Android: getSearchableInfo(getComponentName()) returning null?

Question

I'm trying to get suggestions for SearchView. I've implemented a custom content provider for it. I've also referred to this link to implement suggestions for the SearchView. The problem I'm facing is, I get null value on searchManager.getSearchableInfo(getComponentName())

Here are the snippets:

AndroidManifest.xml

    <application
    android:icon="@drawable/ic_launcher"
    android:label="@string/app_name"
    android:theme="@style/AppTheme" >

    <provider android:name=".SearchProvider"
        android:enabled="true"
        android:authorities="com.example.currentlocationmapdemo"
        android:grantUriPermissions="true"
        android:exported="true">
        <grant-uri-permission android:pathPattern="*" />
    </provider>
    <uses-library android:name="com.google.android.maps" />

    <activity
        android:name=".MainActivity"
        android:label="@string/title_activity_main" >
        <intent-filter>
            <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />

            <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
        </intent-filter>
      <meta-data android:name="android.app.searchable"
          android:resource="@xml/searchable"/> 
    </activity>

searchable.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<searchable xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:label="label"
android:hint="hint"
android:searchSuggestAuthority="com.example.currentlocationmapdemo"
android:searchSuggestSelection=" ? ">

MainActivity

    @Override
public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
    MenuInflater inflater = getMenuInflater();
    inflater.inflate(R.menu.searchview_in_menu, menu);
    MenuItem searchItem = menu.findItem(R.id.action_search);
    mSearchView = (SearchView) searchItem.getActionView();
    SearchManager searchManager = (SearchManager) getSystemService(Context.SEARCH_SERVICE);
SearchableInfo info = searchManager.getSearchableInfo(getComponentName());  // null returned
mSearchView.setSearchableInfo(info);

 return true;
}

Answer 1

At least one of your activities - the one you're doing the searching from is sufficient - must have this intent-filter in it in the manifest:

<intent-filter>
  <action android:name="android.intent.action.SEARCH" />
</intent-filter>

If not, then searchManager.getSearchableInfo(getComponentName()) always returns null, and your configuration is ignored.

This killed me for a day - I thought it was ActionBarSherlock-related, but no it works fine with that. The problem was that I was trying to short-circuit the sample, as you have too :-)

Answer 2

Your searchable.xml contains string literals (hint and label), they should be references. That's what make it fail according to this: SearchInfo always coming out null

Answer 3

I think your approach is wrong. You should have 2 activities - 1: Main activity which has as SearchView (on ActionBar or layout) and 2: SearchActivity which will be started when search is performed.

Maybe you can also do it like that but Im not sure. Where would you like to recive ACTION_SEARCH intent in your approach? Normally you do that in OnCreate in your searchActivity like that:

Intent intent = getIntent();
if (Intent.ACTION_SEARCH.equals(intent.getAction())) {
  String query = intent.getStringExtra(SearchManager.QUERY);
  System.out.println("searching for: " + query);
}

I did it on two activites and it worked for me. One additional thing I had to do and I didn't find in Android Search Tutorial was adding:

<meta-data
android:name="android.app.default_searchable"
android:value=".SearchableActivity" />

In manifest for my MainActivity