Question

I would like to create an always-expanded search window in my action bar. I am using the ActionBar Sherlock library. According to some samples I have found, this code should do the trick

    public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
    MenuInflater inflater = this.getSupportMenuInflater();
    inflater.inflate(R.menu.action_bar, menu);

    MenuItem searchItem = menu.findItem(R.id.action_bar_search);
    SearchView searchView = (SearchView) searchItem.getActionView();  //returns null
    searchView.setIconifiedByDefault(false);


    return true;
}

however, getActionView(); returns null.
Is there some other way to get to the searchView, so that I can call the setIconifiedByDefault(false); method ?
I would like to keep the definition of the searchView in the xml file as follows

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

    <item android:id="@+id/action_bar_search"
          android:title="@string/action_bar_search"
          android:icon="@drawable/ic_magnify"
          android:showAsAction="always"
          android:actionViewClass="android.widget.SearchView" />
    </menu>

Thanks for any help

Answer 1

Your issue is probably with your XML. Change android:actionViewClass="android.widget.SearchView" to android:actionViewClass="com.actionbarsherlock.widget.SearchView"