can't see search in action bar

Question

Somehow I am unable to see search in action bar.

menu main:

<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    tools:context="com.example.actionbar.MainActivity" >

    <item android:id="@+id/action_settings"
        android:title="@string/action_settings"
        android:orderInCategory="100"
        app:showAsAction="never" />
    <item android:id="@+id/action_search"
        android:title="Search"
        android:icon="@android:drawable/ic_menu_search"
        android:showAsAction="collapseActionView|ifRoom"
        android:actionViewClass="android.widget.SearchView"
        >

    </item>
</menu>

MainActivity

public class MainActivity extends ActionBarActivity {

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

        if (savedInstanceState == null) {
            getSupportFragmentManager().beginTransaction()
                    .add(R.id.container, new PlaceholderFragment())
                    .commit();
        }
    }


    @Override
    public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {

        // Inflate the menu; this adds items to the action bar if it is present.
        getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.main, menu);
        return true;
    }

    @Override
    public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item) {
        // Handle action bar item clicks here. The action bar will
        // automatically handle clicks on the Home/Up button, so long
        // as you specify a parent activity in AndroidManifest.xml.
        int id = item.getItemId();
        if (id == R.id.action_settings) {
            return true;
        }
        return super.onOptionsItemSelected(item);
    }

    /**
     * A placeholder fragment containing a simple view.
     */
    public static class PlaceholderFragment extends Fragment {

        public PlaceholderFragment() {
        }

        @Override
        public View onCreateView(LayoutInflater inflater, ViewGroup container,
                Bundle savedInstanceState) {
            View rootView = inflater.inflate(R.layout.fragment_main, container, false);
            return rootView;
        }
    }

}

Answer 1

Try this (change android:showAsAction to app:showAsAction) :

<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
tools:context="com.example.actionbar.MainActivity" >

<item android:id="@+id/action_settings"
    android:title="@string/action_settings"
    android:orderInCategory="100"
    app:showAsAction="never" />
<item android:id="@+id/action_search"
    android:title="Search"
    android:icon="@android:drawable/ic_menu_search"
    app:showAsAction="collapseActionView|ifRoom"
    android:actionViewClass="android.widget.SearchView"
    >

</item>

And you can force-show it by:

android:showAsAction="always"

Answer 2

showAsAction attribute should be of app schema. If you are using SearchView of v7 support library it should be also of app schema.

<item android:id="@+id/action_search"
      android:title="Search"
      android:icon="@android:drawable/ic_menu_search"
      app:showAsAction="collapseActionView|ifRoom"
      app:actionViewClass="android.support.v7.widget.SearchView"/>

You can find the code snippets for complete implementation of SearchView in the following link: NullPointerException in Android code