How to customize Android ActionBar to show a custom view before the tabs?

Question

This seems to be the intended behaviour when using tabs and custom views.
https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=36191#c3

If you take a look at ActionBarSherlock – Tabs appearing ABOVE actionbar with custom view many other people are experiencing this as well and some people have offered solutions.

I have been unable to get any of the solutions working, but they may work for you. The trick seems to be to make sure the logo is is not set to be hidden. Call
getActionBar().setDisplayShowHomeEnabled(true) or getSupportActionBar().setDisplayShowHomeEnabled(true) if using ActionBarSherlock.

Then call:

View homeIcon = findViewById(
    Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.HONEYCOMB ? 
    android.R.id.home : R.id.abs__home);
((View) homeIcon.getParent()).setVisibility(View.GONE);
((View) homeIcon).setVisibility(View.GONE);

This will get a reference to the actionbar view that holds the logo and sets it to gone with enables the custom view to fill the entire parent view, but should keep the tabs underneath…

As I said I was unable to get this working, but some people have had success.

Good luck.

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