.
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Passionate Plea to All Developers - Menu Button Options

this is a Passionate Desperate Plea to all Developers. Please, Please, Please (in my culture the amount of times you say please infers the passion of the plea) include an option in the ROMS to remap and customize the way the menu function works in ICS.
after having used the Galaxy Nexus extensively i am fond of having my menu options on the action bar and am even willing to have my screen real estate reduced by the now infamous 3dots
all current mods move the menu button around the physical buttons but this still removes the action button on any ICS native apps, thereby defeating the purpose.
so my suggestion would be to have the following:
STOCK ICS with 3 Dots
Menu on Recent Apps
Menu on Hold Home
and have this as an option in all ROMS if possible including CM9, AOKP etc, for all ICS roms on all phones

Wrong section mate ...

please advise me on where i should put it

And also, no longer an issue, except maybe in AOSP-based ROMs because the new 4.0.4 Sense base has much better native functionality for reassignment of the 'Recent Apps' key with no affect on native apps.

lt iibad said:
this is a Passionate Desperate Plea to all Developers. Please, Please, Please (in my culture the amount of times you say please infers the passion of the plea) include an option in the ROMS to remap and customize the way the menu function works in ICS.
after having used the Galaxy Nexus extensively i am fond of having my menu options on the action bar and am even willing to have my screen real estate reduced by the now infamous 3dots
all current mods move the menu button around the physical buttons but this still removes the action button on any ICS native apps, thereby defeating the purpose.
so my suggestion would be to have the following:
STOCK ICS with 3 Dots
Menu on Recent Apps
Menu on Hold Home
and have this as an option in all ROMS if possible including CM9, AOKP etc, for all ICS roms on all phones
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Click to collapse
1. can be found in Cyanogen 9
2. the option is given by HTC on their newest base (2.05)
3. possible with older base and 3dotMOD...see in AROMA...with new base its on hold recent apps...

thanks ill check out a 2.0x ROM, downloading one as we speak. the thing is I saw it in the MIUI ROM as well. thought itw as native to ICS, let me see

[Q] Possible to change task manager button to menu?

I currently own a HTC Desire and was thinking about buying a new phone and I can't decide between Galaxy S3 and HTC One X yet.
When I watched this comparison here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtXAkNd9k68 I saw the HTC One X has Back, Home and Task Manager Buttons.
From my HTC Desire I know you can bring up Task Manager by long pressing Home Button, so I wonder why there is a Task Manager button (maybe for not so smart users?). And if there is a menu it takes away from screen real estate to display a menu button bar or for HTCs own apps, it displays a menu button on top right corner.
I like the black & white borderless theme of Sense better than the blue/gray border theme of Galaxy phones (for menu, popups, selectboxes, widgets, etc).
Would it be possible, to change the task manager button into a menu button?

Apparently HTC are going to do this in a future OTA update - or at least give us the ability to do like you request and do away with the horrible black bar which presents itself in some apps.
However - if you are into flashing roms then some of the custom roms give you the ability to change the functionality if the bottom three buttons - also adding long press abilities which you can define yourself, you can also toggle the black bar on/off if you so desire aswell, the following is a Rom which supports what you are after - comes highly recommended from myself;
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1625816

as for why HTC make the recent task button, they followed Google. Google said its the death of the menu button, and introduced the action bar. not all apps are updated with it yet, so One X suffer with the black menu bars, except for google apps. unlike Galaxy Nexus, which has soft buttons, not capacitive like One X.

The Settings problem.

Dear friends,
for an unknown reason I cannot access my " Settings" whatever you call it from the below right hand corner of the screen as it used to be, it's no longer there. The only other option of getting the phone settings is from on top of the screen which I do not like. Thanks for your help.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app

In ICS Android no longer has the menu button. Instead, apps now use the action bar. Any overflow from said bar now displays as 3 dots, which include actions such as settings.
Apps that haven't been updated to the new API's will display the 3 dots next to the multi-task button.
However, some custom roms allow you to persistently add the menu button to the navigation bar.
So, the short answer to your question would be to flash a custom rom.

Better get used to hitting the 3 dots, as Google is intent on phasing out the menu button

If you install a custom rom you can add the menu as a soft key

El Daddy said:
In ICS Android no longer has the menu button. Instead, apps now use the action bar. Any overflow from said bar now displays as 3 dots, which include actions such as settings.
Apps that haven't been updated to the new API's will display the 3 dots next to the multi-task button.
However, some custom roms allow you to persistently add the menu button to the navigation bar.
So, the short answer to your question would be to flash a custom rom.
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Click to collapse
Thanks but I have always had the Menu Bar since when I bought it and there is no software upgrade up till now.

Removing In-App menu button after navbar mod (AOKP)

Is there a way to get the system to not add the menu button to various google programs? I'm running AOKP and I've got the menu button added to the navbar. Consequently, I want to get rid of it in the apps. Also, I would like the menu to pop up at the bottom and not the top. I would think this would be highly desired. What am I missing?

the menu inside the applications is built into the app itself. you wont be able to remove it unless you decompile the APK's and remove the menu yourself

I thought that the program used a signal from the system to determine if it has a menu button and uses that to determine the need for it. Does the Galaxy S III still get this button in apps like the play store and gmail? I don't know, but I would think not.

So from my research, it seems that the "overflow menu", as it is now called, only appears in the "action bar" when there is no menu button present on the device. For legacy devices that run ICS, it seems that android will detect that a menu button is present and not show the "overflow menu".
So basically, I'm wondering how I can trick the Galaxy Nexus into thinking there is a menu button present. This really should be an option for current roms as lots of people add the menu button to the navbar.

You have to hide the navbar to get what you want. When I use LMT and disable the navbar, the action button in all apps no longer appears. There is some api that tells the action bar menu to appear or not just like you want.

RogerPodacter said:
You have to hide the navbar to get what you want. When I use LMT and disable the navbar, the action button in all apps no longer appears. There is some api that tells the action bar menu to appear or not just like you want.
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Click to collapse
What is LMT?
From my searchings, that seems to be what I've found. there is a methods called "hasPermanentMenuKey()" to return true this requires that there not be a navbar. Unfortunately, this kinda kills things as the whole point of hiding it was because I had a menu key in my navbar.
Thanks so much for the helpful reply!!!