Android Searchview in toolbar not working in older versions

Question

My toolbar has a searchView inside and both ate not registering any touch events on android 4.3 (in fact the event goes to the view below them). It should register homeAsUp, the searchView field (requestFocus) and X button to clear the field. For now what I am thinking is attaching listeners to these but is there a better way.

@Override
    public boolean onPrepareOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
        super.onPrepareOptionsMenu(menu);
        MenuItem menuItem = menu.findItem(R.id.app_bar_search);
        SearchView searchView = new SearchView(this);
        searchView.setIconifiedByDefault(false);
        searchView.setIconified(false);
        searchView.requestFocus();
        searchView.setMaxWidth(Integer.MAX_VALUE);
        searchView.setQueryHint(getString(R.string.search));

        ImageView searchViewIcon = (ImageView)searchView.findViewById(android.support.v7.appcompat.R.id.search_mag_icon);
        ViewGroup linearLayoutSearchView =(ViewGroup) searchViewIcon.getParent();
        linearLayoutSearchView.removeView(searchViewIcon);

        menuItem.setActionView(searchView);
        searchView.setOnQueryTextListener(new SearchView.OnQueryTextListener() {
            @Override
            public boolean onQueryTextSubmit(String query) { return false; }

            @Override
            public boolean onQueryTextChange(String newText) {
                presenter.queryChanged(newText);
                return true;
            }
        });

        return true;
    }

@Override
    public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
        getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.search, menu);
        return true;
    }

menu/search.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<menu xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">

    <item
        android:id="@+id/app_bar_search"
        app:actionViewClass="android.support.v7.widget.SearchView"
        android:icon="@drawable/ic_search_white_24dp"
        android:title="@string/search"
        app:showAsAction="always" />
</menu>

It works fine in newer versions though (don't know which one is the border between working/not working).

EDIT: Attaching a listener to the searchview doesn't work either.

Answer 1

don't make new instance of SearchView fetch it from the menuItem:

replace this line

SearchView searchView = new SearchView(this);

with

SearchView searchView = (SearchView) menuItem .getActionView();

and remove following line:

menuItem.setActionView(searchView);

following code is working fine for me:

@Override
    public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu( Menu menu) {
        getMenuInflater().inflate( R.menu.menu_main, menu);

        MenuItem myActionMenuItem = menu.findItem( R.id.action_search);
        final SearchView searchView = (SearchView) myActionMenuItem.getActionView();
        searchView.setOnQueryTextListener(new SearchView.OnQueryTextListener() {
            @Override
            public boolean onQueryTextSubmit(String query) {
                return false;
            }

            @Override
            public boolean onQueryTextChange(String newText) {
                if (TextUtils.isEmpty(newText)) {
                    adapter.filter("");
                    listView.clearTextFilter();
                } else {
                    adapter.filter(newText);
                }
                return true;
            }
        });

        return true;
    }

Answer 2

what about doing it using EditText ... it is going to run for all versions.

1- In YourActivity.xml remove android.support.design.widget.AppBarLayout attribute then add

<android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar
            android:id="@+id/toolbar"
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="?attr/actionBarSize"
            app:popupTheme="@style/AppTheme.PopupOverlay" >

            <EditText
                android:id="@+id/search_edit_text"
                android:layout_width="match_parent"
                android:layout_height="match_parent"
                android:layout_marginStart="24dp"
                android:backgroundTint="[TINT_COLOR]"
                android:hint="Search"
                android:inputType="[INPUT TYPE]"
                android:textColorHint="[HINT_COLOR]"
                android:layout_marginEnd="16dp"/>

</android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar>

2-In YourActivity.java code add this listener on search edittext

private TextWatcher searchTextWatcher =
        new TextWatcher() {
            @Override
            public void beforeTextChanged(CharSequence charSequence, int i, int i1, int i2) {

            }

            @Override
            public void onTextChanged(CharSequence charSequence, int i, int i1, int i2) {
                presenter.queryChanged(charSequence.toString());
            }

            @Override
            public void afterTextChanged(Editable editable) {

            }
};