UISearchController iOS 11 Customization

Question

I had been using the following code prior to iOS 11 to customize the appearance of the UISearchController search bar:

var searchController = UISearc         


        

Answer 1

You need to find the UISearchBar's underlying UITextField and change its text color.

Notice this only have effect when search controller is going to present (UISearchControllerDelegate.willPresentSearchController) or presented.

class ViewController : UIViewController {

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        // setup your search controller...

        // set search controller's delegate
        navigationItem.searchController?.delegate = self
    }
}

extension ViewController : UISearchControllerDelegate {

    func willPresentSearchController(_ searchController: UISearchController) {
        // update text color
        searchController.searchBar.textField?.textColor = .white
    }
}

extension UISearchBar {

    var textField: UITextField? {
        for subview in subviews.first?.subviews ?? [] {
            if let textField = subview as? UITextField {
                return textField
            }
        }
        return nil
    }
}