Customising the titleView in a UIPopoverController - ios

Question

On an iPad application, I want to be able to have multiple buttons in the top bar of a popover. I'm launching it like this:
UINavigationController *nc = [[UINavigationController alloc] initWithRootViewController:vc];
pop = [[UIPopoverController alloc] initWithContentViewController:nc];
[pop presentPopoverFromRect:CGRectInset([tableView rectForRowAtIndexPath:indexPath], 10, 10)
inView:tableView
permittedArrowDirections:UIPopoverArrowDirectionAny
animated:YES];
pop.delegate = self;
[nc release];
In the viewDidLoad I want to set the titleView to contain multiple UIBarButtonItems. This is ok on a normal UINavigationController but I need to be able to do this and keep the custom style of the navigation bar on the popover.
I have tried setting the rightBarButtonItem to have a toolbar that contains buttons, but they take the format of the toolbar, which itself will not take the format/style of the popover.

Answer 1

It's a bit hackish, but you can create a truly transparent UIToolbar by subclassing and overriding drawRect: with an empty method. This will still draw the UIBarButtonItems on the toolbar, but not the toolbar itself.
Then, as Nils describes, you can create a bar button item out of the custom toolbar instance and add it as the rightBarButtonItem.

Answer 2

Why you don't use a custom UIView with a UIToolbar or UINavigationBar instead of UIPopoverController?
The effect, is the same!

Answer 3

First you need to set a delegate to the UINavigationController and then implement the nabigationController:willShowViewController:animated: method. In this method you can adjust the left and right bar button items.
- (void)navigationController:(UINavigationController *)navigationController willShowViewController:(UIViewController *)viewController animated:(BOOL)animated{
viewController.navigationItem.leftBarButtonItem = [[[UIBarButtonItem alloc]
initWithTitle:#"Image Source"
style:UIBarButtonItemStylePlain
target:self
action:#selector(cancelPressed)] autorelease];
}

Answer 4

I had the same problem, and here is what I did :
UIBarButtonItem *uiBarRefresh = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithBarButtonSystemItem:UIBarButtonSystemItemRefresh target:self action:#selector(forcerefresh)];
UIBarButtonItem *uiBarCurl = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithBarButtonSystemItem:UIBarButtonSystemItemPageCurl target:self action:#selector(showlist)];
UIToolbar_transparent* tools = [[UIToolbar_transparent alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0, 133, 44.01)];
tools.barStyle = UIBarStyleBlackTranslucent;
tools.translucent = YES;
tools.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];
tools.tintColor = self.navigationController.navigationBar.tintColor;
[tools setItems:[NSArray arrayWithObjects:flexItem,uiBarRefresh,uiBarCurl,nil] animated:NO];
self.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithCustomView:tools];
This way you avoid the dull grey background, the pesky white underline, and you can completely customize how you want them positioned, by using fixed or flex spacings.
Best of luck with your project :]