---
title: "How to invoke the search UI in the PdfActivity programmatically"
canonical_url: "https://www.nutrient.io/guides/android/knowledge-base/invoke-search-programmatically/"
md_url: "https://www.nutrient.io/guides/android/knowledge-base/invoke-search-programmatically.md"
last_updated: "2026-06-26T03:15:47.233Z"
description: "If you want to show the search view and/or start search in the search view, you can use the following method in PdfActivity. for Nutrient Android SDK."
---

If you want to show the search view and/or start search in the search view, you can use the following method in [`PdfActivity`](https://www.nutrient.io/api/android/nutrient/com.pspdfkit.ui/-pdf-activity/index.html).

You’ll need to register the `PSPDFView`’s visibility change listener to begin searching immediately after the search view is shown:

```kt

pspdfKitViews.addOnVisibilityChangedListener(object : OnVisibilityChangedListener {
    override fun onShow(view: View) {
        if (view is PdfSearchViewInline) {
            view.setInputFieldText("query", true)
        } else if (view is PdfSearchViewModular) {
            view.setInputFieldText("query", true)
        }
        pspdfKitViews.removeOnVisibilityChangedListener(this)
    }

    override fun onHide(view: View) {
    }
})

```

You can then show the search view via the following:

```kt

pspdfKitViews.showView(PSPDFKitViews.Type.VIEW_SEARCH)

```

If you want to invoke search programmatically, or if you want to build a custom search user interface (UI), refer to our [text search](https://www.nutrient.io/guides/android/features/text-search.md) guide, which explains all the aspects of search and how to integrate it into your UI.
---

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