Search configuration

To implement search with assistance from the Android system—that is, to deliver search queries to an activity and provide search suggestions—your application must provide a search configuration in the form of an XML file.

This page describes the search configuration file in terms of its syntax and usage. For more information about how to implement search features for your application, see Create a search interface.

file location:

res/xml/filename.xml
Android uses the filename as the resource ID.

syntax:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<searchable xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:label="string resource"
    android:hint="string resource"
    android:searchMode=["queryRewriteFromData" | "queryRewriteFromText"]
    android:searchButtonText="string resource"
    android:inputType="inputType"
    android:imeOptions="imeOptions"
    android:searchSuggestAuthority="string"
    android:searchSuggestPath="string"
    android:searchSuggestSelection="string"
    android:searchSuggestIntentAction="string"
    android:searchSuggestIntentData="string"
    android:searchSuggestThreshold="int"
    android:includeInGlobalSearch=["true" | "false"]
    android:searchSettingsDescription="string resource"
    android:queryAfterZeroResults=["true" | "false"]
    android:voiceSearchMode=["showVoiceSearchButton" | "launchWebSearch" | "launchRecognizer"]
    android:voiceLanguageModel=["free-form" | "web_search"]
    android:voicePromptText="string resource"
    android:voiceLanguage="string"
    android:voiceMaxResults="int"
    >
    <actionkey
        android:keycode="KEYCODE"
        android:queryActionMsg="string"
        android:suggestActionMsg="string"
        android:suggestActionMsgColumn="string" />
</searchable>

elements:

<searchable>

Defines all search configurations used by the Android system to provide assisted search.

Attributes:

android:label

String resource. (Required.) The name of your application. It must be the same as the name applied to the android:label attribute of your <activity> or <application> manifest element. This label is only visible to the user when you set android:includeInGlobalSearch to "true", in which case, this label is used to identify your application as a searchable item in the system's search settings.

android:hint

String resource. (Recommended.) The text to display in the search text field when no text is entered. It provides a hint to the user about what content is searchable. For consistency with other Android applications, format the string for android:hint as "Search <content-or-product>". For example, "Search songs and artists" or "Search YouTube".

android:searchMode

Keyword. Sets additional modes that control the search presentation. Available modes define how the query text needs to be rewritten when a custom suggestion receives focus. The following mode values are accepted:

Value	Description
"queryRewriteFromData"	Use the value from the SUGGEST_COLUMN_INTENT_DATA column to rewrite thebquery text. This must only be used when the values in SUGGEST_COLUMN_INTENT_DATA are suitable for user inspection and editing, such as HTTP URIs.
"queryRewriteFromText"	Use the value from the SUGGEST_COLUMN_TEXT_1 column to rewrite the query text.

For more information, see the documentation about rewriting the query text in Add custom search suggestions.

android:searchButtonText

String resource. The text to display in the button that executes search. By default, the button shows a search icon (a magnifying glass), which is ideal for internationalization. So don't use this attribute to change the button unless the behavior is something other than a search, such as a URL request in a web browser.

android:inputType

Keyword. Defines the type of input method to use, such as the type of soft keyboard. For most searches, in which free-form text is expected, you don't need this attribute. See inputType for a list of suitable values for this attribute.

android:imeOptions

Keyword. Supplies additional options for the input method. For most searches, in which free-form text is expected, you don't need this attribute. The default IME is actionSearch, which provides the "search" button instead of a carriage return in the soft keyboard. See imeOptions for a list of suitable values for this attribute.

Search suggestion attributes

If you define a content provider to generate search suggestions, you need to define additional attributes that configure communications with the content provider. When providing search suggestions, you need some of the following <searchable> attributes:

android:searchSuggestAuthority

String. (Required to provide search suggestions.) This value must match the authority string provided in the android:authorities attribute of the Android manifest <provider> element.

android:searchSuggestPath

String. This path is used as a portion of the suggestions query Uri, after the prefix and authority and before the standard suggestions path. This is only required if you have a single content provider issuing different types of suggestions—such as for different data types—and you need a way to disambiguate the suggestions queries when you receive them.

android:searchSuggestSelection

String. This value is passed into your query function as the selection parameter. Typically this is a WHERE clause for your database, and must contain a single question mark as a placeholder for the actual query string entered by the user—for example, "query=?". However, you can also use any non-null value to trigger the delivery of the query text using the selectionArgs parameter, and then ignore the selection parameter).

android:searchSuggestIntentAction

String. The default intent action to be used when a user taps on a custom search suggestion—such as "android.intent.action.VIEW". If this value is not overridden by the selected suggestion using the SUGGEST_COLUMN_INTENT_ACTION column, the value is placed in the action field of the Intent when the user taps a suggestion.

android:searchSuggestIntentData

String. The default intent data to be used when a user taps on a custom search suggestion. If not overridden by the selected suggestion—via the SUGGEST_COLUMN_INTENT_DATA column—this value is placed in the data field of the Intent when the user taps a suggestion.

android:searchSuggestThreshold

Integer. The minimum number of characters needed to trigger a suggestion look-up. This only guarantees that the system doesn't query your content provider for anything shorter than the threshold. The default value is 0.

For more information about the above attributes for search suggestions, see the documentation for adding custom search suggestions and adding custom suggestions.

