[Question] Is it possible to focus the text field of a SearchBar programatically?

[chaotic-dev]

Question

I have a SearchBar with a ListView populated with search suggestions as its control. When I click one of the ListItems, it modifies the SearchBar's value with the search suggestion. After doing so, the SearchBar's input loses focus and I'd like it to remain focused for the user to continue typing. Is it possible to focus the SearchBar's input or otherwise get its underlying TextField which has a focus method? I've attempted to set autofocus to True and call its open_view method to try and grab focus, but neither option seem to focus the input.

Thanks in advance

Code sample

# Stripped-down example
search_bar = ft.SearchBar(
    controls=[
        ft.ListTile(title=ft.Text("suggestion"), on_click=apply_suggestion, data="suggestion")
    ],
    on_submit=lambda _: page.go(f"/search/{search_bar.value}"),
    on_change=update_suggestions,
    autofocus=True,
)

def apply_suggestion(e):
    search_bar.value = e.control.data
    search_bar.update()
    search_bar.open_view()

Update:
OS information: Pop OS
Flet package version: 0.22.1

Error message

No response

------------------------------------------------------

• I have searched for answers to my question both in the issues and in previous discussions.

[ndonkoHenri]

Like this maybe?:

import flet as ft


def main(page):
    page.horizontal_alignment = ft.CrossAxisAlignment.CENTER

    def close_anchor(e):
        text = f"Color {e.control.data}"
        anchor.value = text
        anchor.update()
        # print(f"closing view from {text}")
        # anchor.close_view(text)

    anchor = ft.SearchBar(
        view_elevation=4,
        divider_color=ft.colors.AMBER,
        bar_hint_text="Search colors...",
        view_hint_text="Choose a color from the suggestions...",
        controls=[
            ft.ListTile(title=ft.Text(f"Color {i}"), on_click=close_anchor, data=i)
            for i in range(10)
        ],
    )

    page.add(
        ft.Row(
            alignment=ft.MainAxisAlignment.CENTER,
            controls=[
                ft.OutlinedButton(
                    "Open Search View",
                    on_click=lambda _: anchor.open_view(),
                ),
            ],
        ),
        anchor,
    )


ft.app(target=main)

[chaotic-dev]

This leads to the same issue of the text entry from the anchor control not being focused (i.e. no cursor in the search bar for the user to continue typing)