How to add a SearchWidget to the ActionBar?

Since this question is looked up quite often and I stumbled across the very same problem again and again here is a little follow up that keeps track of all necessary steps to create a SearchWidget.

There is one tricky part about the SearchWidget though: If you use hardcoded Strings in the searchable.xml instead of resources the app will crash with a confusing error message. This took me way too many hours of my life…

1. Create an Activity to handle the search results

   public class Search extends Activity {}
   

2. Add a file “searchable.xml” to your res/xml directory (use resources for hint & label!)

   <searchable xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
       android:hint="@string/search_hint"
       android:includeInGlobalSearch="false"
       android:label="@string/search_label"
       android:searchSettingsDescription="@string/search_global_description" />
   

3. Create the proper menu item “main.xml” in you res/menu directory

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
   <menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" >
   
       <item
          android:id="@+id/options_menu_main_search"
          android:actionViewClass="android.widget.SearchView"
          android:icon="@drawable/icon_magnifier"
          android:showAsAction="always"
          android:title="Search"/>
   
   </menu>
   

4. Update your Manifest.xml: Add the search activity and specify which activities may receive search intents. Adding <meta-data android:name="android.app.default_searchable" android:value=".app.Search" /> to an activity node makes it searchable. Adding it to the application node makes all activities searchable.

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
   <manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
       <application>
           <meta-data
               android:name="android.app.default_searchable"
               android:value=".app.Search" />
   
           <activity android:name=".activities.Search" >
               <intent-filter>
               <action android:name="android.intent.action.SEARCH" />
           </intent-filter>
   
           <meta-data
               android:name="android.app.searchable"
               android:resource="@xml/searchable" />
       </activity>
   </application>
   

5. Add the SearchManager to your ActionView in every activity that should provide the SearchWidget

   public class Activity extends android.app.Activity
   {
       @Override
       public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu( Menu menu )
       {
           getMenuInflater().inflate( R.menu.main, menu );
   
           // Add SearchWidget.
           SearchManager searchManager = (SearchManager) getSystemService( Context.SEARCH_SERVICE );
           SearchView searchView = (SearchView) menu.findItem( R.id.options_menu_main_search ).getActionView();
   
           searchView.setSearchableInfo( searchManager.getSearchableInfo( getComponentName() ) );
   
           return super.onCreateOptionsMenu( menu );
       }
   }