UISearchBar - internal UITextField height issue - ios

Question

I'm working on an app where I place a UISearchBar at the top of a UIViewController that contains a UITableViewController. The UISearchBar filters the contents of the UITableView.
I've left things alone so far (aside from customizing the colors to match my app's theme, which was hard enough!), but on anything except iPhone 4/5, the UISearchBar is dramatically too small.
Therefore, I'm trying to update the size of the font and the height of the internal UITextField.
All of this has proved remarkably difficult to accomplish, requiring quite a bit of customization. So, if you know of a library that makes this easier, please let me know in the comments.
Here's the code I'm using right now:
// In a category for UISearchBar
- (void)setup {
self.tintColor = [UIColor offWhite];
for (UIView *view in self.subviews) {
[self configureView:view];
}
}
- (void)configureView:(UIView *)view {
if ([view isKindOfClass:[UITextField class]]) {
CGFloat fontSize, frameHeight;
if (IS_IPHONE_4) {
fontSize = 14.0f;
frameHeight = 24.0f;
} else if (IS_IPHONE_5) {
fontSize = 14.0f;
frameHeight = 24.0f;
} else if (IS_IPHONE_6) {
fontSize = 17.0f;
frameHeight = 28.0f;
} else if (IS_IPHONE_6PLUS) {
fontSize = 20.0f;
frameHeight = 32.0f;
} else {
// iPad
fontSize = 24.0f;
frameHeight = 36.0f;
}
UITextField *textfield = (UITextField *)view;
textfield.font = [UIFont buttonFontOfSize:fontSize];
textfield.textColor = [UIColor offWhite];
textfield.tintColor = [UIColor offWhite];
CGRect frame = textfield.frame;
frame.origin.y = (self.frame.size.height - frameHeight) / 2.0f;
frame.size.height = frameHeight;
textfield.frame = frame;
}
if (view.subviews.count > 0) {
for (UIView *subview in view.subviews) {
[self configureView:subview];
}
}
}
Note: I structured my code this way in case Apple changes the internal structure of the UISearchBar. I didn't want to hard-code index values.
So, this code "works", in that the end result is what I desire, namely, a taller UISearchBar with text sized as specified and the internal UITextField also taller, as specified. What I don't understand is the process of getting there.
If I call [self.searchBar setup] in my general AutoLayout process, it doesn't work (the internal UITextField is the wrong height). This makes sense to me, since the frame is (0,0,0,0) until the view is actually laid out.
If I call [self.searchBar setup] in my -viewWillAppear: method, it doesn't work (the internal UITextField is the wrong height). This doesn't make sense to me, since debugging shows the frames to still be (0,0,0,0), but I thought -viewWillAppear: was called when everything was laid out and set up.
If I call [self.searchBar setup] in my -viewDidLayoutSubviews method, it "works", but the internal UITextField starts out the "normal" height and then "jumps" to the correct height some time after the view actually appears.
I set up the entire UIViewController in code, using pure AutoLayout. I simply cannot get the UISearchBar set up the way I want BEFORE the view finished loading and is displayed on screen. I've seen some funky stuff in the past, but I've always been able to force a view to render as desired. Is there something special behind the scenes with UISearchBar? Does anybody know how to get this done?

Answer 1

You're mixing auto-layout and manual layout (someView.frame = …) on the same view. You can't do that.
Instead, to change the height, set the constant on your view's height constraint to frameHeight. Let the auto-layout engine set the frame for you.