Menu Items are not showing on Action Bar

Question

I have made a completely new project. I have added items to the menu layout file. Those items do not show up on the action bar's right side. I remember that an icon with three dots shows up which opens up the menu.

Here is my Activity

public class MainActivity extends Activity {

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
        ActionBar actionBar = getActionBar();
        actionBar.setBackgroundDrawable(new ColorDrawable(Color.BLUE));     
        actionBar.show();
    }

    @Override
    public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
        // Inflate the menu; this adds items to the action bar if it is present.
        getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.main, menu);
        return true;
    }

}

And here is my main.xml

<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" >

    <item
        android:id="@+id/action_settings"
        android:orderInCategory="100"
        android:showAsAction="never"
        android:title="@string/action_option1"/>
    <item
        android:id="@+id/action_settings34"
        android:orderInCategory="100"
        android:showAsAction="never"
        android:title="@string/action_option2"/>
    <item
        android:id="@+id/action_settings3"
        android:orderInCategory="100"
        android:showAsAction="never"
        android:title="@string/action_option3"/>


</menu>

Answer 1

Since you set the showAsAction attribute to never, then these menu items will never show as action views. Try this:

<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" >

    <item
        android:id="@+id/action_settings"
        android:orderInCategory="100"
        android:showAsAction="ifRoom|withText"
        android:title="@string/action_option1"/>
    <item
        android:id="@+id/action_settings34"
        android:orderInCategory="100"
        android:showAsAction="ifRoom|withText"
        android:title="@string/action_option2"/>
    <item
        android:id="@+id/action_settings3"
        android:orderInCategory="100"
        android:showAsAction="ifRoom|withText"
        android:title="@string/action_option3"/>

</menu>