How to Copy Current Toolbar to Next NavigationController

Your application is based on idea of lists, where you can navigate deeper into sublists and then back again. There is a common set of actions, which you want to launch from toolbar at the bottom of each screen.

Sounds easy, except you need to define the toolbar separately for each UIViewController while navigating deeper into lists. That should be easier, right? Try this:

UIActionSheet Last Button Not Responding

Your UIActionSheet's bottom button, most likely Cancel, is not responsing to tap.

Check whether there is a UITabBar or UIToolbar below it. The problem is that most likely you try to show actionSheet as subview of your current view, which starts only above tabs and toolbar. However since actionSheet is always shown attached to bottom of the screen, you will miss taps outside your view.

How to Control UISearchBar Background Color

When you have a list, you want to search it. How would you do that? No, don't code it by yourself. Done it, removed it.

By default each UITableView comes with search support via a built-in UISearchDisplayController. You just add and connect UISearchBar to your table in Interface Builder and provide some delegate methods to make it work. Pretty easy:

self.searchDisplayController.delegate =
self.searchDisplayController.searchBar.delegate =
self.searchDisplayController.searchResultsDataSource =
self.searchDisplayController.searchResultsDelegate = self.mySearchObject;

Controlling how your UISearchBar looks like is a bit more difficult. If you want to show search box and some other component(s) side by side, you can do it by putting UIToolbar at back and a short UISearchBar on top of it. By default their backgrounds are different, looking pretty ugly together. Like a hack, what it really is.

You can fix that by doing two things. First get rid of default background:

for (UIView *view in self.searchBar.subviews)
{
   if ([view isKindOfClass:NSClassFromString
     (@"UISearchBarBackground")])
   {
     [view removeFromSuperview];
     break;
   }
}

...and the second thing? Something that will be extremely hard to find out, unless you get it right by accident? You have to set UISearchBar style Black Translucent!

Sad to think how many hours I wasted experimenting Things That Will Not Work, just to find out that kind of miniscule solution. Also bet that this will not work one year from now...

Changing Name of "Edit" UIBarButtonItem

If you use default UIToolbar "Edit" button provided by Interface Builder, you cannot change the name from code. You have to change UIBarButtonItem identifier to "Custom" and title as "Edit". Then add this delegate code:

- (IBAction)setEditing:(BOOL)editing animated:(BOOL)animated
{
    [self.myController.myView setEditing: !self.myController.myView.editing animated:YES];
    if (self.myController.myView.editing)
    {
        self.editButton.title = @"Done";
        self.editButton.style = UIBarButtonItemStyleDone;
    }
    else
    {
        self.editButton.title = @"Edit";
        self.editButton.style = UIBarButtonItemStyleBordered;
    }
}

Don't forget to hardcode button width at 43 pixels, otherwise change of button title will shift position of following items on toolbar. That 43 pixels is the default width of standard Edit button and wide enough to show longer "Done" text string.

How to Do Totally Custom Titlebar

iPhone SDK does not support a "titlebar" with custom background image, fully visible title text and titlebar buttons.

You can create semi-transparent UINavigationBar or UIToolbar (style Black Translucent) to see custom background (UIView just below), but your image is still dimmed. You can tune Alpha value between 1 and 0, but at the same time your title text and buttons visibility change, too.

Another solution is to create a custom setup, which just looks like a titlebar:




Inherit your own MyToolbar class from UIToolbar. Place on it 3 UIBarButtonItems: one for left side button, one Flexible Space UIButton in middle and one for right side button. The middle flexible sized button should push your other button to correct locations. If not, change it to fixed size and reside as you wish. Your number of button can also differ, naturally. I used 5.

Here's the full source code for your class:

#import 
@interface MyToolbar : UIToolbar {
}
@end

#import "MyToolbar.h"
@implementation MyToolbar

- (void)drawRect:(CGRect)rect 
{
    // Warning: Hardcoded for portrait size
    UIImage *image = [[UIImage imageNamed:@"sample.png"] retain];
    [image drawInRect:rect];
    [image release];    
}
@end

Place a UILabel on top of your toolbar, resize to fit the available space between other buttons. Change font e.g. Helvetica Bold size 18, color red, , shadow black and background transparent (opacity 0%).