Android SearchView tutorial: EditText with phone contacts search and autosuggestion (including source code)

SearchView is available in Android 3.0+. It enables you to search for any data by means of ContentProvider. You can write your custom ContentProvider or use the existing one. For simplicity I will show how to use Android ContactsProvider.

The Goal

The goal is to buil SearchView to find contact from address book with auto suggestions:

SearchView tutorial result

Download my source code if you wish!

Here it is!

1. Add SearchView to activity

SearchView is aViewGroup and you can add it as any other view to your activity:

<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    tools:context=".SearchViewActivity" >

    <SearchView
        android:id="@+id/searchView"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_centerHorizontal="true" >
    </SearchView>

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/searchViewResult"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_below="@+id/searchView"
        android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
        android:text="@string/hello_world" />

</RelativeLayout>

2. Create searchable.xml file

In this file you will specify the data source to search through as well as customize the SearchView. In my case I use default Android ContactsProvider. It is identified by URI:

com.android.contacts

Put this file in /res/xml/searchable.xml. This is how my searchable.xml looks like:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<searchable xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:label="@string/findContact"
    android:hint="@string/findContact"
    android:includeInGlobalSearch="true"
    android:queryAfterZeroResults="true"
    android:searchMode="queryRewriteFromText"
    android:searchSettingsDescription="@string/findContact"
    android:searchSuggestAuthority="com.android.contacts"
    android:searchSuggestIntentAction="android.provider.Contacts.SEARCH_SUGGESTION_CLICKED"
    android:searchSuggestIntentData="content://com.android.contacts/contacts/lookup" >

    <!-- allow green action key for search-bar and per-suggestion clicks -->
    <actionkey
        android:keycode="KEYCODE_CALL"
        android:queryActionMsg="call"
        android:suggestActionMsg="call" />

</searchable>

Watch out: you have to specify label and hint as a strings from strings.xml. Otherwise (if they are hardcoded or absent, the SearchView did not worked for me).

3. Add permission to read contacts

Add permission in AndroidManifest.xml file in order to gain access to user’s contact book:

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_CONTACTS" />

4. Use searchable.xml in your activity

To use searchable.xml in your activity, you need to add <meta-data/> tag to your AndroidManifest.xml:

<meta-data
    android:name="android.app.searchable"
    android:resource="@xml/searchable" />

To see my full AndroidManifest.xml, see the next points.

5. Setup the SearchView in Activity code

Here you have to provide the SearchManager to the SearchView and point tho this activity as Search Result Intent Handler. Create dedicated method for it and run it in onCreate():

private void setupSearchView() {
	SearchManager searchManager = (SearchManager) getSystemService(Context.SEARCH_SERVICE);
	final SearchView searchView = (SearchView) findViewById(R.id.searchView);
	SearchableInfo searchableInfo = searchManager.getSearchableInfo(getComponentName());
	searchView.setSearchableInfo(searchableInfo);
}

6. Filter SEARCH intent in your activity

SearchView generates the SEARCH intent and handling it in your activity is crucial. This will inform you about refreshing suggestion list, the event of chosing an item from that list or confirmation button press. So add this to intent filter in your activity:

<intent-filter>
    <action android:name="android.intent.action.SEARCH" />
</intent-filter>

As for now your application should work and suggest contacts from contact book. However, choosing the contact from suggestion will not work yet.

7. Add singleTop flag to activity

Now when you choose the contact from suggestion list, the activity is relaunched. To prevent it, set the launchMode to singleTop for your activity in AndroidManifest.xml:

android:launchMode="singleTop"

This is how the full AndroidManifest.xml should look like after all:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    package="pl.looksok.searchviewdemo"
    android:versionCode="1"
    android:versionName="1.0" >

    <uses-sdk
        android:minSdkVersion="11"
        android:targetSdkVersion="11" />

    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_CONTACTS" />

    <application
        android:allowBackup="true"
        android:icon="@drawable/ic_launcher"
        android:label="@string/app_name"
        android:theme="@style/AppTheme" >
        <activity
            android:name="pl.looksok.searchviewdemo.SearchViewActivity"
            android:label="@string/app_name"
            android:launchMode="singleTop">
            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
                <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
                <action android:name="android.intent.action.SEARCH" />
            </intent-filter>

            <meta-data
                android:name="android.app.searchable"
                android:resource="@xml/searchable" />
        </activity>
    </application>
</manifest>

8. Handle suggestion pick user action

To handle contact search event you have to handle intent with particular action: search suggestion picked, or return button clicked (search request):

@Override
protected void onNewIntent(Intent intent) {
	if (ContactsContract.Intents.SEARCH_SUGGESTION_CLICKED.equals(intent.getAction())) {
		//handles suggestion clicked query
		String displayName = getDisplayNameForContact(intent);
		resultText.setText(displayName);
	} else if (Intent.ACTION_SEARCH.equals(intent.getAction())) {
		// handles a search query
		String query = intent.getStringExtra(SearchManager.QUERY);
		resultText.setText("should search for query: '" + query + "'...");
	}
}

this is how I get contact display name:

private String getDisplayNameForContact(Intent intent) {
	Cursor phoneCursor = getContentResolver().query(intent.getData(), null, null, null, null);
	phoneCursor.moveToFirst();
	int idDisplayName = phoneCursor.getColumnIndex(ContactsContract.Contacts.DISPLAY_NAME);
	String name = phoneCursor.getString(idDisplayName);
	phoneCursor.close();
	return name;
}

That’s all!

Download my source code if you wish!

Here it is!

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