In iOS 7 Apple introduced new transition when you push view controller on top of another view controller. The transition comes with nice animation and back gesture. The back button displays the title from previous view controller which is good for accessibility:
You know where you are by looking on a title. You know that title is not intractable because it has different to tint color, usually, black.
You know where you come from with the back button label.
Unfortunately, our design require to remove navigation bar label because sometimes it is too long and it move navigation bar title to the right a little.
Here is how our design should look and work during the transition:
We removed the title from the first view controller in viewDidLoad of the first view controller (the one which is behind):
- (void)viewDidLoad {
[super viewDidLoad];
self.navigationItem.backBarButtonItem = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithTitle:#"" style:UIBarButtonItemStylePlain target:nil action:nil];
Now our transition has status bar background color problem:
Status bar change background color to grey during transition. Both view controllers have white status bar background.
Pushing second view controller:
SecondVC *svc = [sb instantiateInitialViewController];
[self.navigationController svc animated:YES];`
The solution is to remove this line from our code:
[[UINavigationBar appearance] setBackgroundColor:Colour_White];
In first ViewController -
-(void)viewWillAppear:(BOOL)animated{
[super viewWillAppear:YES];
UIBarButtonItem *btn=[[UIBarButtonItem alloc]initWithTitle:#"" style:UIBarButtonItemStylePlain target:self action:nil];
self.navigationItem.backBarButtonItem=btn;
}
How do I add properties for the "back button" in the navigation bar? The button links from detail view and back to the master view. I can't find any code for the back button, and the button is hidden in storyboard view.
This back button is added automatically by the UINavigationController in iOS, you can customize some things like the name, e.g. if you want to change the title or remove it totally while keeping the icon, you can use the below code:
self.navigationItem.backBarButtonItem = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithTitle:#"Custom Title"
style:UIBarButtonItemStyleBordered
target:nil
action:nil];
Leave the title #"" if you want no text; also you can customize the behavior of the button by adding your own method like this:
self.navigationItem.backBarButtonItem = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithTitle:#"Custom Title"
style:UIBarButtonItemStyleBordered
target:self
action:#selector(backButtonEvent)];
- (void)backButtonEvent {
// Your code here
}
Be careful, this should be added to viewDidLoad in the first controller, not the second one.
Following the examples of the many duplicates for this questions, I can't seem to get it right.
I have a UINavigationViewController that has a LoginViewController as the rootViewController. Here I got a button with a segue (push) to a LoginInfoViewController.
In LoginInfoViewController.m:
- (void)viewDidLoad
{
[super viewDidLoad];
//null
NSLog(#"%#", self.navigationItem.backBarButtonItem);
UIBarButtonItem *backButton = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithTitle:#"Test"
style:UIBarButtonItemStyleDone
target:nil
action:nil];
self.navigationItem.backBarButtonItem = backButton;
//not null, still the back button says: "Back"
NSLog(#"%#", self.navigationItem.backBarButtonItem);
}
You will need to set the backBarButtonItem of the controller you are going back to, not the controller you pushed. Move your code to the LoginViewController viewDidLoad method.
The navigation controller derives the back button for the navigation bar from the backBarButtonItem of the preceding controller in the stack. If the item is nil, it will use the value in the title property of same. If the title is too long to fit, the navigation bar may substitute the string "Back" in place of the title.
If your controller has a custom left bar button item, the navigation bar will ignore the backButtonItem property and title presenting the custom button instead.
Set the title of the back button on the view BEFORE. So, if you segue from LoginViewController, you set the back button title on the item before you segue to LoginInfoViewController
Example:
In the viewDidLoad method on LoginViewController:
UIBarButtonItem *newBackButton = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithTitle: #"Go back" style: UIBarButtonItemStyleBordered target: nil action: nil];
[[self navigationItem] setBackBarButtonItem: newBackButton];
This means you're setting the button on the LoginViewController, not on the LoginInfoViewController.
I'm trying to create a transition between two scenes, this is a dumbed down version of what I have in my production code :
Both are ViewController, the left one has a TableView inside it and when clicked it should transition to the right hand scene, passing along data from whatever cell was clicked.
Currently, with a modal segue I can tap the cell and it transitions correctly, however, I can't figure out how to place a back button onto the nav bar.
