How to create backBarButtomItem with custom view f

Question

I have a UINavigationController into which I push several views. Inside viewDidLoad for one of these views I want to set the self.navigationItem.backBarButtonItem to a custom view (based on a custom image). I don't know why, but it doesn't seem to work. Instead, I get the standard "back" button.

UIButton *backButton = [[UIButton alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0, 63, 30)];
[backButton setImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"back_OFF.png"] forState:UIControlStateNormal];
[backButton setImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"back_ON.png"] forState:UIControlStateSelected];
UIBarButtonItem *backButtonItem = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithCustomView:backButton];
self.navigationItem.backBarButtonItem = backButtonItem;
[backButtonItem release];
[backButton release];

I tested with a standard title and it worked. What is wrong with the above code ?

self.navigationItem.backBarButtonItem = [[[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithTitle:@"Prout" style:UIBarButtonItemStyleDone target:nil action:nil] autorelease];

Thanks for any help on this.

Answer 1

You can use leftBarButtonItem instead of back button item. And to remove the default back button item set it to nil like follows;

navigationController?.navigationBar.backIndicatorImage = nil
navigationController?.navigationBar.backIndicatorTransitionMaskImage = nil

let button = UIButton.init(type: .custom)
button.imageView?.contentMode = UIViewContentMode.scaleAspectFit
button.setImage(UIImage.init(named: "top_back"), for: UIControlState.normal)
button.frame = CGRect.init(x: 0, y: 0, width: 75, height: 50) 
button.addTarget(self, action: #selector(handleBackButton), for: .touchUpInside)

let barButton = UIBarButtonItem.init(customView: button)
self.navigationItem.leftBarButtonItem = barButton

Answer 2

If your end goal is to simply replace the image used for the back button, you can use a new method on UIBarButtonItem available in iOS 5.0:

setBackButtonBackgroundImage:forState:barMetrics:

Apple Docs: http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/UIKit/Reference/UIBarButtonItem_Class/Reference/Reference.html

Here's a simple example that sets a custom background image for all back buttons in your app:

UIImage *toolbarBackButtonBackgroundPortrait = [[UIImage imageNamed:@"toolbarBackButtonPortrait"] resizableImageWithCapInsets:UIEdgeInsetsMake(0, 17, 0, 6)];
UIImage *toolbarBackButtonBackgroundLandscape = [[UIImage imageNamed:@"toolbarBackButtonLandscape"] resizableImageWithCapInsets:UIEdgeInsetsMake(0, 17, 0, 6)];

[[UIBarButtonItem appearance] setBackButtonBackgroundImage:toolbarBackButtonBackgroundPortrait forState:UIControlStateNormal barMetrics:UIBarMetricsDefault];
[[UIBarButtonItem appearance] setBackButtonBackgroundImage:toolbarBackButtonBackgroundLandscape forState:UIControlStateNormal barMetrics:UIBarMetricsLandscapePhone];