I\'m developing an application where the user presses the \"Search\" icon in the ActionBar and a SearchView is made visible at the top of the scree
use this
SearchManager searchManager = (SearchManager) mActivity.getSystemService(Context.SEARCH_SERVICE);
SearchView searchView = new SearchView(mActivity.actionBar.getThemedContext());
searchView.setSearchableInfo(searchManager.getSearchableInfo(mActivity.getComponentName()));
searchView.setIconifiedByDefault(false);
searchView.setQueryHint("Search");
menu.findItem(R.id.action_search).setActionView(searchView);