At least Gmail and Youtube Android apps use a side menu (navigation drawer?) that opens by swiping, or by clicking the app icon (home button):
The keyword here is NavigationDrawer; there's a full working code example on the Android developer site.
READ THE END OF THE LINK GIVEN : Open and Close with the App Icon
The following code is copied from there
public class MainActivity extends Activity {
private DrawerLayout mDrawerLayout;
private ActionBarDrawerToggle mDrawerToggle;
...
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
...
mDrawerLayout = (DrawerLayout) findViewById(R.id.drawer_layout);
mDrawerToggle = new ActionBarDrawerToggle(
this, /* host Activity */
mDrawerLayout, /* DrawerLayout object */
R.drawable.ic_drawer, /* nav drawer icon to replace 'Up' caret */
R.string.drawer_open, /* "open drawer" description */
R.string.drawer_close /* "close drawer" description */
) {
/** Called when a drawer has settled in a completely closed state. */
public void onDrawerClosed(View view) {
getActionBar().setTitle(mTitle);
}
/** Called when a drawer has settled in a completely open state. */
public void onDrawerOpened(View drawerView) {
getActionBar().setTitle(mDrawerTitle);
}
};
// Set the drawer toggle as the DrawerListener
mDrawerLayout.setDrawerListener(mDrawerToggle);
getActionBar().setDisplayHomeAsUpEnabled(true);
getActionBar().setHomeButtonEnabled(true);
}
@Override
protected void onPostCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onPostCreate(savedInstanceState);
// Sync the toggle state after onRestoreInstanceState has occurred.
mDrawerToggle.syncState();
}
@Override
public void onConfigurationChanged(Configuration newConfig) {
super.onConfigurationChanged(newConfig);
mDrawerToggle.onConfigurationChanged(newConfig);
}
@Override
public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item) {
// Pass the event to ActionBarDrawerToggle, if it returns
// true, then it has handled the app icon touch event
if (mDrawerToggle.onOptionsItemSelected(item)) {
return true;
}
// Handle your other action bar items...
return super.onOptionsItemSelected(item);
}
...
}
Some files are available as download and the small 3 lines with the animation effect is fully exemplified.
You have to copy thoses files in the corresponding drawable
folder. Depending on the theme you use, dark or light you have a different set of icons.
In my case I simply copied the drawer_shadow.9.png
and ic_drawer.png
in the drawable folder and followed the example and everything works just fine.
The icons are available in the link I provided, but they are NOT in the "Action Bar Icon Pack", they are in the sample app in the corresponding res/drawable folders.