Question

Is there a way that you can get actionbar views as object references. For instance I would like to get the overflow view in order to know the coordinates on the screen. currently I have manage an ugly solution which is. Get a menu item with an id

overflowView =((ViewGroup)parent.findViewById(R.id.menu_id).getParent()).getChildAt(2);

Answer 1

Is there a way that you can get actionbar views as object references.

Only the ones you create yourself, via android:actionLayout and kin.

For instance I would like to get the overflow view in order to know the coordinates on the screen.

Your solution is unlikely to remain stable across Android versions. It may or may not work on ActionBarSherlock. I would recommend that you find some other solution for whatever you perceive your problem to be that does not involve messing around with the internals of the ActionBar implementation.