Android MenuItemCompat.getActionView always returns null

Question

I have a simple activity

public class TestActivity extends AppCompatActivity {

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.fragment_search_city);

    }

    @Override
    public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
        getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.activity_main_action, menu);
        final SearchView searchView = (SearchView) MenuItemCompat.getActionView(menu.findItem(R.id.action_search));
        SearchManager searchManager = (SearchManager) getSystemService(SEARCH_SERVICE);
        searchView.setSearchableInfo(searchManager.getSearchableInfo(getComponentName()));
        return true;
    }

    @Override
    protected void onPostCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onPostCreate(savedInstanceState);
    }

}

with this menu.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/tool"
    app:context=".MainActivity">
    <item
        android:id="@+id/action_search"
        android:icon="@android:drawable/ic_menu_search"
        android:title="Search City"
        app:actionviewclass="android.support.v7.widget.SearchView"
        app:showasaction="always">
    </item>
</menu>

(Note that if I use res-auto instead of tool, the project doesn't build saying showasaction and actionviewclass are not found...)

with this style.xml

<resources>
    <style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar"></style>
</resources>

But when I start the app I get a null pointer because MenuItemCompat.getActionView returns null..

Could someone point me where is the mistake?

ps: I have this is my gradle compile 'com.android.support:appcompat-v7:23.0.1'

thank you!

Answer 1

Two problems:

• You must use res-auto - the tool namespace set gets completely stripped before inclusion in your APK
• Names are case sensitive - you need to use app:actionViewClass and app:showAsAction as per the Action Bar training