Can't add UIBarButtonItem to toolbar - ios

Question

After going through every single stackoverflow solution for this problem, it's still frustratingly not working for me.
//UIBarButtonItem declaration
UIBarButtonItem* button1 = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithTitle:#"Button Text"
style:UIBarButtonItemStyleBordered target:self action:#selector(myAction)];
//method 1
[self setToolbarItems:[NSArray arrayWithObjects: button1, nil] animated:YES];
//method 2
[self.navigationController.toolbar setItems:[NSArray arrayWithObject:button1]];
//method 3
self.navigationController.toolbarItems = [NSArray arrayWithObject:button1];
//displaying toolbar
[self.navigationController setToolbarHidden:NO];
None of the above methods work for displaying a button on the toolbar - all I get is a blank toolbar. Is there something obvious I'm missing here?

Answer 1

Move
//UIBarButtonItem declaration
UIBarButtonItem* button1 = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithTitle:#"Button Text"
style:UIBarButtonItemStyleBordered target:self action:#selector(myAction)];
//method 1
[self setToolbarItems:[NSArray arrayWithObjects: button1, nil] animated:YES];
//displaying toolbar
[self.navigationController setToolbarHidden:NO];
to viewDidAppear:(BOOL)animated this is the point where UINavigationController get toolbar items of UIViewController that it manages.

Answer 2

use
self.toolbarItems=[NSArray arrayWithObject:button1]

Answer 3

With Swift 3 / iOS 10, in the simplest case where your navigation controller will contain only one view controller, you may use the code below in order to display your view controller with a toolbar that contains a bar button item:
import UIKit
class ViewController: UIViewController {
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
// Show navigation controller’s built-in toolbar
navigationController?.setToolbarHidden(false, animated: false)
// Set the view controller toolbar items
let items = [UIBarButtonItem(title: "Button Text", style: .plain, target: nil, action: nil)]
setToolbarItems(items, animated: false)
}
}
However, if you plan to have several view controllers in your navigation controller's stack, you will have to call UINavigationController's setToolbarHidden(_:animated:) method in viewWillAppear() and viewWillDisappear() in order to properly show or hide the navigation controller’s built-in toolbar:
import UIKit
class ViewController: UIViewController {
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
// Set the view controller toolbar items
let items = [UIBarButtonItem(title: "Button Text", style: .plain, target: nil, action: nil)]
setToolbarItems(items, animated: false)
}
override func viewWillAppear(_ animated: Bool) {
super.viewWillAppear(animated)
// Show navigation controller’s built-in toolbar
navigationController?.setToolbarHidden(false, animated: false)
}
override func viewWillDisappear(_ animated: Bool) {
super.viewWillDisappear(animated)
// Hide navigation controller’s built-in toolbar
navigationController?.setToolbarHidden(true, animated: false)
}
}

Answer 4

For those looking for a Swift version, try this:
let someVC: UIViewController = ...
let someButton: UIBarButtonItem = ...
someVC.setToolbarItems([someButton], animated: true)
The UINavigationController.toolbar property documentation explicitly clarifies which API should be used for setting toolbar items:
Management of this toolbar’s contents is done through the custom view controllers associated with this navigation controller. For each view controller on the navigation stack, you can assign a custom set of toolbar items using the setToolbarItems:animated: method of UIViewController.
-- UINavigationController Class Reference