How to make placeholder text of a Gtk.SearchEntry visible even if the entry is focused? - gtk

Question

The search entry appears when a menu button is clicked. But the problem is that, it gets automatically focused and as a result, the placeholder text is not visible. I want the placeholder text to be always visible, even when the entry is focused.
Feel free to post the solutions using any language you want but vala is preferred.
Thank you

Answer 1

Until you find a better solution, this is what I'll do in this case:
create an entry buffer
set the buffer on that entry
set cursor position at the end of the buffer (optional)
select the whole region text (probably this is what you need)
Now what I did was to connect the button to the "toggled" signal and put all that information in the callback, feel free to adjust it for your needs:
#include <gtk/gtk.h>
static void toggled_clbk ( GtkWidget *button, GtkWidget *search_entry )
{
g_return_if_fail ( GTK_IS_TOGGLE_BUTTON ( button ) );
g_return_if_fail ( GTK_IS_SEARCH_ENTRY ( search_entry ) );
if ( gtk_toggle_button_get_active ( GTK_TOGGLE_BUTTON ( button ) ) )
{
/// ***
GtkEntryBuffer *buffer;
/// ***
buffer = gtk_entry_buffer_new ( "Type here...", -1 );
/// ***
gtk_entry_set_buffer ( GTK_ENTRY ( search_entry ), buffer );
/// ***
///gtk_editable_set_position ( GTK_EDITABLE ( search_entry ), -1 );
gtk_editable_select_region ( GTK_EDITABLE ( search_entry ), 0, -1 );
/// ***
g_object_unref ( buffer );
}
}
int main ( void )
{
GtkWidget *window;
GtkWidget *box;
GtkWidget *search_box;
GtkWidget *search_button;
GtkWidget *search_bar;
GtkWidget *search_entry;
/// ***
gtk_init ( NULL, NULL );
/// ***
window = gtk_window_new ( GTK_WINDOW_TOPLEVEL );
gtk_widget_set_size_request ( window, 300, -1 );
/// ***
g_signal_connect ( window, "destroy", gtk_main_quit, NULL );
/// ***
box = gtk_box_new ( GTK_ORIENTATION_HORIZONTAL, 5 );
gtk_container_add ( GTK_CONTAINER ( window ), box );
gtk_container_set_border_width ( GTK_CONTAINER ( box ), 0 );
/// ***
search_entry = gtk_search_entry_new ();
/// ***
search_box = gtk_box_new ( GTK_ORIENTATION_HORIZONTAL, 10 );
gtk_box_pack_start ( GTK_BOX ( search_box ), search_entry, FALSE, FALSE, 0 );
/// ***
search_bar = gtk_search_bar_new ();
gtk_search_bar_connect_entry ( GTK_SEARCH_BAR ( search_bar ), GTK_ENTRY ( search_entry ) );
/// ***
gtk_container_add ( GTK_CONTAINER ( search_bar ), search_box );
gtk_box_pack_end ( GTK_BOX ( box ), search_bar, FALSE, FALSE, 0 );
/// ***
search_button = gtk_toggle_button_new_with_label ( "Search" );
g_object_bind_property ( search_button, "active", search_bar, "search-mode-enabled", G_BINDING_BIDIRECTIONAL );
/// ***
gtk_box_pack_start ( GTK_BOX ( box ), search_button, TRUE, TRUE, 0 );
/// ***
g_signal_connect ( search_button, "toggled", G_CALLBACK ( toggled_clbk ), search_entry );
/// ***
gtk_widget_show_all ( window );
/// ***
gtk_main();
}
As a result, once that you click the search button and the search bar gets revealed you will have something like this:
Before you click the button:
After you click the button: