How to change the default text of Cancel Button which appears in the UISearchBar +iPhone

Question

I am developing an Application where I wanted to change the text of Search String in the SearchBar. I wanted to change the text of Cancel Button Also which appears next to t

Answer 1

Solution for iOS 7. All credits for this go to Mr. Jesper Nielsen - he wrote the code.

-(void)searchDisplayControllerDidBeginSearch:(UISearchDisplayController *)controller {
    UIButton *cancelButton;
    UIView *topView = theSearchBar.subviews[0];
    for (UIView *subView in topView.subviews) {
        if ([subView isKindOfClass:NSClassFromString(@"UINavigationButton")]) {
            cancelButton = (UIButton*)subView;
        }
    }
    if (cancelButton) {
        [cancelButton setTitle:@"YourTitle" forState:UIControlStateNormal];
    }

}

Answer 2

Use the appearance proxy:

id barButtonAppearanceInSearchBar = [UIBarButtonItem appearanceWhenContainedIn:[UISearchBar class], nil];

[barButtonAppearanceInSearchBar setBackgroundImage:grayBackgroundImage forState:UIControlStateNormal barMetrics:UIBarMetricsDefault];
[barButtonAppearanceInSearchBar setTitleTextAttributes:@{
                                      NSFontAttributeName : [UIFont fontWithName:@"HelveticaNeue-CondensedBold" size:20],
                                 NSForegroundColorAttributeName : [UIColor blackColor]
     } forState:UIControlStateNormal];
[barButtonAppearanceInSearchBar setTitle:@"X"];

Answer 3

Instead of referencing the non-public UINavigationButton class, I did the following. I'm hoping that it will make it through App Store review!

for (id subview in searchBar.subviews) {
    if ([subview respondsToSelector:@selector(setTitle:)]) {
        [subview setTitle:@"Map"];
    }
}

Answer 4

I would like to fix the UIAppearance technique, as yar1vn code won't work with Xcode 5. With the following you will have code that works perfectly for both iOS 6 and iOS 7.

First, you need to understand that the cancel button is a private UINavigationButton:UIButton. Hence, it is not an UIBarButtonItem. 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<UIAppearance> *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:...];
[barButtonItemAppearanceInBar setBackButtonBackgroundImage:... forState:... barMetrics:...];
[barButtonItemAppearanceInBar setBackButtonTitlePositionAdjustment:... forBarMetrics:...];
[barButtonItemAppearanceInBar setBackButtonBackgroundVerticalPositionAdjustment:... forBarMetrics:...];

UIButton<UIAppearance> *buttonAppearanceInBar = [UIButton appearanceWhenContainedIn:barClass, nil];
[buttonAppearanceInBar setTitle:... forState:...];

Now, this technique works for the Cancel button, but it also works for the Back button if you change the barClass to [UINavigationBar self].

Answer 5

Working short code in Swift 2.1 (iOS7-9 tested)

@IBOutlet weak var searchBar: UISearchBar!
func enableSearchBarCancelButton(enable: Bool, title: String? = nil) {
    searchBar?.showsCancelButton = enable
    if enable {
        if let _cancelButton = searchBar?.valueForKey("_cancelButton"),
            let cancelButton = _cancelButton as? UIButton {
                cancelButton.enabled = enable //comment out if you want this button disabled when keyboard is not visible
                if title != nil {
                    cancelButton.setTitle(title, forState: UIControlState.Normal)
                }
        }
    }
}

Answer 6

On iOS 7, if you've set displaysSearchBarInNavigationBar = YES on UISearchDisplayController, replacing the cancel button title via subview recursion or the appearance proxy will not work.

Instead, use your own bar button in viewDidLoad:

- (void)viewDidLoad
{
    [super viewDidLoad];

    self.searchDisplayController.displaysSearchBarInNavigationBar = YES;
    UIBarButtonItem *barItem = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithTitle:NSLocalizedString(@"A Custom Title", nil)
                                                                style:UIBarButtonItemStyleBordered
                                                               target:self
                                                               action:@selector(cancelButtonTapped:)];

    // NB: Order is important here.
    //     Only do this *after* setting displaysSearchBarInNavigationBar to YES
    //     as that's when UISearchDisplayController creates it's navigationItem
    self.searchDisplayController.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem = barItem;
}