How to hide clear button Icon inside SearchBar control Xamarin forms - xamarin

Question

I am using xamarin forms SearchBar control. I want to remove clear button x icon without using custom renderer.
<controls:ExSearchBar
x:Name="entrySearch"
BackgroundColor="White"
CornerRadius="6"
BorderWidth="1"
HeightRequest="45"
Text="{Binding SearchText}"
HorizontalOptions="FillAndExpand"
Placeholder="search">
</controls:ExSearchBar>
This is ExSearchBar control in shared project
public class ExSearchBar : SearchBar
{
public static readonly BindableProperty ElevationProperty = BindableProperty.Create(nameof(Elevation), typeof(float), typeof(ExFrame), default(float));
public float Elevation
{
get { return (float)GetValue(ElevationProperty); }
set { SetValue(ElevationProperty, value); }
}
}
How can I do that?

Answer 1

The situation you are describing is the exact reason why Xamarin Forms ships with the ability to create custom renderers. The forms team define the UI elements in abstract (seperate from their native implementation) and when there is a specific feature that is not defined in their API, you must go down to the platform level to change it.
You can also use an Effect to achieve the same result, I have provided a custom renderer for iOS & Android to show you how you would go about achieving the UI you desire:
iOS:
public class SearchBarButtonRenderer : SearchBarRenderer
{
protected override void OnElementChanged(ElementChangedEventArgs<SearchBar> e)
{
base.OnElementChanged(e);
if (e.NewElement != null)
{
Control.SearchTextField.ClearButtonMode = UITextFieldViewMode.Never;
}
}
}
Really simple, just remove the clear button from the underlying UITextField
Android
public class SearchBarButtonRenderer : SearchBarRenderer
{
private readonly Context _context;
public SearchBarButtonRenderer(Context context)
: base(context)
{
_context = context;
}
protected override void OnElementChanged(ElementChangedEventArgs<SearchBar> e)
{
base.OnElementChanged(e);
if (e.NewElement != null)
{
// Get Search Close Button Drawable
var closeButtonId = Resources.GetIdentifier("android:id/search_close_btn", null, null);
var searchEditText = Control.FindViewById<ImageView>(closeButtonId);
// Get Close Button Drawable To Replace Existing Drawable
var closeDrawable = GetCloseButtonDrawable() as VectorDrawable;
if (closeDrawable is null) return;
// Apply Transparent Color To Drawable (To Make Invisible)
var buttonColor = Xamarin.Forms.Color.Transparent.ToAndroid();
closeDrawable.SetTint(buttonColor);
// Set Drawable On Control
searchEditText.SetImageDrawable(closeDrawable);
}
}
private Drawable GetCloseButtonDrawable()
{
return ContextCompat.GetDrawable(_context, Resource.Drawable.abc_ic_clear_material);
}
}
A little bit of a fiddle, find the close button drawable and replace it with a custom styled drawable