Expand Search View to use entire Action Bar (hide other things)

Question

I have a SearchView inside my ActionBar, and I want to use the entire ActionBar when the search icon is pressed, but I can only use the ActionBar free space

eg.: http://imgur.com/wnjMfWO

my menu code:

<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
tools:context="br.com.moderna.houaiss.activity.SearchActivity" >

<item
    android:id="@+id/search"
    android:actionViewClass="android.widget.SearchView"
    android:icon="@drawable/ic_search_white_48dp"
    android:showAsAction="collapseActionView|always"
    android:title="@string/search"/>
<item
    android:id="@+id/backWardHistory"
    android:icon="@drawable/ic_arrow_back_white_48dp"
    android:showAsAction="always"
    android:title="@string/back_history"/>
<item
    android:id="@+id/forWardHistory"
    android:icon="@drawable/ic_arrow_forward_white_48dp"
    android:showAsAction="always"
    android:title="@string/forward_history"/>
<item
    android:id="@+id/action_home"
    android:orderInCategory="100"
    android:showAsAction="never"
    android:title="@string/action_home"/>
<item
    android:id="@+id/action_about"
    android:orderInCategory="100"
    android:showAsAction="never"
    android:title="@string/action_about"/>
<item
    android:id="@+id/action_configuration"
    android:orderInCategory="100"
    android:showAsAction="never"
    android:title="@string/action_configuration"/>
<item
    android:id="@+id/action_logout"
    android:orderInCategory="100"
    android:showAsAction="never"
    android:title="@string/action_logout"/>

I had tryed android:showAsAction="ifRoom", but I need them to be always on my ActionBar, and not inside my menu.

EDIT ------

Thanks to @Simas,

I used setOnActionExpandListener method to achieve this effect

final MenuItem searchItem = menu.findItem(R.id.search);

    searchItem.setOnActionExpandListener(new OnActionExpandListener() {

        @Override
        public boolean onMenuItemActionExpand(final MenuItem item) {
            SearchActivity.this.setItemsVisibility(menu, searchItem, false);
            return true;
        }

        @Override
        public boolean onMenuItemActionCollapse(final MenuItem item) {
            SearchActivity.this.setItemsVisibility(menu, searchItem, true);
            return true;
        }
    });


private void setItemsVisibility(final Menu menu, final MenuItem exception,
        final boolean visible) {
    for (int i = 0; i < menu.size(); ++i) {
        MenuItem item = menu.getItem(i);
        if (item != exception)
            item.setVisible(visible);
    }
}

Answer 1

Well you could imitate that yourself by hiding all the other items when the SearchView is expanded:

@Override
public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(final Menu menu) {
    getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.menu_main, menu);

    final MenuItem searchItem = menu.findItem(R.id.search);
    SearchView searchView = (android.widget.SearchView) searchItem.getActionView();

    // Detect SearchView icon clicks
    searchView.setOnSearchClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
        @Override
        public void onClick(View v) {
            setItemsVisibility(menu, searchItem, false);
        }
    });
    // Detect SearchView close
    searchView.setOnCloseListener(new SearchView.OnCloseListener() {
        @Override
        public boolean onClose() {
            setItemsVisibility(menu, searchItem, true);
            return false;
        }
    });

    return super.onCreateOptionsMenu(menu);
}

private void setItemsVisibility(Menu menu, MenuItem exception, boolean visible) {
    for (int i=0; i<menu.size(); ++i) {
        MenuItem item = menu.getItem(i);
        if (item != exception) item.setVisible(visible);
    }
}

Answer 2

This would be a late answer but you could add this attribute to your menu item and the work is done for you.

app:showAsAction="collapseActionView|always"

Keyword here being the collapseActionView.

Answer 3

I tried this line of code to make the searchview expand the full width available. This works when there are other items shown in the actionbar either.

searchView.setMaxWidth(android.R.attr.width);