Problem passing a Bundle with onSearchRequested

Question

I'm actually trying to use the built-in search interface of Android, but I have some issues when I try to pass data with the search query.

Here is a brief explanation : I have an object in a first Activity (FirstActivity) called "Category" which implements Serializable (I already pass it successfuly between Activities) and I want to perform a search related to that category, and display the results in a second Activity (SecondActivity).

So, in FirstActivity I override the onSearchRequest method :

@Override
public boolean onSearchRequested() {
    Bundle appData = new Bundle();
    appData.putSerializable("category", _currentCategory);
    Log.d(Utils.LOG_TAG, "Bundle : "+appData.keySet());
    startSearch(null, false, appData, false);
    return true;
}

And in SecondActivity, I try to get this Bundle :

@Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    ...
    handleIntent(getIntent());
}

private void handleIntent(Intent intent){
    Bundle appData = intent.getBundleExtra(SearchManager.APP_DATA);
    if(appData == null) Log.d(Utils.LOG_TAG, "appData == null");
    Log.d(Utils.LOG_TAG, "Extras : "+intent.getExtras().keySet());
}

Problem is that appData seems to be equals to null everytime. Here is the logcat output :

Bundle : [category]
appData == null
Extras : [query, user_query]

I tried to add some other objects into the Bundle (Booleans, etc...) but it doesn't change anything at all and I keep having a null appData.

Answer 1

If you're using SearchView, it will not send your appData. Instead, consider using OnQueryTextListener. For example:

...
@Override
public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
    MenuInflater inflater = getMenuInflater();
    inflater.inflate(R.menu.your-menu-id, menu);

    /*
     * Get the SearchView and set the searchable configuration.
     */
    SearchManager searchManager = (SearchManager) getSystemService(Context.SEARCH_SERVICE);
    SearchView searchView = (SearchView) menu.findItem(R.id.your-search-menuitem-id)
            .getActionView();
    searchView.setSearchableInfo(searchManager.getSearchableInfo(getComponentName()));
    /*
     * Set query text listener here.
     */
    searchView.setOnQueryTextListener(mSearchViewOnQueryTextListener);

    return true;
}// onCreateOptionsMenu()

...
private final SearchView.OnQueryTextListener mSearchViewOnQueryTextListener = new SearchView.OnQueryTextListener() {

    @Override
    public boolean onQueryTextSubmit(String query) {
        /*
         * You don't need to deal with "appData", because you already
         * have the search query here.
         */

        // Tell the SearchView that we handled the query.
        return true;
    }// onQueryTextSubmit()

    @Override
    public boolean onQueryTextChange(String newText) {
        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
        return false;
    }// onQueryTextChange()
};// mSearchViewOnQueryTextListener

Note: You still need to keep the old way (using appData inside onSearchRequested()). In your onCreate(), if the extra for SearchManager.APP_DATA is null, that means you already handled the search query in the listener.

Conclusion:

• If the SearchView is inactive, and you invoke it via onSearchRequested(), this will happen: onSearchRequested() >> onCreate() (ACTION_SEARCH contains SearchManager.APP_DATA).
• If the SearchView is active, the user types and submits search, this will happen: SearchView.OnQueryTextListener.onQueryTextSubmit() >> onCreate() (ACTION_SEARCH without SearchManager.APP_DATA).