Why this EditText's width strange behaviour when used as ActionBar custom view?

Question

I'm using an EditText into the ActionBar as custom view.

LayoutInflater adbInflater = LayoutInflater.from(getActivity());
View etSearchView = adbInflater.inflate(R.layout.edit_text_search, null);
etSearch = (EditText) etSearchView.findViewById(R.id.search_edit_text);

//other etSearch properties are set

MainActivity.ab.setCustomView(etSearch);

edit_text_search.xml:

<EditText xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:id="@+id/search_edit_text"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:inputType="text|textAutoCorrect"
    android:hint="@string/keywords"
    android:imeOptions="actionSearch"
    android:hapticFeedbackEnabled="true"
    android:singleLine="true"
    android:textCursorDrawable="@drawable/cursor"
    android:textColor="@android:color/white">
</EditText>

I have this behaviour... (undesired)

On the other hand, when the EditText's width and height are declared in code with

LayoutParams layoutParams = new LayoutParams(
    LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT, LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT);
etSearch.setLayoutParams(layoutParams);

and removing android:layout_width="match_parent" and android:layout_height="wrap_content" from the xml file, I have this (desired) look...

How is this possible, with the same width and height?

Is this because, in code, they imply the addition of a wrapping layout?

Answer 1

How is this possible, with the same width and height?

The layout params used in your EditText are different layout params than the ones applied when you add a View to the ActionBar. Every ViewGroup has a nested class that implements their own ViewGroup.LayoutParams.

By default, the ActionBar.LayoutParams are set to WRAP_CONTENT and MATCH_PARENT, so when you don't apply your own through ActionBar.setCustomView(View, LayoutParams), the ActionBar falls back on the default.