Setting hint text for search widget when used as part of menu

Question

I have a menu item as part of my action bar menu, and I am setting the action view class to the search widget like so:

   <item android:id="@+id/menu_search"
        android:title="Search"
        android:icon="@drawable/ic_menu_search"
        android:showAsAction="always"
        android:actionViewClass="android.widget.SearchView" />

This makes the search widget pop out when it is clicked - however, I want it to always be visible, and I also want to be able to set the query hint etc.

When I attempt to call SearchView searchItem = (SearchView) menu.findItem(R.id.menu_search) to get a reference to it, it throws an error as the item cannot be cast to a SearchView.

Answer 1

You can set hint text to searchview using the api setQueryHint (CharSequence hint)

SearchView searchView = (SearchView) menu.findItem(R.id.menu_search).getActionView();
searchView.setQueryHint("Query Hint");

Refer the documentation

Answer 2

This will make the ActionView search box always show, by default:

searchView.setIconifiedByDefault(false);

This tells the search box to always be expanded. Iconified means that you need to tap the icon to make the search box appear.