Question

I am writing my first Android app. It will have hundreds of menu links that will change with each version released. I am looking for a way to process the onclicks based on the Resource ID.

Menus are defined in XML like so:

<item android:id="@+id/Spring_2013" android:title="Spring 2013" android:showAsAction="ifRoom|withText" />

The onclicks will load a URL stored in strings.xml:

<string name="Summer_2013">file:///android_asset/catalog/current/genadmissionreq.html</string>

So, seems like all I need is a simple, single onclick method that loads whatever string is needed based on the selected Resource ID. The MenuItem ID is ALWAYS equal to the URL string ID in my code. So, without using hundreds of if() or switch/case statments, cant I just say:

String url = getString("R.string." + menuItem.getItemId());

Obviously that assignment wont work for a number of reasons. But you get the idea right? So, how CAN I make this work?

Im sorry for the newb question. I know it should be simple but I’ve been reading for days and cannot find any way to do this without an if() statement for EVERY menu item. That method would make the weekly updates a nightmare!

Answer 1

Try using getIdentifier()

String title = menuItem.getTitle().toString().replace(' ', '_');
id = getResources().getIdentifier(title, "string", getPackageName());
String string = getString(id);

The first line fetches Spring 2013 and converts it to Spring_2013.
The second line builds "R.string." with whatever the title is, in this case "R.string.Spring_2013".
The third line simply fetches the String resource.