Add navigation bar to a view controller without a navigation controller - ios

Question

How do you add a navigation bar to a view controller (collection view controller, actually) that is not embedded in a navigation controller? I tried dragging a Navigation Bar onto the view, but it's just not sticking. This is in Swift.

Answer 1

Try putting this code in your viewDidLoad:
let height: CGFloat = 75
let navbar = UINavigationBar(frame: CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: UIScreen.mainScreen().bounds.width, height: height))
navbar.backgroundColor = UIColor.whiteColor()
navbar.delegate = self
let navItem = UINavigationItem()
navItem.title = "Title"
navItem.leftBarButtonItem = UIBarButtonItem(title: "Left Button", style: .Plain, target: self, action: nil)
navItem.rightBarButtonItem = UIBarButtonItem(title: "Right Button", style: .Plain, target: self, action: nil)
navbar.items = [navItem]
view.addSubview(navbar)
collectionView?.frame = CGRect(x: 0, y: height, width: UIScreen.mainScreen().bounds.width, height: (UIScreen.mainScreen().bounds.height - height))
height can, of course, be anything you want. And the actions for the UIBarButtons are selectors to whatever function you want. (You also don't need to have buttons at all).
Edits:
Adjusted the collectionView's frame so it would not overlap with UINavigationBar.
Made height a constant so all its references can be changed in one place.

Answer 2

Here is version for swift 5.
class ViewController: UIViewController, UINavigationBarDelegate {
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
view.addSubview(toolbar)
toolbar.delegate = self
let height: CGFloat = 75
let navbar = UINavigationBar(frame: CGRect(x: 20, y: 20, width: UIScreen.main.bounds.width, height: height))
navbar.backgroundColor = UIColor.white
navbar.delegate = self
let navItem = UINavigationItem()
navItem.title = "Title"
navItem.leftBarButtonItem = UIBarButtonItem(title: "Left Button", style: .plain, target: self, action: nil)
navItem.rightBarButtonItem = UIBarButtonItem(title: "Right Button", style: .plain, target: self, action: nil)
navbar.items = [navItem]
view.addSubview(navbar)
self.view.frame = CGRect(x: 0, y: height, width: UIScreen.main.bounds.width, height: (UIScreen.main.bounds.height - height))
}
}

Answer 3

Updated answer for Swift 4:
private func addNavigationBar() {
let height: CGFloat = 75
var statusBarHeight: CGFloat = 0
if #available(iOS 13.0, *) {
statusBarHeight = view.window?.windowScene?.statusBarManager?.statusBarFrame.height ?? 0
} else {
statusBarHeight = UIApplication.shared.statusBarFrame.height
}
let navbar = UINavigationBar(frame: CGRect(x: 0, y: statusBarHeight, width: UIScreen.main.bounds.width, height: height))
navbar.backgroundColor = UIColor.white
navbar.delegate = self as? UINavigationBarDelegate
let navItem = UINavigationItem()
navItem.title = "Sensor Data"
navItem.leftBarButtonItem = UIBarButtonItem(title: "Back", style: .plain, target: self, action: #selector(dismissViewController))
navbar.items = [navItem]
view.addSubview(navbar)
self.view?.frame = CGRect(x: 0, y: height, width: UIScreen.main.bounds.width, height: (UIScreen.main.bounds.height - height))
}