UISearchBar in navigationbar

Question

How can I show a UISearchBar in the NavigationBar?

I can\'t figure out how to do this.

Your help is very much appreciated.

Answer 1

As one commenter noted, using searchDisplayController.displaysSearchBarInNavigationBar = true ends up hiding any existing left/right bar button items.

I've found two different ways of adding a searchBar to a navigationBar using iOS7's new property on searchDisplayController.

1) Nib Based Approach

If you're using a .xib, you can set a User Defined Runtime Attribute for this value and for whatever reason, the leftBarButtonItem stays in tact. I have not tested it with a rightBarButtonItem.

2) Code (Timing Matters)

If you want to implement in code, timing seems to matter. It seems that you must add the searchBar to the navigationBar first, then set your barButtonItem.

- (void)viewDidLoad
{
    ...
    self.searchDisplayController.displaysSearchBarInNavigationBar = true;
    self.navigationItem.leftBarButtonItem = [UIBarButtonItem new];
    ...
}