How do I open the SearchView programmatically?

Question

There is this widget for the ActionBar which called \'SearchView\'. When it\'s not in use, it looks like this:

Answer 1

Expanding the answer of Matthias Robberts:

I wanted a list fragment to keep it's search value and set it after user returns from other fragment.

if (myViewModel.filterTextSaved.isNotEmpty()) { // Kotlin, storing state in ViewModel
    searchItem.expandActionView() // needs to come first, otherwise empty text
    theTextArea.setText(courseViewModel.filterTextOnClick)
}

and for the menu I keep always|collapseActionView, otherwise it stays open when user deletes the text.