How to apply binding to ApplicationBarMenuItem text in wp7?

Question

I'm trying to bind menu item's text in code but it throws a null reference exception for ApplicationBarMenuItem...

or when I do the same thing in xaml, it tells me "text cannot be empty."

What should I do to bind menuItem's text property?

Here's my XAML:

<shell:ApplicationBarMenuItem Text="{Binding Path=AppResources.btnOptions ,
   Source={StaticResource LocalizedStrings}}"
      x:Name="menuItemOpts" />

Answer 1

instead of that above you can create menu item dynamically as below :

public MainPage()
{
    InitializeComponent();

    ApplicationBar = new ApplicationBar();

    ApplicationBar.Mode = ApplicationBarMode.Default;
    ApplicationBar.Opacity = 1.0; 
    ApplicationBar.IsVisible = true;
    ApplicationBar.IsMenuEnabled = true;

    ApplicationBarMenuItem menuItem1 = new ApplicationBarMenuItem();
    menuItem1.Text = "menu item 1";
    ApplicationBar.MenuItems.Add(menuItem1);
}