How can I tell when text is being typed into my Android SearchView on the ActionBar

Question

I want to disable certain features of my app while the user is entering text for a search. The xml for the relevant item in my ActionBar is

<item android:id="@+id/actionbar_search"
    android:orderInCategory="1"
    android:showAsAction="always|withText|collapseActionView"
    android:actionViewClass="android.widget.SearchView"
    android:icon="@drawable/earth_2508858_search_en"
    android:inputType="textPostalAddress" />

and in the corresponding code that I have at present to cater for the search is

@Override
public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
    super.onCreateOptionsMenu(menu);
    MenuInflater inflater = getMenuInflater();
    inflater.inflate(R.menu.action_menu, menu);

    MenuItem DestinationTxt = menu.findItem(R.id.actionbar_search);
    final SearchView mySearchView = (SearchView)DestinationTxt.getActionView();     

    mySearchView.setOnQueryTextListener(new OnQueryTextListener() {
        @Override
        public boolean onQueryTextChange(String newText) { return false; }

        @Override
        public boolean onQueryTextSubmit(String query) {
            //Hide the Keyboard
            imm.hideSoftInputFromWindow(mySearchView.getWindowToken(), 0);
            // CODE TO DO THE SEARCH
            return true;
        }       
    });
}

I've browsed the methods on SearchView, but I didn't see anything that would tell me whether it's active or not. I'm also worried about putting in a boolean state variable to indicate when the text is being typed into the SearchView, in case some behaviour that I haven't catered for occurs (e.g. back button pressed, activity gets suspended), and somehow the state variable gets stale so that the disabled features stay disabled. So I'm looking for a robust way of doing this, all help appreciated :-).

Update. An answer below suggests using the interface OnFocusChangeListener which is implemented by the mySearchView object, and/or the mySearchView.isFocussed() method. Both sounded promising, however I've now tested and neither seem to work. Perhaps their failure has got something to do with the fact that this SearchView is in the ActionBar? In any case, I'm still after a robust solution.

Answer 1

It's right there.

mySearchView.setOnQueryTextListener(new OnQueryTextListener() {
    @Override
    public boolean onQueryTextChange(String newText) { return false; }

That's where you'll get updates to text changes in the SearchView.

The return value should be as such (documentation):

Returns false if the SearchView should perform the default action of showing any suggestions if available, true if the action was handled by the listener.

If you want to know if the SearchView has been activated or deactivated, use View.setOnFocusChangeListener(View.OnFocusChangeListener);

public interface OnFocusChangeListener{

    public void onFocusChange (View v, boolean hasFocus);
    // The boolean will tell you if it's focused or not.

}

Answer 2

Since monitoring the focus didn't work, I looked at the SearchView documentation again. It's a bit convoluted, but it seems like the intended solution to this problem.

If your SearchView is inflated from a menu XML in onCreateOptionsMenu(), then you can add this line:

menu.findItem(/* your SearchView's ID here */).setOnActionExpandListener(
    new OnActionExpandListener(){

        @Override
        public boolean onMenuItemActionCollapse (MenuItem item){
            enableInteraction();
            return true; // Allow the SearchView to collapse.
        }

        @Override
        public boolean onMenuItemActionExpand(MenuItem item){
            disableInteraction();
            return true; // Allow the SearchView to expand.
        }
    }
);

Then enable and disable your Activity's views in enableInteraction() and disableInteraction(), respectively. You should retain the MenuItem in your Activity so you can query it in onResume() like so:

@Override
public void onResume(){
    super.onResume();

    searchViewMenuItem.isActionViewExpanded() ? 
    disableInteraction() : enableInteraction();    
}

This part might not be needed. The SearchView might automatically get collapsed when the Activity is hidden and stay that way, so you can simply call enableInteraction() in onResume() so your user isn't locked out.

If you just need to reference the state of the SearchView, use

searchViewMenuItem.isActionViewExpanded();