Can I give a UIToolBar a custom background in my iPhone app?

Question

Is it possible to give a UIToolBar a custom background from an image rather than the usual tinted blue/black fade out?

I've tried giving the view a background and setting the opacity of the UIToolBar but that also affects the opacity of any UIBarButtons on it.

Answer 1

Answering my own question here!!! Overriding the drawRect function and creating an implementation of the UIToolbar does the trick :)

    @implementation UIToolbar (CustomImage)
- (void)drawRect:(CGRect)rect {
    UIImage *image = [UIImage imageNamed: @"nm010400.png"];
    [image drawInRect:CGRectMake(0, 0, self.frame.size.width, self.frame.size.height)];
}
@end

Answer 2

UIToolbar inherits from UIView. This just worked for me:

[topBar insertSubview:[[[UIImageView alloc] initWithImage:[UIImage imageNamed:BAR_BKG_IMG]] autorelease] atIndex:0];

Answer 3

Slightly modified version of loreto's answer, which works for me on ios 4 and 5:

// Set the background of a toolbar
+(void)setToolbarBack:(NSString*)bgFilename toolbar:(UIToolbar*)toolbar {   
    // Add Custom Toolbar
    UIImageView *iv = [[UIImageView alloc] initWithImage:[UIImage imageNamed:bgFilename]];
    iv.frame = CGRectMake(0, 0, toolbar.frame.size.width, toolbar.frame.size.height);
    iv.autoresizingMask = UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleWidth;
    // Add the tab bar controller's view to the window and display.
    if([[[UIDevice currentDevice] systemVersion] intValue] >= 5)
        [toolbar insertSubview:iv atIndex:1]; // iOS5 atIndex:1
    else
        [toolbar insertSubview:iv atIndex:0]; // iOS4 atIndex:0
    toolbar.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];
}

Answer 4

This is the approach I use for iOS 4 and 5 compatibility:

if ([toolbar respondsToSelector:@selector(setBackgroundImage:forToolbarPosition:barMetrics:)]) {
    [toolbar setBackgroundImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"toolbar-background"] forToolbarPosition:UIToolbarPositionAny barMetrics:UIBarMetricsDefault];
} else {
    [toolbar insertSubview:[[[UIImageView alloc] initWithImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"toolbar-background"]] autorelease] atIndex:0];
}

Answer 5

just add this piece to your -(void)viewDidLoad{}

[toolBarName setBackgroundImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"imageName.png"] forToolbarPosition:UIToolbarPositionAny barMetrics:UIBarMetricsDefault];

Answer 6

If you use idimmu's answer and want your barbuttonitems to be colored instead of the defaults, you can add these couple of lines of code as well to your category:

UIColor *color = [UIColor redColor];
self.tintColor = color;

Answer 7

You can use the Appearance API since iOS5:

[[UIToolbar appearance] setBackgroundImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"navbar_bg"] forToolbarPosition:UIToolbarPositionAny barMetrics:UIBarMetricsDefault];

Answer 8

To be iOS 5 compliant you can do something like this

-(void) addCustomToolbar {

    // Add Custom Toolbar
    UIImageView *img = [[UIImageView alloc] initWithImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"customToolbar.png"]];
    img.frame = CGRectMake(-2, -20, img.frame.size.width+4, img.frame.size.height);

    // Add the tab bar controller's view to the window and display.

    if( SYSTEM_VERSION_GREATER_THAN_OR_EQUAL_TO( @"5.0" ) )
       [self.tabBarController.tabBar insertSubview:img atIndex:1]; // iOS5 atIndex:1
    else
      [self.tabBarController.tabBar insertSubview:img atIndex:0]; // iOS4 atIndex:0

    self.tabBarController.tabBar.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];

    // Override point for customization after application launch.
    [self.window addSubview:tabBarController.view];

}

Answer 9

this one works fine for me:

ToolbarOptions *tbar = [[ToolbarOptions alloc] init];
[tbar setToolbarBack:@"footer_bg.png" toolbar:self.toolbarForPicker];
[tbar release];

#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>
@interface ToolbarOptions : NSObject {

}
-(void)setToolbarBack:(NSString*)bgFilename toolbar:(UIToolbar*)toolbar;
@end

#import "ToolbarOptions.h"


@implementation ToolbarOptions

-(void)setToolbarBack:(NSString*)bgFilename toolbar:(UIToolbar*)bottombar {   
// Add Custom Toolbar
UIImageView *iv = [[UIImageView alloc] initWithImage:[UIImage imageNamed:bgFilename]];
iv.frame = CGRectMake(0, 0, bottombar.frame.size.width, bottombar.frame.size.height);
iv.autoresizingMask = UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleWidth;
// Add the tab bar controller's view to the window and display.
if([[[UIDevice currentDevice] systemVersion] intValue] >= 5)
    [bottombar insertSubview:iv atIndex:1]; // iOS5 atIndex:1
else
    [bottombar insertSubview:iv atIndex:0]; // iOS4 atIndex:0
bottombar.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];
}

@end

Answer 10

You can do this with a category that basically adds a new property to UIToolBar. Overriding drawRect can work but it's not necessarily future proof. That same strategy for custom UINavigationBar stopped working with iOS 6.

Here's how I'm doing it.

.h file

@interface UIToolbar (CustomToolbar)

@property (nonatomic, strong) UIView *customBackgroundView;

@end

.m file

#import "CustomToolbar.h"
#import 

static char TIToolbarCustomBackgroundImage;

@implementation UIToolbar (CustomToolbar)

- (void)setCustomBackgroundView:(UIView *)newView {
    UIView *oldBackgroundView = [self customBackgroundView];
    [oldBackgroundView removeFromSuperview];

    [self willChangeValueForKey:@"tfCustomBackgroundView"];
    objc_setAssociatedObject(self, &TIToolbarCustomBackgroundImage,
                             newView,
                             OBJC_ASSOCIATION_RETAIN);
    [self didChangeValueForKey:@"tfCustomBackgroundView"];

    if (newView != nil) {
        [self addSubview:newView];
    }
}

- (UIView *)customBackgroundView {
    UIView *customBackgroundView = objc_getAssociatedObject(self, &TIToolbarCustomBackgroundImage);

    return customBackgroundView;
}

@end

In your view controller code, e.g. viewDidLoad

    if (self.navigationController.toolbar.customBackgroundView == nil) {
        self.navigationController.toolbar.customBackgroundView = [[UIImageView alloc] initWithImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"navigation_bar_background.png"]];
        self.navigationController.toolbar.customBackgroundView.autoresizingMask = UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleHeight | UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleWidth;
    }