Setting an ActionBar button visibility to GONE

Question

I have a toolbar with some actionbar buttons. I would like the camera icon button NOT to appear if the Build.VERSION.SDK_INT < 21.

in the following menu file I define the actionbar buttons:

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

<item
    android:id="@+id/addons"
    android:icon="@drawable/ic_add_box_black_24dp"
    android:title="camera"
    app:showAsAction="always"/>


<item
    android:id="@+id/hellosearch"
    android:icon="@drawable/ic_search_black_24dp"
    android:title="camera"
    app:showAsAction="always"/>

//inside the MainActivity I override the method:

@Override
public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item) {

    switch (item.getItemId()) {

        case R.id.addons:
            //we are requesting to purchase something:
            Log.d("billing009","trying to start a purchase!! user has accesss(subs): "+user_has_autorenew_subs+
                    " didFind :: " + didFindTotalAccess);

          showPurchaseDialog(styled_title);
            //inHouseMethod_StartPurchase();
            break;

        case R.id.hellosearch:
            mDrawer.openDrawer(GravityCompat.START);
            return true;

HOWEVER, this method gets called when the user clicks on one of the actionbar buttons.

How can I use the toolbar object created inside onCreate: to get a hold of the Camera icon(ActionBar button), so I can set its visibility to GONE if the Build.VERSION.SDK_INT < 21 ?

//inside onCreate
toolbar = findViewById(R.id.toolbar);
setSupportActionBar(toolbar); 

Answer 1

You can do that inside onCreateOptionsMenu like

@Override
    public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
        getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.your_menu_xml, menu);
        if(Build.VERSION.SDK_INT < 21) {
           MenuItem item = menu.findItem(R.id.idOfYourMenuItem);
           item.setVisible(false);
        }
        return true;
    }