Emoji search returns limited results until picker is opened

[wanclem]

First off, thank you for this amazing package — it's been incredibly helpful!

I'm running into an issue with emoji search behavior in my app. Specifically, when I perform a search via code before the emoji picker UI has ever been opened, the results are very limited or irrelevant. However, once the picker has been opened at least once, the same search then returns the expected full set of results.

Here's the function I'm using to perform the search:

showSuggestionsOverlay(RegExpMatch match) async {
  final query = match.group(1)!;
  final results = await emoji_picker.EmojiPickerUtils().searchEmoji(
    query,
    emoji_picker.defaultEmojiSet,
  );
  if (results.isNotEmpty) {
    _showSuggestions(results.map((e) => e.emoji).toList());
  } else {
    removeSuggestionsOverlay();
  }
}

For example, if I search for "lol":

• Before opening the picker, I only get 🍭 (lollipop).
• After opening the picker at least once, searching "lol" returns all the relevant laughing emojis (😂, 🤣, etc.), even from the code above.

It seems like some internal data or cache is initialized only when the picker UI is opened. Is there a way to ensure that everything is properly initialized so I can get accurate search results right from the start, without having to open the UI?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[Fintasys]

Currently the package is designed to have the picker somewhere on the screen visible or hidden at least and then perform searches. The search that you describe should be based on the emoji set instead of the cache. I don't have a good solution for now beside making your own search implementation looking through the emoji set file.