I'm transitioning from the cell to the 2nd view controller like so :
- (void)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView didSelectRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
[self performSegueWithIdentifier:#"toSecond" sender:self];
}
-(void)prepareForSegue:(UIStoryboardSegue *)segue sender:(id)sender
{
if ([segue.identifier isEqualToString:#"toSecond"])
{
NSLog(#"Preparing segue for toSecond, setting some data on target scene");
NSIndexPath *path = [self.theTableView indexPathForSelectedRow];
MyData * myData = [myDataArray objectAtIndex:path.row];
// Obtain handles on the current and destination controllers
FirstController * startingViewController;
SecondController * destinationController;
startingViewController = (FirstController * ) segue.sourceViewController;
destinationController = (SecondController * ) segue.destinationViewController;
destinationController.someData = myData;
}
}
On the SecondController, I've tried amending the viewDidLoad method to programatically include a back button item as suggested in this previous SO question:
- (void)viewDidLoad
{
[super viewDidLoad];
// Do any additional setup after loading the view.
UIBarButtonItem * back = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithTitle:#"Back"
style:UIBarButtonItemStylePlain
target:nil
action:nil];
[self.navigationItem setBackBarButtonItem:back];
}
So my question is, how can I get a back button onto that nav bar? Something like this :
Thanks
One (easy) way, using the storyboard, is to embed a navigation controller into your view that has the table. Make sure the correct view, the one with the table, is highlighted and then go to Editor > Embed In > Navigation Controller.
The back button will automatically be there when you click a row of your table. Like Dan said, make sure it is a push segue between the 2 views in your picture.
You will not be able to add a back looking button to a modally presented ViewController easily
If you just want to add a normal button to the left side of the bar, do the following
UIBarButtonItem *rightButton = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithTitle:#"Back"
style:UIBarButtonSystemItemDone target:nil action:nil];
UINavigationItem *item = [[UINavigationItem alloc] initWithTitle:#"Title"];
item.leftBarButtonItem = rightButton;
item.hidesBackButton = YES;
[self.yourNavigationBar pushNavigationItem:item animated:NO];
If you insist of presenting your view modally and still want a back button style you could use
Three20
In place of where you have the view with the table, us a UINavigationController don't delete the view with the table, just in place of where you segue to it, or if it was the root controller, use the nav con. Make the view with the table the root view controller of the navigation controller, and then simply use a push segue instead of a modal segue, and you should automatically get the back button
The best way is to just use a UINavigationController as the parent of your table view controller, and use a push segue instead of a modal segue.
You can create two instances of UINavigationItem and tell the UINavigationBar about them by setting the bar's items property. Instance 0 represents the table view controller.
You can create a UIButton with type 101 (the undocumented back button type), and wrap it in a UIBarButtonItem using initWithCustomView:.
The "back button" of a UINavigationController by default shows the title of the last view in the stack. Is there a way to have custom text in the back button instead?
From this link:
self.navigationItem.backBarButtonItem =
[[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithTitle:#"Custom Title"
style:UIBarButtonItemStylePlain
target:nil
action:nil];
As Tyler said in the comments:
don't do this in the visible view controller, but in the view
controller that you'd see if you hit the back button
You can set the text in the Interface Builder:
Select the navigation item of the ViewController that the back button would return to:
In the utilities panel attribute inspector, enter your label for the Back Button:
I would prefer this approach over setting the title in code as in the accepted answer.
Also note, you need to do this in the view controller one level up the
stack. In other words, don't do this in the visible view controller,
but in the view controller that you'd see if you hit the back button.
--Tyler
I use this:
// In the current view controller, not the one that is one level up in the stack
- (void)viewDidLoad {
[super viewDidLoad];
self.navigationController.navigationBar.backItem.title = #"Custom text";
}
I found a handy solution to this by simply setting the title of the controller before pushing another controller onto the stack, like this:
self.navigationItem.title = #"Replacement Title";
[self.navigationController pushViewController:newCtrl animated:YES];
Then, make sure to set the original title in viewWillAppear, like this:
-(void)viewWillAppear:(BOOL)animated
{
...
self.navigationItem.title = #"Original Title";
...
}
This works because the default behavior of UINavigationController when constructing the back button during a push operation is to use the title from the previous controller.
The title of the back button defaults to the previous view's title so a quick trick I use is to place the following code on the previous view's .m file.
-(void)viewWillAppear:(BOOL)animated {
// Set title
self.navigationItem.title=#"Original Title";
}
-(void)viewWillDisappear:(BOOL)animated {
// Set title
self.navigationItem.title=#"Back";
}
in your init method, add the following code:
- (id)initWithStyle:(UITableViewStyle)style {
if(self = [super init]) {
//...
UIBarButtonItem *customBackButton = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithTitle:#"Back"
style:UIBarButtonItemStylePlain
target:self
action:#selector(goBack)];
self.navigationItem.leftBarButtonItem = customBackButton;
[customBackButton release];
//...
