How can I center an ActionView (a SearchView in particular) inside of a Action Bar?
As seen in the Google Books app:
Google Books app SearchView http://i46.tinypic.com/2z909is.png
My current layout setup (search_layout.xml
):
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<SearchView
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:queryHint="@string/search_hint" />
My Action Bar XML file (menu.xml
):
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
<item
android:icon="@+android:drawable/ic_menu_search"
android:title="@string/search"
android:showAsAction="always|collapseActionView"
android:id="@+id/searchMenuItem"
android:actionLayout="@layout/search_layout" />
</menu>
Is there a way to mimic the behaviour of the Books' SearchView?
A View
centered in the ActionBar
can't be achieved with Action Items
in an xml menu
, as far as I can tell. However it can be implemented by setting a custom layout to the ActionBar
. A basic example:
An Activity
:
public class MainActivity extends Activity {
@Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
ActionBar actionBar = getActionBar();
actionBar.setDisplayOptions(ActionBar.DISPLAY_SHOW_CUSTOM);
actionBar.setDisplayShowHomeEnabled(true);
actionBar.setCustomView(R.layout.actionbar_layout);
}
@Override
public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.activity_main, menu);
return true;
}
}
where actionbar_layout
is:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent">
<SearchView
android:id="@+id/mySearchView"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_centerInParent="true"
android:iconifiedByDefault="false" />
</RelativeLayout>
creates this on a 7'' tablet:
Note the iconifiedByDefault
attribute set to false
on the SearchView
which forces it to appear expanded and not just as an icon. This may require that you hide the softkeyboard programmatically or it will be launched open when the Activity starts.
Have a look here. You can just use the android:actionViewClass="android.widget.SearchView" attribute, and that should work just fine (keep in mind that you can get a reference to the searchView in Java, and change the hint there if that's what you want).