android search: customize suggestion layout

Question

I've been following along with the directions here for both SearchView and dialog implementations. Both are visible below. There are many questions on SO that focus on customizing the search box, but few that are about customizing the UI of the suggestions. (The ones that do are about color/font, the defaults for which are fine for me.) I would like to be able to widen the suggestions to take up the whole width of the screen. Is there any way to customize the width using either dialog or SearchView implementations. I'd prefer not to use a library unless that is the only option. If this is possible or easier with one of the implementations that is fine.

Here's what the dialog implementation looks like for me:

Here's what the SearchView implementation looks like for me:

Answer 1

This is how you can do it:

Step 1

Just create a layout with a RecyclerView or an expandable list or list whichever you want to use.

Step 2

In you activity (CityActivity) you need to do this:

1. Create a handler like this:

private static class SearchHandler extends Handler {
    private WeakReference<CityActivity> mTarget;

    SearchHandler(CityActivity target) {
        mTarget = new WeakReference<>(target);
    }

    public void setTarget(CityActivity target) {
        mTarget.clear();
        mTarget = new WeakReference<>(target);
    }

    @Override
    public void handleMessage(final Message msg) {
        if (msg.what == CityActivity.TRIGGER_SEARCH) {
            CityActivity activity = mTarget.get();
            activity.makeRequest(mSearchText.trim());
        }
    }
}

2. put a TextChangeListener on your searchEditText:

public void setTextChangeListener() {
    searchView.addTextChangedListener(new TextWatcher() {
        @Override
        public void beforeTextChanged(CharSequence s, int start, int count, int after) {
        }

        @Override
        public void onTextChanged(CharSequence s, int start, int before, int count) {
            mSearchText = searchView.getText().toString();
            if (!mSearchText.trim().isEmpty()) {
                handler.removeMessages(CitySelectionActivity.TRIGGER_SEARCH);
                handler.sendEmptyMessageDelayed(CityActivity.TRIGGER_SEARCH,
                        CityActivity.SEARCH_TRIGGER_DELAY_IN_MS);
            } else {
                suggestList.clear();
                fillAnything();
            }
        }

        @Override
        public void afterTextChanged(Editable s) {
        }
    });
}

Here suggestList is the data that is given to your list of