Changing action bar searchview hint text color

How can I change the action bar search view hint text colour?

This question explains how to get the EditText when using ABS: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/14137141/android-actionbar-customize-search-view

Is there a android.R.id I could use to get a reference to the EditText so I could change the hint colour? Or is there some other way to change the colour?

android:actionBarWidgetTheme of your main theme should point to a style that has a android:textColorHint in it. That one will allow changing the hint text color of the search view.

searchView.setQueryHint(Html.fromHtml("<font color = #ffffff>" + getResources().getString(R.string.hintSearchMess) + "</font>"));

SearchView searchView= (SearchView) findViewById(R.id.searchView1);
int id = searchView.getContext()
                   .getResources()
                   .getIdentifier("android:id/search_src_text", null, null);
TextView textView = (TextView) searchView.findViewById(id);
textView.setTextColor(Color.WHITE);

this worked for me, hope it helps

((EditText) searchView.findViewById(android.support.v7.appcompat.R.id.search_src_text)).setHintTextColor(getResources().getColor(R.color.white));

also see this

I resolved it adding this property to the main theme:

<style name="AppTheme" parent="AppBaseTheme">
    .....
    .....
    <item name="android:actionBarWidgetTheme">@style/MyActionBarWidgetTheme</item> 
</style>

And then add the property i want to change in this case the hint color.

<style name="MyActionBarWidgetTheme" parent="@android:style/Theme.Holo">
    .....
    .....
    <item name="android:textColorHint">@color/blanco_60</item>
</style>

Hope it helps :D

Here's specifically how you apply the style as hinted at above. The right answer is to overload the action bar widget style with your own custom style. For holo light with dark action bar, put this in your own styles file such as res/values/styles_mytheme.xml:

<style name="Theme.MyTheme" parent="@android:style/Theme.Holo.Light.DarkActionBar">
    <item name="android:actionBarWidgetTheme">@style/Theme.MyTheme.Widget</item>
    <!-- your other custom styles -->
</style>

<style name="Theme.MyTheme.Widget" parent="@android:style/Theme.Holo">
    <item name="android:textColorHint">@android:color/white</item>
    <!-- your other custom widget styles -->
</style>

Make sure your application is using theme custom theme as described in enter link description here

A SearchView object extends from LinearLayout, so it holds other views. The trick is to find the view holding the hint text and change the colour programmatically. By traversing the view hierarchy, you can find the widget containing the hint text:

// get your SearchView with its id
SearchView searchView = (SearchView) menu.findItem(R.id.search).getActionView();
// traverse the view to the widget containing the hint text
LinearLayout ll = (LinearLayout)searchView.getChildAt(0);
LinearLayout ll2 = (LinearLayout)ll.getChildAt(2);
LinearLayout ll3 = (LinearLayout)ll2.getChildAt(1);
SearchView.SearchAutoComplete autoComplete = (SearchView.SearchAutoComplete)ll3.getChildAt(0);
// set the hint text color
autoComplete.setHintTextColor(getResources().getColor(Color.WHITE));

This method works with any theme. Also, you can change the look of other widgets in the SearchView hierarchy, such as the EditText holding the search query.

If you want to change left arrow button in search view, add app:collapseIcon.

<android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar
        android:id="@+id/toolbar"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="?attr/actionBarSize"
        android:background="@color/colorPrimary"
        app:collapseIcon="@drawable/ic_search_view_home"
        />

If you want to change text color and text hint color, add the following.

EditText searchEditText = searchView.findViewById(android.support.v7.appcompat.R.id.search_src_text);
    searchEditText.setTextColor(Color.WHITE);
    searchEditText.setHintTextColor(Color.WHITE);

If you want to change close icon, add the following.

ImageView imvClose = searchView.findViewById(android.support.v7.appcompat.R.id
            .search_close_btn);
    imvClose.setImageResource(R.drawable.ic_search_view_close);

Just get the textView id of search widget and use setTextColor() method to change the search text color and setHintTextColor() to change the search hints text color.

// Get textview id of search widget
int id =  searchView.getContext().getResources().getIdentifier("android:id/search_src_text", null, null);
TextView textView = (TextView) searchView.findViewById(id);

// Set search text color
textView.setTextColor(Color.WHITE);

// Set search hints color
textView.setHintTextColor(Color.GRAY);

With the most recent appcompat library (or if you're targeting 5.0+), this is possible to do purely in XML using a ThemeOverlay:

<style name="ThemeOverlay.MyApp.ActionBar" parent="ThemeOverlay.AppCompat.ActionBar">
    <item name="autoCompleteTextViewStyle">@style/Widget.MyApp.AutoCompleteTextView.SearchView</item>
</style>

<style name="Widget.MyApp.AutoCompleteTextView.SearchView" parent="Widget.AppCompat.AutoCompleteTextView">
    <item name="android:textColor">#000</item>
    <item name="android:textColorHint">#5000</item>
</style>

And then in your layout file:

<android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar
    app:theme="@style/ThemeOverlay.MyApp.ActionBar"
    ... />

If you also want it to apply to activities that are using an ActionBar instead of a Toolbar, you can add this to the Activity's theme:

<style name="Theme.MyApp" parent="Theme.AppCompat">
    <item name="actionBarTheme">@style/ThemeOverlay.MyApp.ActionBar</item>
    ...
</style>

this worked for me :-)

 EditText seartext = searchView.findViewById(R.id.search_src_text);
    seartext.setTextColor(Color.WHITE);
    seartext.setHintTextColor(Color.GRAY);

Try this code. It is very easy.

