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

To intercept the Back button, simply cover it with a transparent UIControl and intercept the touches.

@interface MyViewController : UIViewController
{
    UIControl   *backCover;
    BOOL        inhibitBackButtonBOOL;
}
@end

@implementation MyViewController
-(void)viewDidAppear:(BOOL)animated
{
    [super viewDidAppear:animated];

    // Cover the back button (cannot do this in viewWillAppear -- too soon)
    if ( backCover == nil ) {
        backCover = [[UIControl alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake( 0, 0, 80, 44)];
#if TARGET_IPHONE_SIMULATOR
        // show the cover for testing
        backCover.backgroundColor = [UIColor colorWithRed:1.0 green:0.0 blue:0.0 alpha:0.15];
#endif
        [backCover addTarget:self action:@selector(backCoverAction) forControlEvents:UIControlEventTouchDown];
        UINavigationBar *navBar = self.navigationController.navigationBar;
        [navBar addSubview:backCover];
    }
}

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

    [backCover removeFromSuperview];
    backCover = nil;
}

- (void)backCoverAction
{
    if ( inhibitBackButtonBOOL ) {
        NSLog(@"Back button aborted");
        // notify the user why...
    } else {
        [self.navigationController popViewControllerAnimated:YES]; // "Back"
    }
}
@end

Answer 2

Here's my Swift solution. In your subclass of UIViewController, override the navigationShouldPopOnBackButton method.

extension UIViewController {
    func navigationShouldPopOnBackButton() -> Bool {
        return true
    }
}

extension UINavigationController {

    func navigationBar(navigationBar: UINavigationBar, shouldPopItem item: UINavigationItem) -> Bool {
        if let vc = self.topViewController {
            if vc.navigationShouldPopOnBackButton() {
                self.popViewControllerAnimated(true)
            } else {
                for it in navigationBar.subviews {
                    let view = it as! UIView
                    if view.alpha < 1.0 {
                        [UIView .animateWithDuration(0.25, animations: { () -> Void in
                            view.alpha = 1.0
                        })]
                    }
                }
                return false
            }
        }
        return true
    }

}

Answer 3

onegray's solution is not safe.According to the official documents by Apple,https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/Cocoa/Conceptual/ProgrammingWithObjectiveC/CustomizingExistingClasses/CustomizingExistingClasses.html, we should avoid doing that.

"If the name of a method declared in a category is the same as a method in the original class, or a method in another category on the same class (or even a superclass), the behavior is undefined as to which method implementation is used at runtime. This is less likely to be an issue if you’re using categories with your own classes, but can cause problems when using categories to add methods to standard Cocoa or Cocoa Touch classes."

Answer 4

Using Swift:

override func viewWillDisappear(animated: Bool) {
    super.viewWillDisappear(animated)
    if self.navigationController?.topViewController != self {
        print("back button tapped")
    }
}