Android expanded SearchView makes other ActionBar items disappear

Question

I'm facing some problems with a SearchView in a Contextual Action Bar called by a Fragment. The major one is that when my SearchView is expanded, it makes disappear all other items in action bar (except the closing button) even if there's some unused space, like you can see in this screenshot:

Furthermore, I'm also having the same exact problem discussed in this question: ActionBar always expanded SearchView with the icon inside

This is the XML code of my SearchView:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto">

    <item android:id="@+id/menu_series_cab_search"
        android:icon="@drawable/ic_search"
        android:title="@string/action_search"
        app:actionViewClass="android.support.v7.widget.SearchView"
        app:showAsAction="ifRoom"/>
    <item android:id="@+id/action_settings"
        android:title="@string/action_settings"
        android:orderInCategory="100"
        app:showAsAction="never" />
</menu>

And this is the JAVA code of my Fragment that implements ActionMode.Callback

@Override
public boolean onCreateActionMode(ActionMode mode, Menu menu) {
    mode.getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.menu_series_cab, menu);
    mSearchView = (SearchView) MenuItemCompat
            .getActionView(menu.findItem(R.id.menu_series_cab_search));
    mSearchView.setQueryHint(getResources().getString(R.string.action_search));
    mSearchView.setOnQueryTextListener(new SearchView.OnQueryTextListener() {
        @Override
        public boolean onQueryTextSubmit(String s) {
            mSearchView.clearFocus();
            return true;
        }

        @Override
        public boolean onQueryTextChange(String s) {
            return false;
        }
    });
    mSearchView.setIconifiedByDefault(false);
    return true;
}

@Override
public boolean onPrepareActionMode(ActionMode mode, Menu menu) {
    mSearchView.requestFocus();
    return true;
}

Answer 1

first thing the searchview widget has a maximum fixed size, so empty space are inevitabile.

If you want that your "action_settings" item doesn't disappear when the searchview collapse you need to set app:showAsAction="always"

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<item android:id="@+id/menu_series_cab_search"
    android:icon="@drawable/ic_search"
    android:title="@string/action_search"
    app:actionViewClass="android.support.v7.widget.SearchView"
    app:showAsAction="ifRoom|collapseActionView"/>
<item android:id="@+id/action_settings"
    android:title="@string/action_settings"
    android:icon="@drawable/abc_ic_menu_moreoverflow_mtrl_alpha"
    app:showAsAction="always" />

And your Java code should be like this:

@Override
public void onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu, MenuInflater inflater) {

    inflater.inflate(R.menu.main, menu);


    MenuItem searchItem = menu.findItem(R.id.action_search);
    // Get the SearchView and set the searchable configuration
    searchManager = (SearchManager) getActivity().getSystemService(Context.SEARCH_SERVICE);
    searchView = (SearchView) MenuItemCompat.getActionView(searchItem);//MenuItemCompat.getActionView(searchItem);//menu.findItem(R.id.action_search).getActionView();
    // Assumes current activity is the searchable activity
    searchView.setSearchableInfo(searchManager.getSearchableInfo(getActivity().getComponentName()));
    searchView.setIconifiedByDefault(false); // Do not iconify the widget; expand it by default

    super.onCreateOptionsMenu(menu, inflater);
}