Hide UIButton added in UITabBarController from child ViewController - ios

Question

I have a TabBar application, which I have added a UIButton too, which brings up a menu.
This is how the menu button is added to the Tab Controller:
//TabBarViewController.m
- (void)viewDidLoad
{
[super viewDidLoad];
self.menuBtn = [UIButton buttonWithType:UIButtonTypeCustom];
menuBtn.frame = CGRectMake(285, 28, 24, 24);
[menuBtn setBackgroundImage:[UIImage imageNamed:#"menu.png"] forState:UIControlStateNormal];
[menuBtn addTarget:self action:#selector(showMenu:) forControlEvents:UIControlEventTouchUpInside];
[self.view addSubview:self.menuBtn];
}
This functions fine and produces the following:
I have the button in the Tab Bar Controller so it shows on each tab.
This all works fine, but when I use the search bar the menu button becomes in the way:
How would I be able to hide the menu button while the search is active?
I have worked out how to detect when the search bar is active, but I am having trouble trying to hide the menu button.
//SearchViewController.m
- (void)searchBarTextDidBeginEditing:(UISearchBar *)searchBar {
TabBarViewController *vc = [[TabBarViewController alloc]init];
[vc.menuBtn setHidden:YES];
}
- (void)searchBarTextDidEndEditing:(UISearchBar *)searchBar {
TabBarViewController *vc = [[TabBarViewController alloc]init];
[vc.menuBtn setHidden:NO];
}
I have tried a few methods, but nothing is able to hide the menu button. Is this impossible, or am I missing something?
Any help would be much appreciated, Thanks

Answer 1

As rdelmar commented:
you need to get a reference to the tab bar controller that you already have, not create a new one with alloc init.
Currently I was making a new TabBarViewController, with this:
TabBarViewController *vc = [[TabBarViewController alloc]init];
Instead, I needed to use a reference. I was able to do this by using 'parentViewController'.
The structure of the app from the TabBarViewController is:
TabBarViewController
SearchNavigationController
SearchViewController
So by using 'parentViewController' twice I was able to reference TabBarViewController, then hide the menuBtn.
The following is what worked for me:
- (void)searchBarTextDidBeginEditing:(UISearchBar *)searchBar {
((TabBarViewController *)self.parentViewController.parentViewController).menuBtn.hidden = YES;
}
- (void)searchBarTextDidEndEditing:(UISearchBar *)searchBar {
((TabBarViewController *)self.parentViewController.parentViewController).menuBtn.hidden = NO;
}