Styling the cancel button in a UISearchBar

Question

I have a UISearchBar that has a cancel button (it\'s displayed using -(void)setShowsCancelButton:animated). I\'ve changed the tintColor of the sear

Answer 1

I'll give a detailed answered regarding the UIAppearance technique. First, you need to understand that the cancel button is a private UINavigationButton:UIButton. After some inspection, it appears that UINavigationButton will respond to those UIAppearance selectors:

// inherited from UINavigationButton
@selector(setTintColor:)
@selector(setBackgroundImage:forState:style:barMetrics:)
@selector(setBackgroundImage:forState:barMetrics:)
@selector(setTitleTextAttributes:forState:)
@selector(setBackgroundVerticalPositionAdjustment:forBarMetrics:)
@selector(setTitlePositionAdjustment:forBarMetrics:)
@selector(setBackButtonBackgroundImage:forState:barMetrics:)
@selector(setBackButtonTitlePositionAdjustment:forBarMetrics:)
@selector(setBackButtonBackgroundVerticalPositionAdjustment:forBarMetrics:)

// inherited from UIButton
@selector(setTitle:forState:)

Coincidentally, those selectors match those of a UIBarButtonItem. Meaning the trick is to use two separate UIAppearance to handle the private class UINavigationButton.

/* dual appearance technique by Cœur to customize a UINavigationButton */
Class barClass = [UISearchBar self];

UIBarButtonItem *barButtonItemAppearanceInBar = [UIBarButtonItem appearanceWhenContainedIn:barClass, nil];
[barButtonItemAppearanceInBar setTintColor:...];
[barButtonItemAppearanceInBar setBackgroundImage:... forState:... style:... barMetrics:...];
[barButtonItemAppearanceInBar setBackgroundImage:... forState:... barMetrics:...];
[barButtonItemAppearanceInBar setTitleTextAttributes:... forState:...];
[barButtonItemAppearanceInBar setBackgroundVerticalPositionAdjustment:... forBarMetrics:...];
[barButtonItemAppearanceInBar setTitlePositionAdjustment:... forBarMetrics:...];
// only for a backButton in an UINavigationBar, not for a cancelButton in an UISearchBar
//[barButtonItemAppearanceInBar setBackButtonBackgroundImage:... forState:... barMetrics:...];
//[barButtonItemAppearanceInBar setBackButtonTitlePositionAdjustment:... forBarMetrics:...];
//[barButtonItemAppearanceInBar setBackButtonBackgroundVerticalPositionAdjustment:... forBarMetrics:...];

UIButton *buttonAppearanceInBar = [UIButton appearanceWhenContainedIn:barClass, nil];
// warning: doesn't work for iOS7+
[buttonAppearanceInBar setTitle:... forState:...];

This will let you customize your Cancel button as much as you want.