Quick Search Box attributes

To make your custom search suggestions available to Quick Search Box, you need some of the following <searchable> attributes:

android:includeInGlobalSearch

Boolean. (Required to provide search suggestions in the Quick Search Box.) Set to "true" if you want your suggestions to be included in the globally accessible Quick Search Box. The user must still enable your application as a searchable item in the system search settings before your suggestions appear in Quick Search Box.

android:searchSettingsDescription

String resource. Provides a brief description of the search suggestions that you provide to Quick Search Box, which is displayed in the searchable items entry for your application. Your description must concisely describe the content that is searchable. For example, "Artists, albums, and tracks" for a music application, or "Saved notes" for a notepad application.

android:queryAfterZeroResults

Boolean. Set to "true" if you want your content provider to be invoked for supersets of queries that previously returned zero results. For example, if your content provider returns zero results for "bo", it must be requeried for "bob". If set to "false", supersets are ignored for a single session—"bob" doesn't invoke a requery. This lasts only for the life of the search dialog or the life of the activity when using the search widget. When the search dialog or activity is reopened, "bo" queries your content provider again. The default value is false.

Voice search attributes

To enable voice search, you need some of the following <searchable> attributes:

android:voiceSearchMode

Keyword. (Required to provide voice search capabilities.) Enables voice search, with a specific mode for voice search. Voice search might not be provided by the device, in which case these flags have no effect. The following mode values are accepted:

Value	Description
"showVoiceSearchButton"	Display a voice search button, if voice search is available on the device. If set, then either "launchWebSearch" or "launchRecognizer" must also be set, separated by the pipe (|) character.
"launchWebSearch"	The voice search button takes the user directly to a built-in voice web search activity. Most applications don't use this flag, as it takes the user away from the activity in which search was invoked.
"launchRecognizer"	The voice search button takes the user directly to a built-in voice recording activity. This activity prompts the user to speak, transcribes the spoken text, and forwards the resulting query text to the searchable activity, just as if the user typed it into the search UI and tapped the search button.

android:voiceLanguageModel

Keyword. The language model that must be used by the voice recognition system. The following values are accepted:

Value	Description
"free_form"	Use free-form speech recognition for dictating queries. This is primarily optimized for English. This is the default.
"web_search"	Use web-search-term recognition for shorter, search-like phrases. This is available in more languages than "free_form".

See EXTRA_LANGUAGE_MODEL for more information.

android:voicePromptText

String resource. An additional message to display in the voice input dialog.

android:voiceLanguage

String. The spoken language to be expected, expressed as the string value of a constant in Locale, such as "de" for German or "fr" for French. This is needed only if it is different from the current value of Locale.getDefault().

android:voiceMaxResults

Integer. Sets the maximum number of results to return, including the "best" result, which is always provided as the ACTION_SEARCH intent's primary query. Must be 1 or greater. Use EXTRA_RESULTS to get the results from the intent. If not provided, the recognizer chooses how many results to return.

<actionkey>

Defines a device key and behavior for a search action. A search action provides a special behavior at the tap of a button on the device, based on the current query or focused suggestion. For example, the Contacts application provides a search action to initiate a phone call to the currently focused contact suggestion when the CALL button is tapped.

Not all action keys are available on every device, and not all keys can be overridden in this way. For example, the "Home" key can't be overridden and must always return to the home screen. Also, be sure not to define an action key for a key that's needed for typing a search query. This limits the available and reasonable action keys to the call button and menu button.

Note: Action keys are not generally discoverable, so don't provide them as a core user feature.

You must define the android:keycode to define the key and at least one of the other three attributes to define the search action.

Attributes:

android:keycode

String. (Required.) A key code from KeyEvent that represents the action key you want to respond to—for example, "KEYCODE_CALL". This is added to the ACTION_SEARCH intent that is passed to your searchable activity. To examine the key code, use getIntExtra(SearchManager.ACTION_KEY). Not all keys are supported for a search action, as many of them are used for typing, navigation, or system functions.

android:queryActionMsg

String. An action message to be sent if the action key is pressed while the user is entering query text. This is added to the ACTION_SEARCH intent that the system passes to your searchable activity. To examine the string, use getStringExtra(SearchManager.ACTION_MSG).

android:suggestActionMsg

String. An action message to be sent if the action key is pressed while a suggestion is in focus. This is added to the intent that the system passes to your searchable activity—using the action you define for the suggestion. To examine the string, use getStringExtra(SearchManager.ACTION_MSG). This must only be used if all your suggestions support this action key. If not all suggestions can handle the same action key, then you must instead use the following android:suggestActionMsgColumn attribute.

android:suggestActionMsgColumn

String. The name of the column in your content provider that defines the action message for this action key, which is to be sent if the user presses the action key while a suggestion is in focus. This attribute lets you control the action key on a suggestion-by-suggestion basis, because, instead of using the android:suggestActionMsg attribute to define the action message for all suggestions, each entry in your content provider provides its own action message.

First, you must define a column in your content provider for each suggestion to provide an action message for, then provide the name of that column in this attribute. The system looks at your suggestion cursor, using the string provided here to select your action message column, and then selects the action message string from the cursor. That string is added to the intent that the system passes to your searchable activity, using the action you define for suggestions. To examine the string, use getStringExtra(SearchManager.ACTION_MSG). If the data doesn't exist for the selected suggestion, the action key is ignored.

example:

XML file saved at res/xml/searchable.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<searchable xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:label="@string/search_label"
    android:hint="@string/search_hint"
    android:searchSuggestAuthority="dictionary"
    android:searchSuggestIntentAction="android.intent.action.VIEW"
    android:includeInGlobalSearch="true"
    android:searchSettingsDescription="@string/settings_description" >
</searchable>