How to remove empty space in always visible searchview?

Question

I am trying to display a search view as soon as I open my app and give it focus, and prevent the back arrow <-, because pressing back causes :

1. firstly the keyboard to close
2. then the search view to collapse, clearing the query and also the displayed results resulting in an empty fragment --- instead of this I'd rather it skip this and go straight to 3, exiting the activity
3. then the third back is needed to exit the activity

I only wanted max 2 back actions to exit the activity. So I did the following in my search fragment:

public override void OnCreateOptionsMenu(IMenu menu, MenuInflater inflater) {
  inflater.Inflate(Resource.Menu.search, menu);

  var searchMenu = menu.FindItem(Resource.Id.action_search);
  searchMenu.ExpandActionView();
  _searchView = searchMenu.ActionView.JavaCast<SearchView>();
  _searchView.SetIconifiedByDefault(false); // <-- I added this
  _searchView.RequestFocus();
  _searchView.QueryTextChange += async (s, e) => {
    await PerformSearch(e.NewText);
  };

  var searchText = _searchView.FindViewById<TextView>(Resource.Id.search_src_text);
  searchText.TextAlignment = TextAlignment.Center;
  searchText.Hint = Resources.GetString(Resource.String.search_hint);

  base.OnCreateOptionsMenu(menu, inflater);
}

menu:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>

<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
      xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto">

  <item android:id="@+id/action_search"
        android:icon="@drawable/ic_search"
        android:text="Search"
        app:showAsAction="always" <-- I took out collapseActionView from here
        app:actionViewClass="android.support.v7.widget.SearchView" />
</menu>

Now as soon as my activity launches and switches to the fragment I get this blank space on the left, how can I get rid of it?

Answer 1

This is the defaul blank space in Android OptionsMenu, you can not modify it. If your OptionsMenu only contain a SearchView item, there is a method to reduce its length. You could not use OptionsMenu, and add SearchView into Toolbar directly. You know OptionsMenu also is created based on Toolbar.

Therefore, you could find the xml code of Toolbar and add SearchView as follows:

<android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar
    android:id="@+id/toolbar"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="?attr/actionBarSize"
    android:background="?attr/colorPrimary"
    app:popupTheme="@style/AppTheme.PopupOverlay" >

    <android.support.v7.widget.SearchView
        android:id="@+id/searchView"
        android:text="Search"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent" />

</android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar>

In Activiy, also add focus function code:

Android.Support.V7.Widget.SearchView searchView = FindViewById<Android.Support.V7.Widget.SearchView>(Resource.Id.searchView);
searchView.SetIconifiedByDefault(false);
searchView.RequestFocus();
searchView.QueryTextChange += (s, e) =>
{
    //await PerformSearch(e.NewText);
    Console.WriteLine(e.NewText);
};

var searchText = searchView.FindViewById<TextView>(Resource.Id.search_src_text);
searchText.TextAlignment = TextAlignment.Center;
searchText.Hint = Resources.GetString(Resource.String.search_hint);

The effect: