How do I open the SearchView programmatically?

Question

There is this widget for the ActionBar which called \'SearchView\'. When it\'s not in use, it looks like this:

Answer 1

If you want to use support library only when necessary, do this

    MenuItem searchMenuItem = menu.findItem(R.id.action_search);
    if (Utils.hasIceCreamSandwich())
        searchMenuItem.expandActionView();
    else MenuItemCompat.expandActionView(searchMenuItem);

else simply do this

    MenuItem searchMenuItem = menu.findItem(R.id.action_search);
    MenuItemCompat.expandActionView(searchMenuItem);

Answer 2

Expand the SearchView with

searchView.setIconified(false);

and collapse it with

searchView.setIconified(true);

You need to change the value of android:showAsAction from ifRoom|collapseActionView to always. The SearchView's attribute android:iconifiedByDefault should be true, which is the default value, otherwise the user can not collapse the SearchView after it was expanded programmatically.