Implement Search interface

In this exercise, we will implement search interface on our activity, without actual searching function. When user press the Search button, a search dialog will be opened; then after user confirm search, the query will be passed to another activity (MySearch.java) for searching.



First we create our search activity, MySearch.java. Simple check if the intent equal to ACTION_SEARCH and display the query only.

package com.exercise.AndroidSearch;

import android.app.Activity;
import android.app.SearchManager;
import android.content.Intent;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.widget.Toast;

public class MySearch extends Activity {

 @Override
 protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
  // TODO Auto-generated method stub
  super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
  
  // Get the intent, verify the action and get the query
     Intent intent = getIntent();
     if (Intent.ACTION_SEARCH.equals(intent.getAction())) {
      String query = intent.getStringExtra(SearchManager.QUERY);
      Toast.makeText(MySearch.this, 
        query, 
        Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
     }
 }

}

Modify AndroidManifest.xml to add MySearch activity to handle intent of "android.intent.action.SEARCH", with meta-data with android:name="android.app.searchable" and android:resource="@xml/searchable". xml/searchable.xml is the searchable configuration, it will be created later.
Also add meta-data in the main activity AndroidSearchActivity, with android:name="android.app.default_searchable" and android:value=".MySearch". Where MySearch.java is the search activity we have just created.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    package="com.exercise.AndroidSearch"
    android:versionCode="1"
    android:versionName="1.0" >

    <uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="8" />

    <application
        android:icon="@drawable/ic_launcher"
        android:label="@string/app_name" >
        <activity
            android:label="@string/app_name"
            android:name=".AndroidSearchActivity" >
            <intent-filter >
                <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
                <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
            </intent-filter>
             <meta-data android:name="android.app.default_searchable"
                   android:value=".MySearch" />
        </activity>
        <activity android:name=".MySearch" >
            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="android.intent.action.SEARCH" />
            </intent-filter>
            <meta-data android:name="android.app.searchable"
                android:resource="@xml/searchable"/>
        </activity>
    </application>

</manifest>

Create /res/xml/searchable.xml to define our searchable configuration.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<searchable xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:label="@string/app_name" >
</searchable>

The main activity have no need to change in this exercise.

Download the files.