How to place AdMob at the top of the screen (above) Android Actionbar?

Question

I trying to place an AdMob ad at the top of the screen (above) the Android Actionbar.

• yellow = ActionBar
• red = content
• green = AdMob

A similar question I found is to place an ad at the bottom of a screen with Actionbar showing up. But so far I couldn't figure out how to place it at the top of the screen.

I tried it this way:

private AdView adView;


@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

    // main view setup
    setContentView(R.layout.main);
    this.getWindow().setFlags(WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_FULLSCREEN, WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_FULLSCREEN);

    // actionbar setup
    ActionBar actionBar = getActionBar();
    actionBar.setTitle("Search");
    actionBar.setDisplayHomeAsUpEnabled(true);

    final LinearLayout content = (LinearLayout) findViewById(android.R.id.content).getParent();

    // Create the adView
    adView = new AdView(this, AdSize.BANNER, "ID");

    // Lookup your LinearLayout assuming it’s been given
    // the attribute android:id="@+id/mainLayout"

    // Add the adView to it
    FrameLayout.LayoutParams parm = (FrameLayout.LayoutParams) content.getLayoutParams();
    parm.gravity = Gravity.TOP;
    content.addView(adView);

    // Initiate a generic request to load it with an ad
    AdRequest adRequest = new AdRequest();
    adRequest.addTestDevice("TEST_DEVICE_ID");
    adView.loadAd(adRequest);
}

Below you can see a part of the hierarchy viewer of my app. The view "id/main" is my main layout. As you can see on the picture the ActionBar has a id called "id/action_bar_container". In my code above I managed to access the FrameLayout "content" but I wasn't able to access the action_bar_container view. Because they are on the same hierarchy level (I think) it should be possible to access that ActionBar view somehow.

But it didn't work:

Any idea how to achieve that or a link how it could work or an official statement that it doesn't work.

Answer 1

You can usegetRootView() on any view orgetWindow().getDecorView() to get thePhoneDecorView. It has one child - a verticalLinearLayout.

Add your layout there as the first child.

Note that this is a bad, bad idea. From a user experience point of view, this is a horrific strike against all Design Guidelines. The action bar must be at the top for a multitude of design reasons.

Second, this might break on OEM-themed devices.

Third, what about tablets in landscape, will you really have such a huge bar at the top?

In conclusion, yes, it's possible but it's a horrible idea. Don't do it.