Expand and give focus to SearchView automatically

Question

I'm developing an application where the user presses the "Search" icon in the ActionBar and a SearchView is made visible at the top of the screen.

My problem is that the SearchView is not in focus nor expanded so the user has to press the search button on the Searchview to make it expand and bring out the keyboard.

How should this be solved?

score 113 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 30 '13 at 17:34

113

You can also call to expandActionView() method in order to force it:

@Override
public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu( Menu menu )
{
    super.onCreateOptionsMenu( menu );

    MenuItem searchMenuItem = menu.findItem( R.id.mi_search ); // get my MenuItem with placeholder submenu
    searchMenuItem.expandActionView(); // Expand the search menu item in order to show by default the query

    return true;
}

Search item in the Action Bar layout:

<item
        android:id="@+id/mi_search"
        android:icon="@drawable/abs__ic_search_api_holo_light"
        android:title="@string/search"
        android:showAsAction="ifRoom|collapseActionView"
        android:actionViewClass="com.actionbarsherlock.widget.SearchView"
        />

answered Mar 30 '13 at 17:34

JavierCane

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47

If you use [AppCompat](https://developer.android.com/tools/support-library/features.html#v7-appcompat), instead of calling `expandActionView()` directly on the `searchMenuItem`, you should use this instead: `MenuItemCompat.expandActionView(searchMenuItem)`. – Charles Madere Apr 10 '14 at 23:57
@CharlesMadere way is the only one that worked for me, API 23 – Lampione May 27 '16 at 22:10
plus 1 for `searchMenuItem.expandActionView();` – Vlad Nov 13 '17 at 10:10
3

MenuItemCompat.expandActionView(searchMenuItem) is deprecated now – luckyhandler Apr 25 '18 at 09:39
This solution is deprecated. – Favour Felix Chinemerem May 21 '20 at 02:43
Finally, one using showAsAction(ifRoom|collapseActionView). Also, I had to add: `searchView.setIconifiedByDefault(false)` – Diego Jun 06 '20 at 00:49

score 108 · Accepted Answer · edited May 04 '20 at 06:06

108

To make the SearchView expanded by default, call setIconifiedByDefault(false) on it when you initialise it (e.g. in onCreateOptionsMenu(..) or onPrepareOptionsMenu(..)). I've found in most cases this will give it focus automatically, but if not simply call requestFocus() on it too.

edited May 04 '20 at 06:06

lasec0203

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answered Jul 29 '12 at 14:41

Alex Curran

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5

I'm not sure to be honest, sorry. – Alex Curran Jul 29 '12 at 18:48
8

Adding a `requestFocus()` call in `onPrepareOptionsMenu(..)` did the trick for me. – The Dirty Calvinist Apr 18 '13 at 18:06
3

`requestFocus` doesn't work for me. To "focus" you can call `setIconified` with `false` – Peter Chaula Nov 22 '16 at 06:36
1

@SweSnow You have to set both ...searchView.setIconifiedByDefault(false); searchView.requestFocus(); – pallav bohara Nov 09 '17 at 11:16
4

be sure to have set the menu item property `app:showAsAction="always"`. When I removed the autofocus the icon disappeared and the 3 dots icon appeared – Riccardo May 22 '19 at 14:15

score 65 · Answer 3 · edited Mar 16 '17 at 11:43

If you want to have it iconifiedByDefault, this worked for me. setFocusable and setIconified are needed.

    SearchView searchView = (SearchView) menu.findItem(R.id.action_search).getActionView();
    searchView.setIconifiedByDefault(true);
    searchView.setFocusable(true);
    searchView.setIconified(false);
    searchView.requestFocusFromTouch();

Update: If you are Using android.support.v7.widget.SearchView the behaviour us very different. clearFocus is needed if you don't want the keyboard pop-up all the time. For some reason the menu is recreated all the time, when using appcompat.

