SwiftypeAndroid

SwiftypeAndroid is a library that makes it easy to add Swiftype-powered search to your Android application. To see an example application, visit the SwiftypeAndroidExample repository.

Installing and configuring SwiftypeAndroid

1. Import SwiftypeAndroid into your workspace.

2. In the properties for your application select 'Android' and add the imported project as a library

3. Choose a search activity:

   • If your Swiftype search engine is crawler-based or WordPress-based and you would like to display results in a web view, use WebSearchActivity.
   • If you have an API-based engine, or would like different result display behavior, extend SearchActivity and create a custom ShowDetailsFragment to present the results.

4. Add the search activity to your AndroidManifest.xml (example for WebSearchActivity):

    <activity
      android:name="com.swiftype.android.search.webbased.WebSearchActivity"
      android:label="@string/app_name"
      android:windowSoftInputMode="stateAlwaysHidden"
      android:exported="false"
      android:launchMode="singleTop" >
      <intent-filter>
        <action android:name="android.intent.action.SEARCH" />
      </intent-filter>
   
      <meta-data
        android:name="android.app.searchable"
        android:resource="@xml/searchable" />
    </activity>
   

5. Make it the default search activity for your application by adding the following lines to your main activity:

    <meta-data
      android:name="android.app.default_searchable"
      android:value="com.swiftype.android.search.webbased.WebSearchActivity" />
   

6. Copy /res/values/swiftype_config.xml and /res/values/colors.xml (if you use a light theme) from SwiftypeAndroid. You must set the values for search_content_provider_authority and engine_key.

7. Copy /res/xml/searchable.xml from SwiftypeAndroid to your project.

8. Add android:configChanges="orientation|screenSize" to the application attributes in AndroidManifest.xml.

9. Add the search provider and service to your AndroidManifest.xml:

    <provider
      android:exported="false"
      android:authorities="@string/search_content_provider_authority"
      android:name="com.swiftype.android.search.backend.SearchContentProvider" />
    
    <service
      android:name="com.swiftype.android.search.backend.SearchService" />
   

10. Add Internet permissions to your AndroidManifest.xml:

    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET" />
    

11. Use a SearchView or the SearchDialog to start a search. For an example, look at our SwiftypeAndroidExample repository. More information can be found in the Android Documentation.