Using SearchManager's SUGGEST_COLUMN_ICON_1 to display a local file

Question

I'm implementing my own SearchRecentSuggestionsProvider and everything's working except one thing: I can't get the device search to display icons for the results. I'd like to display images from my application's data folder (located at /{sdcard}/Android/data/package_name/files/)

According to the documentation, it's achievable by using SearchManager.SUGGEST_COLUMN_ICON_1, and it apparently supports a number of schemes, including ContentResolver.SCHEME_FILE, which is file. Here's a quote from the official docs:

Column name for suggestions cursor. Optional. If your cursor includes this column, then all suggestions will be provided in a format that includes space for two small icons, one at the left and one at the right of each suggestion. The data in the column must be a resource ID of a drawable, or a URI in one of the following formats:

content (SCHEME_CONTENT)

android.resource (SCHEME_ANDROID_RESOURCE)

file (SCHEME_FILE)

I've tried a number of obvious things, including manual creation of the file URI and automated creation using Uri.Builder(). None of this worked.

I also found someone else asking about the same thing on Google Groups, and it's sadly unanswered: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/android-developers/MJj7GIaONjc

Does anyone have any experience in getting the device search to display local images from the device?

UPDATE (December 15): I've just tried using the ContentProvider with a SearchView as the searchable info, and it works exactly as expected - including the cover art images. Still, global search doesn't show it...

Answer 1

I had a similar issue and could not make the other solutions work. I finally substituted the cursor with a new one containing the data I needed in query().

public class RecentQueriesProvider extends SearchRecentSuggestionsProvider {
    public final static String AUTHORITY = "com.package.RecentQueriesProvider";
    public final static int MODE = DATABASE_MODE_QUERIES;

    public RecentQueriesProvider() {
        setupSuggestions(AUTHORITY, MODE);
    }

    // We override query() to replace the history icon in the recent searches suggestions. We create a new cursor
    @Override
    public Cursor query(Uri uri, String[] projection, String selection, String[] selectionArgs, String sortOrder) {
        Cursor superCursor = super.query(uri, projection, selection, selectionArgs, sortOrder);
        Uri iconUri = Uri.parse("android.resource://" + getContext().getPackageName() + "/drawable/ic_action_time");
        MatrixCursor newCursor = new MatrixCursor(superCursor.getColumnNames());
        superCursor.moveToFirst();
        while (superCursor.moveToNext()){
            newCursor.addRow(new Object[]{
                    superCursor.getInt(superCursor.getColumnIndex(SearchManager.SUGGEST_COLUMN_FORMAT)),
                    iconUri,
                    superCursor.getString(superCursor.getColumnIndex(SearchManager.SUGGEST_COLUMN_TEXT_1)),
                    superCursor.getString(superCursor.getColumnIndex("suggest_intent_query")),
                    superCursor.getInt(superCursor.getColumnIndex("_id"))
            });
        }
       return newCursor;
    }
}

Answer 2

One way is to copy source code from android.content.SearchRecentSuggestionsProvider, place it in your class that extends ContentProvider, and customize setupSuggestions(String, int). Specifically, you would be changing this:

Uri uriFile = Uri.fromFile(new File("path/to/file"));

mSuggestionProjection = new String [] {
        "0 AS " + SearchManager.SUGGEST_COLUMN_FORMAT,

        // Here, you would return a file uri: 'uriFile'
        "'android.resource://system/"
                + com.android.internal.R.drawable.ic_menu_recent_history + "' AS "
                        + SearchManager.SUGGEST_COLUMN_ICON_1,
        "display1 AS " + SearchManager.SUGGEST_COLUMN_TEXT_1,
        "query AS " + SearchManager.SUGGEST_COLUMN_QUERY,
        "_id"
};

I prefer the following though. Extend SearchRecentSuggestionsProvider and override the query(...) method. Here, intercept SearchManager.SUGGEST_URI_PATH_QUERY and return a cursor.

public class SearchSuggestionProvider extends SearchRecentSuggestionsProvider {

    private UriMatcher matcher;

    private static final int URI_MATCH_SUGGEST = 1;

    public SearchSuggestionProvider() {
        super();

        matcher = new UriMatcher(UriMatcher.NO_MATCH);

        // Add uri to return URI_MATCH_SUGGEST
        matcher.addURI(SearchSuggestionProvider.class.getName(), 
                         SearchManager.SUGGEST_URI_PATH_QUERY, URI_MATCH_SUGGEST);

        setupSuggestions(SearchSuggestionProvider.class.getName(), 
                                                           DATABASE_MODE_QUERIES);
    }

    @Override
    public Cursor query(Uri uri, String[] projection, String selection, 
                                      String[] selectionArgs, String sortOrder) {

        // special case for actual suggestions (from search manager)
        if (matcher.match(uri) == URI_MATCH_SUGGEST) {

            // File to use
            File f = new File("/path/to/file");

            Uri uriFile = Uri.fromFile(f);

            final String[] PROJECTION = new String[] {
                "_id", 
                "display1 AS " + SearchManager.SUGGEST_COLUMN_TEXT_1,                
                "query AS " + SearchManager.SUGGEST_COLUMN_QUERY,
                "'" + uriFile + "'" + " AS " + SearchManager.SUGGEST_COLUMN_ICON_1,
            };

            final Uri URI = Uri.parse("content://" + 
                        SearchSuggestionProvider.class.getName() + "/suggestions");

            // return cursor
            return getContext().getContentResolver().query(
                URI, 
                PROJECTION, 
                "display1 LIKE ?", 
                new String[] {selectionArgs[0] + "%"}, 
                "date DESC");          
        }

        // Let super method handle the query if the check fails
        return super.query(uri, projection, selection, selectionArgs, sortOrder);
    }
}