Setting action for back button in navigation contr

Question

I'm trying to overwrite the default action of the back button in a navigation controller. I've provided a target an action on the custom button. The odd thing is when assigning it though the backbutton attribute it doesn't pay attention to them and it just pops the current view and goes back to the root:

UIBarButtonItem *backButton = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] 
                                  initWithTitle: @"Servers" 
                                  style:UIBarButtonItemStylePlain 
                                  target:self 
                                  action:@selector(home)];
self.navigationItem.backBarButtonItem = backButton;

As soon as I set it through the leftBarButtonItem on the navigationItem it calls my action, however then the button looks like a plain round one instead of the arrowed back one:

self.navigationItem.leftBarButtonItem = backButton;

How can I get it to call my custom action before going back to the root view? Is there a way to overwrite the default back action, or is there a method that is always called when leaving a view (viewDidUnload doesn't do that)?

Answer 1

It isn't possible to do directly. There are a couple alternatives:

1. Create your own custom UIBarButtonItem that validates on tap and pops if the test passes
2. Validate the form field contents using a UITextField delegate method, such as -textFieldShouldReturn:, which is called after the Return or Done button is pressed on the keyboard

The downside of the first option is that the left-pointing-arrow style of the back button cannot be accessed from a custom bar button. So you have to use an image or go with a regular style button.

The second option is nice because you get the text field back in the delegate method, so you can target your validation logic to the specific text field sent to the delegate call-back method.

Answer 2

The solution I have found so far is not very nice, but it works for me. Taking this answer, I also check whether I'm popping programmatically or not:

- (void)viewWillDisappear:(BOOL)animated {
  [super viewWillDisappear:animated];

  if ((self.isMovingFromParentViewController || self.isBeingDismissed)
      && !self.isPoppingProgrammatically) {
    // Do your stuff here
  }
}

You have to add that property to your controller and set it to YES before popping programmatically:

self.isPoppingProgrammatically = YES;
[self.navigationController popViewControllerAnimated:YES];

Answer 3

I don't believe this is possible, easily. The only way I believe to get around this is to make your own back button arrow image to place up there. It was frustrating for me at first but I see why, for consistency's sake, it was left out.

You can get close (without the arrow) by creating a regular button and hiding the default back button:

self.navigationItem.leftBarButtonItem = [[[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithTitle:@"Servers" style:UIBarButtonItemStyleDone target:nil action:nil] autorelease];
self.navigationItem.hidesBackButton = YES;

Answer 4

Here is Swift 3 version of @oneway's answer for catching navigation bar back button event before it gets fired. As UINavigationBarDelegate cannot be used for UIViewController, you need to create a delegate that will be triggered when navigationBar shouldPop is called.

@objc public protocol BackButtonDelegate {
      @objc optional func navigationShouldPopOnBackButton() -> Bool 
}

extension UINavigationController: UINavigationBarDelegate  {

    public func navigationBar(_ navigationBar: UINavigationBar, shouldPop item: UINavigationItem) -> Bool {

        if viewControllers.count < (navigationBar.items?.count)! {                
            return true
        }

        var shouldPop = true
        let vc = self.topViewController

        if vc.responds(to: #selector(vc.navigationShouldPopOnBackButton)) {
            shouldPop = vc.navigationShouldPopOnBackButton()
        }

        if shouldPop {
            DispatchQueue.main.async {
                self.popViewController(animated: true)
            }
        } else {
            for subView in navigationBar.subviews {
                if(0 < subView.alpha && subView.alpha < 1) {
                    UIView.animate(withDuration: 0.25, animations: {
                        subView.alpha = 1
                    })
                }
            }
        }

        return false
    }
}

And then, in your view controller add the delegate function:

class BaseVC: UIViewController, BackButtonDelegate {
    func navigationShouldPopOnBackButton() -> Bool {
        if ... {
            return true
        } else {
            return false
        }        
    }
}

I've realised that we often want to add an alert controller for users to decide whether they wanna go back. If so, you can always return false in navigationShouldPopOnBackButton() function and close your view controller by doing something like this:

func navigationShouldPopOnBackButton() -> Bool {
     let alert = UIAlertController(title: "Warning",
                                          message: "Do you want to quit?",
                                          preferredStyle: .alert)
            alert.addAction(UIAlertAction(title: "Yes", style: .default, handler: { UIAlertAction in self.yes()}))
            alert.addAction(UIAlertAction(title: "No", style: .cancel, handler: { UIAlertAction in self.no()}))
            present(alert, animated: true, completion: nil)
      return false
}

func yes() {
     print("yes")
     DispatchQueue.main.async {
            _ = self.navigationController?.popViewController(animated: true)
        }
}

func no() {
    print("no")       
}

Answer 5

Found new way to do it :

Objective-C

- (void)didMoveToParentViewController:(UIViewController *)parent{
    if (parent == NULL) {
        NSLog(@"Back Pressed");
    }
}

Swift

override func didMoveToParentViewController(parent: UIViewController?) {
    if parent == nil {
        println("Back Pressed")
    }
}

Answer 6

I've implemented UIViewController-BackButtonHandler extension. It does not need to subclass anything, just put it into your project and override navigationShouldPopOnBackButton method in UIViewController class:

-(BOOL) navigationShouldPopOnBackButton {
    if(needsShowConfirmation) {
        // Show confirmation alert
        // ...
        return NO; // Ignore 'Back' button this time
    }
    return YES; // Process 'Back' button click and Pop view controler
}

Download sample app.