    // Associate searchable configuration with the SearchView
        SearchManager searchManager =
                (SearchManager) getSystemService(Context.SEARCH_SERVICE);
        SearchView searchView =
                (SearchView) menu.findItem(R.id.search).getActionView();
        EditText searchEditText = (EditText) searchView.findViewById(android.support.v7.appcompat.R.id.search_src_text);
           searchEditText.setHint("Search");
        searchEditText.setHintTextColor(getResources().getColor(R.color.white));
        searchView.setSearchableInfo(searchManager.getSearchableInfo(getComponentName()));

searchEditText.setHintTextColor(getResources().getColor(R.color.white));

Look to this class, it can help you to solve your problem

import android.R.color;
import android.content.Context;
import android.graphics.Typeface;
import android.widget.ImageView;

import com.actionbarsherlock.widget.SearchView;
import com.actionbarsherlock.widget.SearchView.SearchAutoComplete;

public class MySearchView {

    public static SearchView getSearchView(Context context, String strHint) {
        SearchView searchView = new SearchView(context);
        searchView.setQueryHint(strHint);
        searchView.setFocusable(true);
        searchView.setFocusableInTouchMode(true);
        searchView.requestFocus();
        searchView.requestFocusFromTouch();

        ImageView searchBtn = (ImageView) searchView.findViewById(R.id.abs__search_button);
        searchBtn.setImageResource(R.drawable.ic_menu_search);

        // ImageView searchBtnClose = (ImageView) searchView.findViewById(R.id.abs__search_close_btn);
        // searchBtnClose.setImageResource(R.drawable.ic_cancel_search_bar);


        SearchAutoComplete searchText = (SearchAutoComplete) searchView.findViewById(R.id.abs__search_src_text);
        setFont(context, searchText);
        searchText.setTextColor(context.getResources().getColor(color.white));
        searchText.setHintTextColor(context.getResources().getColor(color.white));

        return searchView;
    }

    private static void setFont(Context _context, SearchAutoComplete searchText) {
        Typeface tf = null;
        Typeface currentType = searchText.getTypeface();
        if (currentType == null) {
            tf = MyApplication.fontNormal;
        }
        else {
            int currentStyle = currentType.getStyle();
            if (currentStyle == Typeface.BOLD) {
                tf = MyApplication.fontBold;
            }
            else if (currentStyle == Typeface.BOLD_ITALIC) {
                tf = MyApplication.fontBoldItalic;
            }
            else if (currentStyle == Typeface.ITALIC) {
                tf = MyApplication.fontItalic;
            }
            else {
                tf = MyApplication.fontNormal;
            }
        }
        searchText.setTypeface(tf);
    }

    public static SearchView getSearchView(Context context, int strHintRes) {
        return getSearchView(context, context.getString(strHintRes));
    }
}

By using this you can change the Searchable xml

1. Search text hint color
2. Search Text
3. Search close icon
4. Search hint icon
5. Search plate

> int searchHintBtnId = searchView.getContext().getResources() > .getIdentifier("android:id/search_mag_icon", null, null); > int hintTextId = searchView.getContext() > .getResources() > .getIdentifier("android:id/search_src_text", null, null); > int closeBtnId = searchView.getContext() > .getResources() > .getIdentifier("android:id/search_close_btn", null, null); > // Set the search plate color to white > int searchPlateId = getResources().getIdentifier("android:id/search_plate", null, null); >
> View view = searchView.findViewById(searchPlateId); > view.setBackgroundResource(R.drawable.search_plate); >
> ImageView closeIcon = (ImageView) searchView.findViewById(closeBtnId); > closeIcon.setImageResource(R.drawable.close); >
> ImageView searchHintIcon = (ImageView) searchView.findViewById(searchHintBtnId); > searchHintIcon.setImageResource(R.drawable.search); >
> TextView textView = (TextView) searchView.findViewById(hintTextId); > textView.setTextColor(getResources().getColor(R.color.search_text_color)); > textView.setHintTextColor(getResources().getColor(R.color.search_hint_text_color));

Here is drawable/search_plate.xml

> xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" > > > > > > > > > android:left="1dp" > android:right="1dp"> > > > > > > > > > > >

The solution to change color of Search View Hint Text is :

 SearchView.SearchAutoComplete searchAutoComplete = (SearchView.SearchAutoComplete)searchView.findViewById(android.support.v7.appcompat.R.id.search_src_text);
 searchAutoComplete.setHintTextColor(Color.GRAY);

int id = searchView.getContext().getResources().getIdentifier("android:id/search_src_text", null, null);
TextView textView = (TextView) searchView.findViewById(id);
textView.setTextColor(Color.WHITE);
textView.setHintTextColor(Color.WHITE);

This is really simple to achieve using the styles.xml Just understand that themeing the SearchView is directly related to the theme of the Toolbar from whose menu.xml it is fetched as a app:actionViewClass.

1. Create a style for Toolbar.

2. Apply that style as theme on the Toolbar and it changes al the related views and their properties.

Also you can set the SearchView on your menuItem manually and thereby have full control over the view.