Check if Android device has search hardware button

Question

I need help figuring out how to check if a device is equipped with the search hardware button or not. Is this possible?

EDIT: I'm talking about finding out if the device has the search hardware button or not. Simple question. Each android device has a set of hardware buttons; menu, home button, back button, and search button. But some devices is only equipped with some of them, not all.

EDIT 2: The reason why I ask is because I want to have a software button showing in my UI if the device is not equipped with a hardware button. I am using the searchable interface in my activity. I am not following the EditText / TextField approach.

Answer 1

I don't think you need to detect if it actually has a search hardware button. The framework will help you out here (though, I'm sure this process will be simplified once Ice Cream Sandwich is released)

Currently, the only devices that won't have hardware search are Honeycomb tablets. So, by using android:targetSdkVersion="11" (or higher), adding implements OnQueryTextListener to your Fragment or Activity, and then adding something like:

@Override
public void onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu, MenuInflater inflater) {
    inflater.inflate(R.menu.notebooks_menu, menu);
    final SearchView sv = new SearchView(getActivity());
    sv.setOnQueryTextListener(this);
    menu.findItem(R.id.search_notebooks).setActionView(sv);
}

You will essentially solve the problem. Now, to get it working on pre-Honeycomb devices, you may need to use the compatibility library, or use reflection or some other guards in your code.

EDIT

The Samsung Galaxy S II does not have a dedicated hardware search button, but if you hold the menu button down for a couple of seconds, it will begin acting as a hardware search button.