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 s

Answer 1

UIToolbar inherits from UIView. This just worked for me:

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

Answer 2

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 3

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 4

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

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

Answer 5

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 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;