Implementing SearchView in Android ActionBar

Android action bar has powerful functions like adapting to screen configurations, adding option menu, search view, sharing, navigation between the screens, tabs, drop down option, etc. In this tutorial, you will learn to implement search view in android action bar. Search can be handled by different way and here you will learn one of the simple ways.

SearchView makes user to find something easily by typing in the search box. You can use search view in android toolbar/appbar, listview, custom design page etc.

Related:
Animated Android Toolbar With Appbar Background Image
Android Toolbar Example: How to Use Toolbar as ActionBar
Android ListView with Image and Text

Android Example: How to Implement/Add SearchView in ActionBar

To implement a search view widget to android actionbar/appbar, you have to create a file inside res/menu directory of your project and add an item with a unique id, title, icon and collapseActionView attribute. The collapseActionView attribute is used to expand SearchView while clicking on the search icon. Following is the complete content of res/menu/menu_items.xml file.

res/menu/search_view_menu_item.xml

To display SearchView in android action bar you have to add little bit code in your java activity file inside onCreateOptionMenu method. Following is the complete code of java activity file.

src/ImplementingSearchViewActionBar.java

Following is the default content of XML layout file.

res/layout/searchview_android_actionbar.xml

Now, run your Implementing SearchView in Android ActionBar application and then click on the search icon from the app bar, you will see the SearchView is expanding and you can search by typing any word here.