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androidmaterial-designandroid-toolbarappbar

What is a flexible toolbar in Android, and what is meant by a toolbar launching to "shelf" (mentioned in the Material Design specification)?

  1. This image is taken from this document in Material Design specification. It is captioned:

    Flexible toolbar and card toolbar

    Why are they calling this toolbar flexible? Does this mean its dimensions are flexible or something like that?

    enter image description here

  2. The following images are taken from the same doc, and are captioned

    Bottom toolbar that launches to a shelf and clings to the top of the keyboard or other bottom component

    and

    Bottom toolbar shelf

    respectively.

    So what is that shelf and what is meant by a toolbar launching to that shelf?

    enter image description here

    enter image description here

Solution

  • Why are they calling this toolbar flexible? Does this mean its dimensions are flexible or something like that?

    The reason that the Toolbar is referred to as flexible is because compared to the old ActionBar, the Toolbar is extremely flexible in what you can do with it. You can even have it it be dynamic and have animations as opposed to the ActionBar that you have almost no control over.

    So what is that shelf and what is meant by a toolbar launching to that shelf?

    In the first example the reason it is referred to as a shelf is because it rests above the keyboard or anything else at the bottom of your screen. In the second instance it would appear that it is a misnomer and instead it should be a Bottom toolbar with sheet. Sheets were also introduced into the Material Design Specs and seem to be a better fit for this instance.