SearchView searchView = (SearchView) menu.findItem(R.id.action_search).getActionView();
searchView.setIconified(false);
searchView.clearFocus();

score 27 · Answer 4 · answered Dec 02 '13 at 18:31

27

If you're using it in layout, you can call

mSearchView.onActionViewExpanded()

answered Dec 02 '13 at 18:31

riwnodennyk

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What does using in layout mean? – Pascalius Apr 25 '15 at 13:40
3

I mean that you reference to it as a `View`, not `MenuItem` – riwnodennyk Apr 27 '15 at 09:34
that didn't work for me. Calling setIconified() did though. – MrPlow Dec 01 '15 at 00:12
worked for me too, I am not sure why in official website they have not included in sample code. I mean if i am clicking on search button the keyboard should open right??? – Tushar Srivastava Feb 04 '19 at 15:25

score 8 · Answer 5 · answered Feb 08 '15 at 08:33

This worked for me :

In the root layout :

xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"

SearchView defined as follows :

 <android.support.v7.widget.SearchView
        android:id="@+id/search_contacts"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal"
        android:layout_margin="15dp"
        android:background="@drawable/search_view"        
        app:iconifiedByDefault="false"
        app:queryHint="Search name or email"
        >

        <requestFocus />
    </android.support.v7.widget.SearchView>

The difference is with app tag.

app:iconifiedByDefault="false"
app:queryHint="Search name or email"

saibaba vali · Answer 6 · 2016-05-18T11:35:07.843

6

If you are using inside an activity you need to use

view.onActionViewExpanded();

if you are using inside menu options you need to use

MenuItem.expandActionView();

Note: it works only for SearchView

these two situations are worked for me.

edited May 18 '16 at 11:35

answered May 18 '16 at 09:42

saibaba vali

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score 4 · Answer 7 · answered Aug 08 '13 at 13:54

4

This worked for me:

menu.expandActionView();

answered Aug 08 '13 at 13:54

Kai Burghardt

1,493
16
16

1

but close icon is not visible initially in expanded form. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/27706192/how-to-display-searchview-close-icon-when-expanded-in-android/ – Shadow Dec 30 '14 at 13:53

score 2 · Answer 8 · answered May 27 '15 at 13:59

You can use the SearchView#setIconified() method on a SearchView handle in your Java code. More here:

http://developer.android.com/reference/android/widget/SearchView.html#setIconified(boolean)

You can also make use of SearchView#setIconifiedByDefault(). More info here:

http://developer.android.com/reference/android/widget/SearchView.html#setIconifiedByDefault(boolean)

score 2 · Answer 9 · answered Jul 12 '17 at 12:09

use this

SearchManager searchManager = (SearchManager) mActivity.getSystemService(Context.SEARCH_SERVICE);
                SearchView searchView = new SearchView(mActivity.actionBar.getThemedContext());
                searchView.setSearchableInfo(searchManager.getSearchableInfo(mActivity.getComponentName()));
                searchView.setIconifiedByDefault(false);
                searchView.setQueryHint("Search");
                menu.findItem(R.id.action_search).setActionView(searchView);

score 2 · Answer 10 · edited Sep 10 '17 at 05:10

@Pascalius's answer worked for me. But every time you close the SearchView, and click again, you lost the Focus. So I inserted the code in a setOnMenuItemClickListener like this:

MenuItem item = menu.findItem(R.id.action_search);

SearchManager searchManager = (SearchManager) getSystemService(Context.SEARCH_SERVICE);
final SearchView searchView = (SearchView) item.getActionView();

item.setOnMenuItemClickListener(new MenuItem.OnMenuItemClickListener() {
    @Override
    public boolean onMenuItemClick(MenuItem menuItem) {
        searchView.setIconifiedByDefault(true);
        searchView.setFocusable(true);
        searchView.setIconified(false);
        searchView.requestFocusFromTouch();

        return false;
    }
});

score 2 · Answer 11 · answered Sep 19 '17 at 13:31

2

For Appcompat Searchview you can use this method:

MenuItemCompat.expandActionView(mSearchMenuItem);

answered Sep 19 '17 at 13:31

Javier

1,469
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score 2 · Answer 12 · answered May 26 '21 at 07:49

2

Kotlin

var searchView = menu.findItem(R.id.action_search).actionView as SearchView
searchView.isIconified = true

answered May 26 '21 at 07:49

R.Sanchez

33
7

score 1 · Answer 13 · answered May 21 '20 at 02:45

1

Call expandActionView() on the menuItem.

