How can I style the SearchView when using a Toolbar as an Action Bar?

Question

I\'m using a Toolbar as an Action Bar in my app using the AppCompat v21 library, as described in this post on the Android Developers Blog. I\'ve styled the acti

Answer 1

After digging into the source code and experimenting a bit, I've come up with a solution and cleared up a couple of sources of confusion. First, the SearchView style needs to be set in the app theme:

<style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.NoActionBar">
    <item name="searchViewStyle">@style/MySearchViewStyle</item>
</style>

Then we need to set the suggestionRowLayout in the searchViewStyle:

<style name="MySearchViewStyle" parent="Widget.AppCompat.Light.SearchView">
    <item name="suggestionRowLayout">@layout/search_suggestion_row</item>
</style>

In my question, I assumed that we could use @style/Widget.AppCompat.Light.SearchView to get a light suggestion menu, but it turns out that this isn't the case; we need to define our own layout. I based mine on abc_search_dropdown_item_icons_2line.xml from the AppCompat v21 library.

Answer 2

Here's an example of search_suggestion_row.xml

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!--
/*
 * Copyright (C) 2014 The Android Open Source Project
 *
 * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
 * You may obtain a copy of the License at
 *
 *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 *
 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
 * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 * limitations under the License.
 */
-->

<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
                android:layout_width="match_parent"
                android:layout_height="58dip"
                style="@style/RtlOverlay.Widget.AppCompat.Search.DropDown">

    <!-- Icons come first in the layout, since their placement doesn't depend on
         the placement of the text views. -->
    <android.support.v7.internal.widget.TintImageView
               android:id="@android:id/icon1"
               android:layout_width="@dimen/abc_dropdownitem_icon_width"
               android:layout_height="48dip"
               android:scaleType="centerInside"
               android:layout_alignParentTop="true"
               android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"
               android:visibility="invisible"
               style="@style/RtlOverlay.Widget.AppCompat.Search.DropDown.Icon1" />

    <android.support.v7.internal.widget.TintImageView
               android:id="@+id/edit_query"
               android:layout_width="48dip"
               android:layout_height="48dip"
               android:scaleType="centerInside"
               android:layout_alignParentTop="true"
               android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"
               android:background="?attr/selectableItemBackground"
               android:visibility="gone"
               style="@style/RtlOverlay.Widget.AppCompat.Search.DropDown.Query" />

    <android.support.v7.internal.widget.TintImageView
               android:id="@id/android:icon2"
               android:layout_width="48dip"
               android:layout_height="48dip"
               android:scaleType="centerInside"
               android:layout_alignWithParentIfMissing="true"
               android:layout_alignParentTop="true"
               android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"
               android:visibility="gone"
               style="@style/RtlOverlay.Widget.AppCompat.Search.DropDown.Icon2" />


    <!-- The subtitle comes before the title, since the height of the title depends on whether the
         subtitle is visible or gone. -->
    <TextView android:id="@android:id/text2"
              style="?android:attr/dropDownItemStyle"
              android:textAppearance="?attr/textAppearanceSearchResultSubtitle"
              android:singleLine="true"
              android:layout_width="match_parent"
              android:layout_height="29dip"
              android:paddingBottom="4dip"
              android:gravity="top"
              android:layout_alignWithParentIfMissing="true"
              android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"
              android:visibility="gone" />

    <!-- The title is placed above the subtitle, if there is one. If there is no
         subtitle, it fills the parent. -->
    <TextView android:id="@android:id/text1"
              style="?android:attr/dropDownItemStyle"
              android:textAppearance="?attr/textAppearanceSearchResultTitle"
              android:singleLine="true"
              android:layout_width="match_parent"
              android:layout_height="wrap_content"
              android:layout_centerVertical="true"
              android:layout_above="@android:id/text2" />

</RelativeLayout>
<!-- From: file:/usr/local/google/buildbot/repo_clients/https___googleplex-android.googlesource.com_a_platform_manifest.git/lmp-mr1-supportlib-release/frameworks/support/v7/appcompat/res/layout/abc_search_dropdown_item_icons_2line.xml -->

Answer 3

As per the AppCompat v21 announcement blog post:

AppCompat offers Lollipop’s updated SearchView API, which is far more customizable and styleable (queue the applause). We now use the Lollipop style structure instead of the old searchView* theme attributes.

Here’s how you style SearchView (in values/themes.xml):

<style name="Theme.MyTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat">
   <item name="searchViewStyle">@style/MySearchViewStyle</item>
</style>
<style name="MySearchViewStyle" parent="Widget.AppCompat.SearchView">
   <!-- Background for the search query section (e.g. EditText) -->
   <item name="queryBackground">...</item>
   <!-- Background for the actions section (e.g. voice, submit) -->
   <item name="submitBackground">...</item>
   <!-- Close button icon -->
   <item name="closeIcon">...</item>
   <!-- Search button icon -->
   <item name="searchIcon">...</item>
   <!-- Go/commit button icon -->
   <item name="goIcon">...</item>
   <!-- Voice search button icon -->
   <item name="voiceIcon">...</item>
   <!-- Commit icon shown in the query suggestion row -->
   <item name="commitIcon">...</item>
   <!-- Layout for query suggestion rows -->
   <item name="suggestionRowLayout">...</item>
</style>

As further researched in this blog post.

Answer 4

If it doesn;'t work you can code for it. I explain in this post. It is for xamarin forms, but i hope you can apply it to andoird native. You can change it's background, icon, clear icon as well as the color

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