customView on left button of UINavigationBar

Question

I'm trying to implement UINavigationBar with custom controls. So, I've added UIView on left side of UINavigationBar and trying to add controls to that UIView with following code:

UIView *view = navigationController.navigationItem.leftBarButtonItem.customView;
UIButton *button = [[UIButton alloc] initWithFrame:view.frame];
[button setTitle:@"TEST" forState:UIControlStateNormal];
[view addSubview:button];
[button sizeToFit];
[button release];

Code works, but button doesn't appear.

Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

UPD

OK, I gave a try to code below and made such thing:

UIButton *button = [[UIButton alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0, 40, 50)];
[button setTitle:@"XXX" forState:UIControlStateNormal];
UIBarButtonItem *customItem = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithCustomView:button];
navigationController.visibleViewController.navigationItem.leftBarButtonItem = customItem;
[customItem release];
[button release];

The "XXX" title did appear, but it looks like simple label, not button. Any ideas?

Answer 1

Yes, your UIButton doesn't come with any shading. What I've done is used a UISegmentedControl to get shading for free:

// Add the Menu button to the navigation bar
NSString* menuLabel = "ShadeButton";
CGSize textSize = [menuLabel sizeWithFont:[UIFont systemFontOfSize:15.0]];
UISegmentedControl* menuSegmentedButton = [[UISegmentedControl alloc]
    initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0.0f, 0.0f, textSize.width, 29.0f)];
menuSegmentedButton.momentary = YES;
menuSegmentedButton.selected = NO;
menuSegmentedButton.segmentedControlStyle = UISegmentedControlStyleBar;
[menuSegmentedButton insertSegmentWithTitle:menuLabel atIndex:0
                              animated:NO];
[menuSegmentedButton addTarget:self action:@selector(doMenu)
         forControlEvents:UIControlEventValueChanged];
UIBarButtonItem* barButton = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] 
    initWithCustomView:menuSegmentedButton];
[menuSegmentedButton release];
self.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem = barButton;

Create your UIBarButtonItem with the UISegmentedControl as shown above rather than a UIButton and you should get the effect you're after. The alternative is to do more work on the button and create a texture/custom image for it yourself.

Answer 2

Note quite right.

If you just want a different title:

UIBarButtonItem *customItem = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithTitle:@"TEST" style:UIBarButtonItemStylePlain target:nil action:nil];
navigationController.navigationItem.leftBarButtonItem = customItem;
[customItem release];

If you really want a custom view:

// Create Custom View called myView.
UIBarButtonItem *customItem = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithCustomView:myView];
navigationController.navigationItem.leftBarButtonItem = customItem;
[customItem release];