Question

I am trying to use the built in android search for my app. The problem is There are 7 different fields the user can search, and only one search bar. I am not sure this is possible, but I have seen Searches in android that were like this:

Can anyone point me to any good resources that might help? Currently I using the returned query from the search bar on each index. This would require the user query remote resources 7 times for the same search string. It would be nice to only search the fields out of the 7 they want to search, without reinventing the wheel (making my own search activity and figure out how to override the default search page). Thank You.

Answer 1

The problem is There are 7 different fields the user can search, and only one search bar.

Your choices are:

• search across all seven fields (what you’re apparently doing now), or
• use some sort of tagging notation (e.g., field:searchterm to denote searching some field) to scope the search, or
• only use Google’s built in search for one of the above two and also provide your own search capability within your app via your own activity

The search bar isn’t designed to allow searches of arbitrary complexity.

I am not sure this is possible, but I have seen Searches in android that were like this:

Sorry, but I have no idea what that image is supposed to represent.