}
return self;
}
then add a simple method, to allow viewcontroller dismissing:
-(void)goBack {
[self.navigationController popViewControllerAnimated:YES];
}
Add the following code in viewDidLoad or loadView
self.navigationController.navigationBar.topItem.title = #"Custom text";
I tested it in iPhone and iPad with iOS 9
Adding to rein's answer. Note from Apple's docs that the declaration of backBarButtonItem is this:
#property(nonatomic, retain) UIBarButtonItem *backBarButtonItem
Therefore, rein's answer will leak memory because the synthesized setter will retain the instance you pass it, which is never released explicitly. You can remedy this by using autorelease
self.navigationItem.backBarButtonItem =
[[[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithTitle:#"Custom Title"
style:UIBarButtonItemStyleBordered
target:nil
action:nil] autorelease]; //<-- autoreleased
Or you could point a variable at the instance so you can explicitly release it later:
UIBarButtonItem* item = ...
self.navigationItem.backBarButtonItem = item;
[item release];
Hope this helps!
- (void)viewDidLoad {
[super viewDidLoad];
UIBarButtonItem *backButton = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithTitle:#"Back" style:UIBarButtonItemStylePlain target:nil action:nil];
self.navigationItem.backBarButtonItem = backButton;
[backButton release];
}
I've discovered something interesting.
If you subclass the UINavigationController and override the pushViewController:animated: method and do something like this: (bear in mind that I'm using ARC)
UIBarButtonItem *backButton = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc]
initWithTitle: #"Back"
style: UIBarButtonItemStyleBordered
target: nil action: nil];
viewController.navigationItem.backBarButtonItem = backButton;
[super pushViewController:viewController animated:animated];
Then for all ViewControllers that are pushed with your navigation controller will have the "Back" button in them automatically. If you want to change the text for certain view controllers you can try and maybe cast the viewcontroller to a certain class or your own custom protocol (which your viewcontroller inherits from which could have a method like backButtonText or something silly like that) which can give you certain information on the viewcontroller that's coming in sothat you can customize the back button text for it. Now the back button text is taken care of in a place which should hold the responsibility solely. I have to admit that creating a new button to change the text sucks, but oh well.
Can anyone think of a reason why not to do it like this? Atleast you don't have to fiddle with viewcontroller titles or have to remember to create a new back button before pushing the viewcontroller on the navigation controller.
rein's answer works well.
Note that if you push more than one view controller, the changed back button title will appear for each of them, which may not be what you want.
In that case, you'll need to create the custom UIBarButtonItem each time you push a view controller.
Also, make sure you do it before pushing the view controller, otherwise you will get a screen hiccup as the title changes.
Expanding on Aubrey's suggestion, you can do this in the child view controller:
create two variables for storing the old values of the parent's navigationItem.title and the parent's navigationItem
UINavigationItem* oldItem;
NSString* oldTitle;
in viewDidLoad, add the following:
oldItem = self.navigationController.navigationBar.topItem;
oldTitle = oldItem.title;
[oldItem setTitle: #"Back"];
in viewWillDisappear, add the following:
[oldItem setTitle: oldTitle];
oldTitle = nil; // do this if you have retained oldTitle
oldItem = nil; // do this if you have retained oldItem
It's not perfect. You will see the the title of the parent view change as the new controller is animated in. BUT this does achieve the goal of custom labeling the back button and keeping it shaped like a standard back button.
Put this into you viewDidLoad, hope it will result into what you are looking for
UIBarButtonItem *backBarButtonItem = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithTitle:#"Close"
style:UIBarButtonItemStylePlain target:nil action:nil];
self.navigationItem.backBarButtonItem = backBarButtonItem;
[backBarButtonItem release];
if You want to set title in ARRIVING controller (sometimes more logic..)
in swift 3 do:
func setBackButtonNavBar(title: String, delay: Double){
let when = DispatchTime.now() + delay
DispatchQueue.main.asyncAfter(deadline: when, execute: { () -> Void in
if let navBar = self.navigationController?.navigationBar{
navBar.backItem?.title = title
}
})
}
in upcoming controller:
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
self.setBackButtonNavBar(title: "back", delay: 0.3)
}
usually I put self.setBackButtonNavBar in a controller extension.
I know this is an old question and the answers' kind of out updated!
The easy way is to do this in parent ViewController:
i.e the one that takes you to next view controller.
self.navigationItem.backBarButtonItem = UIBarButtonItem(title: "Custom text here", style: .plain, target: nil, action: nil)
Doing this in code remove the back button style of the UINavigationConroller. If you add a Navigation Item in each of yours views, you can set the title of the back botton in the StoryBoard.