How to override navigation controller after it is pushed? - ios

Question

I want to override to my own navigation controller with its own back button, title etc. But after i pushed the view controller, by default shows the navigation bar of the last view in the stack which was inherited in previous class.
Lets assume this is my first class which inherits NavBarViewController in header file as;
//ListingDetailViewController.h
#interface ListingDetailViewController : NavBarViewController
and, inside ListingDetailViewController, i pushed view by:
//ListingDetailViewController.m
ChatListViewController *chatList= [[ChatListViewController alloc]init];
[self.navigationController pushViewController:chatList animated:YES];
So this will still bring in the navigation controller same as in ListingDetailViewController, even though i tried to override the back button, title again in ChatListViewController's viewdidLoad and viewWillAppear. This is ChatListViewController's header:
//ChatListViewController.h
#interface ChatListViewController : IPChatListViewController
How can i achieve this? Any help is much appreciated. Thank you.

Answer 1

I use a BaseViewController class for this purpose. Paste this code in your base controller:
if (self.navigationController.viewControllers)
{
if (self.navigationController.viewControllers.count > 1)
{
[self createBackButton];
}
else
{
//[self createSideBarButton];
}
}
else
{
//[self createSideBarButton];
}
Include this method in your base class:
- (UIBarButtonItem *)createBackButton
{
UIBarButtonItem *negativeSeperator = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithBarButtonSystemItem:UIBarButtonSystemItemFixedSpace target:nil action:nil];
negativeSeperator.width = 0;
UIBarButtonItem *item = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithImage:[UIImage imageNamed:#"navigation_back_button.png"] style:UIBarButtonItemStylePlain target:self.navigationController action:#selector(popViewControllerAnimated:)];
[item setTintColor:[UIColor whiteColor]];
self.navigationItem.leftBarButtonItems = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:negativeSeperator,item, nil];
return item;
}
If you make sure you subclass your View Controllers (not navigation controller) from this base VC it will automatically replace back buttons.

Answer 2

I found the solution by overriding the button in viewDidAppear, because until viewDidLoad it will re-use the inherited navigation bar. So,
-(void)viewDidAppear:(BOOL)animated {
[self overwriteBackButton];
}
Then:
- (void)overwriteBackButton {
UIImage *backNormal = [UIImage imageNamed:#"backButton"];
_navBarLeftButton = [OpenSansButton buttonWithType:UIButtonTypeCustom];
_navBarLeftButton.frame = CGRectMake(10, 10, 35, 35);
[_navBarLeftButton setImage:backNormal forState:UIControlStateNormal];
[_navBarLeftButton addTarget:self action:#selector(backToList) forControlEvents:UIControlEventTouchUpInside];
[self.navigationController.navigationBar addSubview:_navBarLeftButton];
}
And it is triggered to:
-(void)backToList
{
[self.navigationController popViewControllerAnimated:YES];
}