How to programatically add constraints on uinavigationbar subview - ios

Question

I'm adding a subview to navigationbar , problem is that im unable to add constraints to it .Im getting crash like this
terminating app due to uncaught exception 'NSGenericException', reason: 'Unable to activate constraint with items ; value: 0.000000> and > because they have no common ancestor. Does the constraint reference items in different view hierarchies? That's illegal.'
The code used is below
//create a slider and add it to the view
let slider = UISlider()
self.navigationController?.navigationBar.addSubview(slider)
//pin the slider 20 points from the left edge of the the superview
//from the left edge of the slider to the left edge of the superview
//superview X coord is at 0 therefore 0 + 20 = 20 position
let horizonalContraints = NSLayoutConstraint(item: slider, attribute:
.LeadingMargin, relatedBy: .Equal, toItem: view,
attribute: .LeadingMargin, multiplier: 1.0,
constant: 20)
//pin the slider 20 points from the right edge of the super view
//negative because we want to pin -20 points from the end of the superview.
//ex. if with of super view is 300, 300-20 = 280 position
let horizonal2Contraints = NSLayoutConstraint(item: slider, attribute:
.TrailingMargin, relatedBy: .Equal, toItem: view,
attribute: .TrailingMargin, multiplier: 1.0, constant: -20)
//pin 100 points from the top of the super
let pinTop = NSLayoutConstraint(item: slider, attribute: .Top, relatedBy: .Equal,
toItem: view, attribute: .Top, multiplier: 1.0, constant: 100)
//when using autolayout we an a view, MUST ALWAYS SET setTranslatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints
//to false.
slider.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
slider.backgroundColor = UIColor.redColor()
//IOS 8
//activate the constrains.
//we pass an array of all the contraints
NSLayoutConstraint.activateConstraints([horizonalContraints, horizonal2Contraints,pinTop])
The above code works fine if i use the line view.addSubview(slider)
instead of
self.navigationController?.navigationBar.addSubview(slider)
But the idea is to add constraints on a subview on navigation bar .
Any thoughts are welcome

Answer 1

As the exception already stated, the navigationBar is not a subview of 'view'. It belongs to the navigationcontroller.
What you could do is to use the navbar's superview:
let slider = UISlider()
self.navigationController?.navigationBar.addSubview(slider)
let targetView = self.navigationController?.navigationBar.superview
let horizonalContraints = NSLayoutConstraint(item: slider, attribute:
.LeadingMargin, relatedBy: .Equal, toItem: targetView,
attribute: .LeadingMargin, multiplier: 1.0,
constant: 20)
let horizonal2Contraints = NSLayoutConstraint(item: slider, attribute:
.TrailingMargin, relatedBy: .Equal, toItem: targetView,
attribute: .TrailingMargin, multiplier: 1.0, constant: -20)
let pinTop = NSLayoutConstraint(item: slider, attribute: .Top, relatedBy: .Equal,
toItem: targetView, attribute: .Top, multiplier: 1.0, constant: 10)
slider.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
slider.backgroundColor = UIColor.redColor()
NSLayoutConstraint.activateConstraints([horizonalContraints, horizonal2Contraints,pinTop])
That removes the exception and might look like it does what you want, but it is definitely not a good solution. If you want the slider inside the navbar, add it to the navigationitem instead. If you want it bellow the navbar, add it to your View and set a constraint to the top layout guide.