UISearchBar with a white background is impossible? - ios

Question

I really thought it would be easy to set the background color of my UISearchBar's text field to white. But no matter what I try, it always stays offwhite / light gray (#efeff0).
import UIKit
class ViewController: UIViewController {
private let searchController = UISearchController()
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
navigationItem.title = "Hello World"
view.backgroundColor = #colorLiteral(red: 0.9588784575, green: 0.9528519511, blue: 0.9350754619, alpha: 1)
searchController.searchBar.searchTextField.backgroundColor = .white
navigationItem.searchController = searchController
}
}
How can I make the search bar have a pure white background color? App is iOS 13+, if that helps.
Tiny test project: https://github.com/kevinrenskers/WhiteSearch.

Answer 1

It's possible. Set the background of the search field with a white image.
let size = CGSize(width: searchController.searchBar.frame.size.width - 12, height: searchController.searchBar.frame.size.height - 12)
let backgroundImage = createWhiteBG(size)!
let imageWithCorner = backgroundImage.createImageWithRoundBorder(cornerRadiuos: 10)!
searchController.searchBar.setSearchFieldBackgroundImage(imageWithCorner, for: UIControl.State.normal)
If you don't want to input an image to app. Try this for create one programmatically.
func createWhiteBG(_ frame : CGSize) -> UIImage? {
var rect = CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: 0, height: 0)
rect.size = frame
UIGraphicsBeginImageContext(rect.size)
let context = UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext()
context?.setFillColor(UIColor.white.cgColor)
context?.fill(rect)
let image = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext()
UIGraphicsEndImageContext()
return image
}
extension UIImage {
func createImageWithRoundBorder(cornerRadiuos : CGFloat) -> UIImage? {
UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions(self.size, false, scale)
let rect = CGRect(origin:CGPoint(x: 0, y: 0), size: self.size)
let context = UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext()
let path = UIBezierPath(
roundedRect: rect,
cornerRadius: cornerRadiuos
)
context?.beginPath()
context?.addPath(path.cgPath)
context?.closePath()
context?.clip()
self.draw(at: CGPoint.zero)
context?.restoreGState()
path.lineWidth = 1.5
let image = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext()
UIGraphicsEndImageContext()
return image
}
}

Answer 2

Try this ... Change colors and images according to your preference
DispatchQueue.main.async {
searchBar.backgroundImage = UIImage()
for s in searchBar.subviews[0].subviews {
if s is UITextField {
s.layer.borderWidth = 1.0
s.layer.borderColor = UIColor.lightGray.cgColor
}
}
let searchTextField:UITextField = searchBar.subviews[0].subviews.last as? UITextField ?? UITextField()
searchTextField.layer.cornerRadius = 10
searchTextField.textAlignment = NSTextAlignment.left
let image:UIImage = UIImage(named: "search")!
let imageView:UIImageView = UIImageView.init(image: image)
searchTextField.leftView = nil
searchTextField.placeholder = "Search..."
searchTextField.font = UIFont.textFieldText
searchTextField.rightView = imageView
searchTextField.rightViewMode = UITextField.ViewMode.always
}

Answer 3

Here is My complete Custom Search Bar Which you can define the searchbar backgroundColor and TextField background Color
Tested
import Foundation
class SearchBar: UISearchBar {
override init(frame: CGRect) {
super.init(frame: frame)
makeUI()
}
required init?(coder: NSCoder) {
super.init(coder: coder)
makeUI()
}
private func makeUI( ) {
//SearchBar BackgroundColor
self.backgroundImage = UIImage(color: UIColor.white)
//Border Width
self.layer.borderWidth = 1
//Border Color
self.layer.borderColor = UIColor("DEDEDE")?.cgColor
//Corner Radius
self.layer.cornerRadius = 3
self.layer.masksToBounds = true
//Change Icon
self.setImage(UIImage(named: "search")?
.byResize(to: CGSize(width: 30, height: 30)), for: .search, state: .normal)
if let searchTextField = self.value(forKey: "searchField") as? UISearchTextField {
//TextField Background !!!!!
searchTextField.backgroundColor = UIColor.white
//TextField Font
searchTextField.font = UIFont(name: "Poppins-Regular", size: 21)
searchTextField.textColor = .black
}
}
}