How to change the default text of Cancel Button wh

Question

I am developing an Application where I wanted to change the text of Search String in the SearchBar. I wanted to change the text of Cancel Button Also which appears next to the SearchBar. Before entering any string in the search bar we wil get the Search String as the default string. I wanted to change the text of that string and when we click on that searchbar we get a cancel button next to searchbar and I wanted to change the text of that cancel button.

Answer 1

On iOS 7, if you've set displaysSearchBarInNavigationBar = YES on UISearchDisplayController, replacing the cancel button title via subview recursion or the appearance proxy will not work.

Instead, use your own bar button in viewDidLoad:

- (void)viewDidLoad
{
    [super viewDidLoad];

    self.searchDisplayController.displaysSearchBarInNavigationBar = YES;
    UIBarButtonItem *barItem = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithTitle:NSLocalizedString(@"A Custom Title", nil)
                                                                style:UIBarButtonItemStyleBordered
                                                               target:self
                                                               action:@selector(cancelButtonTapped:)];

    // NB: Order is important here.
    //     Only do this *after* setting displaysSearchBarInNavigationBar to YES
    //     as that's when UISearchDisplayController creates it's navigationItem
    self.searchDisplayController.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem = barItem;
}

Answer 2

Solution for iOS 7. All credits for this go to Mr. Jesper Nielsen - he wrote the code.

-(void)searchDisplayControllerDidBeginSearch:(UISearchDisplayController *)controller {
    UIButton *cancelButton;
    UIView *topView = theSearchBar.subviews[0];
    for (UIView *subView in topView.subviews) {
        if ([subView isKindOfClass:NSClassFromString(@"UINavigationButton")]) {
            cancelButton = (UIButton*)subView;
        }
    }
    if (cancelButton) {
        [cancelButton setTitle:@"YourTitle" forState:UIControlStateNormal];
    }

}

Answer 3

Jeremytripp 's working Code in Swift

I couldn't find the same code in Swift so I "translated" it myself:

func searchDisplayControllerWillBeginSearch(controller: UISearchDisplayController) {
    self.searchDisplayController?.searchBar.showsCancelButton = true
    var cancelButton: UIButton
    var topView: UIView = self.searchDisplayController?.searchBar.subviews[0] as UIView
    for subView in topView.subviews {
        if subView.isKindOfClass(NSClassFromString("UINavigationButton")) {
        cancelButton = subView as UIButton
        cancelButton.setTitle("My Custom Title", forState: UIControlState.Normal)
        }
    }
}

Answer 4

If you're still having trouble with changing the Cancel button in iOS7, this is currently working for me:

-(void)searchDisplayControllerWillBeginSearch:(UISearchDisplayController *)controller{
    self.searchDisplayController.searchBar.showsCancelButton = YES;
    UIButton *cancelButton;
    UIView *topView = self.searchDisplayController.searchBar.subviews[0];
    for (UIView *subView in topView.subviews) {
        if ([subView isKindOfClass:NSClassFromString(@"UINavigationButton")]) {
            cancelButton = (UIButton*)subView;
        }
    }
    if (cancelButton) {
      //Set the new title of the cancel button
        [cancelButton setTitle:@"Hi" forState:UIControlStateNormal];
    }
}

Answer 5

I would like to fix the UIAppearance technique, as yar1vn code won't work with Xcode 5. With the following you will have code that works perfectly for both iOS 6 and iOS 7.

First, you need to understand that the cancel button is a private UINavigationButton:UIButton. Hence, it is not an UIBarButtonItem. After some inspection, it appears that UINavigationButton will respond to those UIAppearance selectors:

// inherited from UINavigationButton
@selector(setTintColor:)
@selector(setBackgroundImage:forState:style:barMetrics:)
@selector(setBackgroundImage:forState:barMetrics:)
@selector(setTitleTextAttributes:forState:)
@selector(setBackgroundVerticalPositionAdjustment:forBarMetrics:)
@selector(setTitlePositionAdjustment:forBarMetrics:)
@selector(setBackButtonBackgroundImage:forState:barMetrics:)
@selector(setBackButtonTitlePositionAdjustment:forBarMetrics:)
@selector(setBackButtonBackgroundVerticalPositionAdjustment:forBarMetrics:)

// inherited from UIButton
@selector(setTitle:forState:)

Coincidentally, those selectors match those of a UIBarButtonItem. Meaning the trick is to use two separate UIAppearance to handle the private class UINavigationButton.

/* dual appearance technique by Cœur to customize a UINavigationButton */
Class barClass = [UISearchBar self];

UIBarButtonItem<UIAppearance> *barButtonItemAppearanceInBar = [UIBarButtonItem appearanceWhenContainedIn:barClass, nil];
[barButtonItemAppearanceInBar setTintColor:...];
[barButtonItemAppearanceInBar setBackgroundImage:... forState:... style:... barMetrics:...];
[barButtonItemAppearanceInBar setBackgroundImage:... forState:... barMetrics:...];
[barButtonItemAppearanceInBar setTitleTextAttributes:... forState:...];
[barButtonItemAppearanceInBar setBackgroundVerticalPositionAdjustment:... forBarMetrics:...];
[barButtonItemAppearanceInBar setTitlePositionAdjustment:... forBarMetrics:...];
[barButtonItemAppearanceInBar setBackButtonBackgroundImage:... forState:... barMetrics:...];
[barButtonItemAppearanceInBar setBackButtonTitlePositionAdjustment:... forBarMetrics:...];
[barButtonItemAppearanceInBar setBackButtonBackgroundVerticalPositionAdjustment:... forBarMetrics:...];

UIButton<UIAppearance> *buttonAppearanceInBar = [UIButton appearanceWhenContainedIn:barClass, nil];
[buttonAppearanceInBar setTitle:... forState:...];

Now, this technique works for the Cancel button, but it also works for the Back button if you change the barClass to [UINavigationBar self].

Answer 6

This solution work for me - iOs7 and iOs8:

@interface ... : ...
@property (strong, nonatomic) IBOutlet UISearchBar *search; 
@end

and

- (void)searchBarTextDidBeginEditing:(UISearchBar *)searchBar {
[searchBar setShowsCancelButton:YES animated:YES];

NSArray *searchBarSubViews = [[self.search.subviews objectAtIndex:0] subviews];
UIButton *cancelButton;
for (UIView *subView in searchBarSubViews) {
    if ([subView isKindOfClass:NSClassFromString(@"UINavigationButton")]) {
        cancelButton = (UIButton*)subView;
        break;
    }
}
if (cancelButton) {

    [cancelButton setTitle:@"New cancel" forState:UIControlStateNormal];

}
 //insert this two lines below if you have a button appearance like this "Ne...cel" 

[searchBar setShowsCancelButton:NO animated:YES];
[searchBar setShowsCancelButton:YES animated:YES]; 
}