menuItem.expandActionView()

answered May 21 '20 at 02:45

Favour Felix Chinemerem

1,328
13
20

Nasib · Answer 14 · 2021-02-06T09:40:05.797

I was having a hard time doing this with SearchView widget, but the expandActionView() method is actually defined in the MenuItem class, not SearchView class. So, I solved it by

        MenuItem searchItem = menu.findItem(R.id.item_search);
        SearchView   searchView = (SearchView) searchItem.getActionView();
        searchItem.expandActionView();//the method expandActionView is called on searchItem not searchView

score 1 · Answer 15 · answered Jun 21 '23 at 13:34

"android.widget.SearchView" has different behavior from the other menu items. So you should use "setOnSearchClickListener", not "OnMenuItemClickListener" nor "onOptionsItemSelected".

@Override
public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(final Menu menu) {
    super.onCreateOptionsMenu(menu);
    final MenuItem menuItem = menu.findItem(R.id.search_menu_search_view);
    final SearchView searchView = (SearchView)menuItem.getActionView();
    searchView.setIconifiedByDefault(true);

    // Just like this!
    searchView.setOnSearchClickListener(view -> {
        view.requestFocus();
    });

    return true;
}

score 0 · Answer 16 · answered Jul 30 '15 at 11:28

MenuItemCompat's SearchView has a property named maxWidth.

final MenuItem searchItem = menu.findItem(R.id.action_search);
final SearchView searchView = (SearchView) MenuItemCompat.getActionView(searchItem);
searchView.setMaxWidth(xxx);

use screen width instead of xxx offcourse

score 0 · Answer 17 · answered Aug 24 '17 at 18:27

I am using android.widget Searchview and iconified by default.Below code in xml helped me make it expand and autofocus on search view,when clicked:

<SearchView
                android:id="@+id/searchView"
                android:layout_width="match_parent"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:iconifiedByDefault="true"
                android:focusable="true"
                android:focusableInTouchMode="true"
                android:queryHint="Search"/>

score 0 · Answer 18 · answered Mar 04 '20 at 06:50

 <item
        android:id="@+id/search"
        android:icon="@drawable/ic_search"
        android:title="Search"
        app:actionViewClass="androidx.appcompat.widget.SearchView"
        app:showAsAction="always"/>

 public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
        getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.search_menu, menu);
        // Associate searchable configuration with the SearchView
        SearchManager searchManager = (SearchManager) getSystemService(Context.SEARCH_SERVICE);
        searchView = (SearchView) menu.findItem(R.id.search).getActionView();
        searchView.setQueryHint("Search the customer...");
        searchView.setSearchableInfo(Objects.requireNonNull(searchManager).getSearchableInfo(getComponentName()));
        searchView.setMaxWidth(Integer.MAX_VALUE);
        searchView.setIconifiedByDefault(false);
        searchView.requestFocus();

    }

<pre>

 <item
        android:id="@+id/search"
        android:icon="@drawable/ic_search"
        android:title="Search"
        app:actionViewClass="androidx.appcompat.widget.SearchView"
        app:showAsAction="always"/>

 public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
        getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.search_menu, menu);
        // Associate searchable configuration with the SearchView
        SearchManager searchManager = (SearchManager) getSystemService(Context.SEARCH_SERVICE);
        searchView = (SearchView) menu.findItem(R.id.search).getActionView();
        searchView.setQueryHint("Search the customer...");
        searchView.setSearchableInfo(Objects.requireNonNull(searchManager).getSearchableInfo(getComponentName()));
        searchView.setMaxWidth(Integer.MAX_VALUE);
        searchView.setIconifiedByDefault(false);
        searchView.requestFocus();

    }

</pre>

Nikhil Dinesh · Answer 19 · 2020-03-10T06:48:26.030

-2

android:iconifiedByDefault="true"

Above is the code in XML helped me make it expand and autofocus on search view when clicked:

edited Mar 10 '20 at 06:48

answered Jan 27 '17 at 13:32

Nikhil Dinesh

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Expand and give focus to SearchView automatically

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