Android: Making a Search Activity Single Top

Question

I have an Activity where I used a ListView to display some data and I also want to do some filtering by using SearchView and I want to display the filtered results in the same Activity.

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

        SearchManager searchManager = (SearchManager) getSystemService(SEARCH_SERVICE);
        SearchView searchView = (SearchView) menu.findItem(R.id.search).getActionView();
        searchView.setSearchableInfo(searchManager.getSearchableInfo(getComponentName()));
        searchView.setSubmitButtonEnabled(true);

        return true;
    }

I am doing the search correctly but I noticed that when ever I make a new search process a new Activity instance gets created. So, I wanted to launch the Activity as singleTop by putting android:launchMode="singleTop" to my manifest and tried to handle the search process in onNewIntent method. That did not work as well. The Activity still gets created anytime I make a new search.

How can I avoid this ? Any help would be appreciated.

Answer 1

I'll try to give an example.

Suppose we have a layout file activity_main.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:id="@+id/relativeLayout"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    tools:context=".MainActivity">

    <android.support.design.widget.AppBarLayout
        android:id="@+id/appbar_layout"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:theme="@style/AppTheme.AppBarOverlay">

        <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.Toolbar>

    </android.support.design.widget.AppBarLayout>

    <include layout="@layout/content_main" />

    <ListView
        android:id="@+id/listView"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_below="@id/appbar_layout"></ListView>

</RelativeLayout>

menu_main.xml

<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    tools:context="com.prateek.search.MainActivity">
    <item
        android:id="@+id/action_settings"
        android:orderInCategory="100"
        android:title="@string/action_settings"
        app:showAsAction="never" />

    <item
        android:id="@+id/search"
        android:title="Search"
        app:actionViewClass="android.support.v7.widget.SearchView"
        app:showAsAction="ifRoom"/>
</menu>

And here's the MainActivity.java file

public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity implements SearchView.OnQueryTextListener {

    SearchView searchView;
    ListView listView;
    String[] values = {"John", "Jack", "Alfred", "Bruce", "Frank"};
    ArrayAdapter<String> adapter;

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
        Toolbar toolbar = (Toolbar) findViewById(R.id.toolbar);
        setSupportActionBar(toolbar);

        listView = (ListView) findViewById(R.id.listView);

        adapter = new ArrayAdapter<>(this, android.R.layout.simple_list_item_1, android.R.id.text1, values);
        listView.setAdapter(adapter);
    }

    @Override
    public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
        // Inflate the menu; this adds items to the action bar if it is present.
        getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.menu_main, menu);
        SearchManager searchManager = (SearchManager) getSystemService(SEARCH_SERVICE);
        searchView = (SearchView) menu.findItem(R.id.search).getActionView();
        searchView.setSearchableInfo(searchManager.getSearchableInfo(getComponentName()));
        searchView.setSubmitButtonEnabled(true);
        searchView.setOnQueryTextListener(this);
        return true;
    }

    @Override
    public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item) {
        // Handle action bar item clicks here. The action bar will
        // automatically handle clicks on the Home/Up button, so long
        // as you specify a parent activity in AndroidManifest.xml.
        int id = item.getItemId();

        //noinspection SimplifiableIfStatement
        if (id == R.id.action_settings) {
            return true;
        }

        return super.onOptionsItemSelected(item);
    }

    @Override
    public boolean onQueryTextSubmit(String query) {
        return false;
    }

    @Override
    public boolean onQueryTextChange(String newText) {
        String text = newText;
        adapter.getFilter().filter(text);
        return false;
    }
}

When you search any element, filtered results should be displayed in same activity. Hope it helps!

styles.xml file

<resources>

    <!-- Base application theme. -->
    <style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar">
        <!-- Customize your theme here. -->
        <item name="colorPrimary">@color/colorPrimary</item>
        <item name="colorPrimaryDark">@color/colorPrimaryDark</item>
        <item name="colorAccent">@color/colorAccent</item>
    </style>

    <style name="AppTheme.NoActionBar">
        <item name="windowActionBar">false</item>
        <item name="windowNoTitle">true</item>
    </style>

    <style name="AppTheme.AppBarOverlay" parent="ThemeOverlay.AppCompat.Dark.ActionBar" />

    <style name="AppTheme.PopupOverlay" parent="ThemeOverlay.AppCompat.Light" />

</resources>