Question

I have a refresh menu item in the action bar and my main layout just consists of a button.
so clicking on the refresh menu item should turn it into a spinner and click on the button should stop it spinning.
My problem is that when i hit on the refresh button it starts spinning which is correct but now when i rotate it it stops spinning automatically.

this is my activity.

public class MyActivity extends SherlockActivity implements OnClickListener{

View refreshView =  null;
com.actionbarsherlock.view.MenuItem refreshItem = null;
Animation rotateClockwise = null;
Button btn = null;
boolean downloadComplete = false;
boolean selected = false;
@Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.activity_my);
    btn = (Button)findViewById(R.id.button1);
    btn.setOnClickListener(this);
}

@Override
public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(com.actionbarsherlock.view.Menu menu) {
    getSupportMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.my_menu, menu);
    // Inflate our custom layout.

    LayoutInflater inflater = (LayoutInflater) getSystemService(LAYOUT_INFLATER_SERVICE);
    refreshView = (View) inflater.inflate(
            R.layout.actionbar_indeterminate_progress, null);
    refreshItem = menu.findItem(R.id.menu_refresh);
    if (selected){
        refreshItem.setActionView(refreshView);
    }
    return true;
}

@Override
public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(
        final com.actionbarsherlock.view.MenuItem item) {
    switch (item.getItemId()) {
    case R.id.menu_refresh:
        runOnUiThread(new Runnable() {

            @Override
            public void run() {
                // TODO Auto-generated method stub
                // Apply the View to our MenuItem
                item.setActionView(refreshView);
            }
        });
        // Refresh the data
        //refresh();
        selected =true;
        break;
    }
    return true;
}

@Override
public void onClick(View v) {
    // TODO Auto-generated method stub
    downloadComplete = !downloadComplete;
    selected = false;
    runOnUiThread(new Runnable() {
            @Override
        public void run() {
            // TODO Auto-generated method stub
            refreshItem.setActionView(null);
        }
    });
}
}

This is my res/layout/actionbar_indeterminate_progress.xml

<FrameLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:gravity="center">
    <ProgressBar android:layout_width="32dp"
        android:layout_height="32dp"
        android:layout_marginLeft="12dp"
        android:layout_marginRight="12dp"
        android:layout_gravity="center"
        style="?android:attr/indeterminateProgressStyle" />
</FrameLayout>

my res/layout/activity_my.xml

<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent" >
    <Button
        android:id="@+id/button1"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
        android:layout_centerVertical="true"
        android:padding="@dimen/padding_medium"
        android:text="@string/hello_world"
        tools:context=".MyActivity" />
</RelativeLayout>

and my res/menu/my_menu.xml

<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" >
    <item
        android:id="@+id/menu_refresh"
        android:icon="@drawable/ic_menu_refresh"
        android:showAsAction="always"
        android:title="Refresh"/>
    <item
        android:id="@+id/settings"
        android:icon="@drawable/ic_menu_refresh"
        android:title="Settings">
    </item>
</menu>

Answer 1

The problem is an activity is destroyed and then created again on the orientation change. You need to do two things:

1. Save the value of the selected field before orientation changes. Details on how to handle orientation change can be found in Handling configuration changes section and more in Handling Runtime Changes.
2. When the activity is re-created after the orientation change, re-store selected field and use its value to start the animation if the value is true.