How to add Badges on UIBarbutton item?

I know this post is pretty old but with iOS7, MKNumberBadgeView's appearance does not really match the tab bar item badge design. I have found this other component which herits UIBarButtonItem and do the job very well :

https://github.com/TanguyAladenise/BBBadgeBarButtonItem

Hope this may help other iOS7 developers like me

Finally i found the way to add badges on UIBarbutton item. I searched lot but not found the correct answer. So i created UIButton and add it as a Custom view on rightbarbutton item. Add add the MKNumberBadgeView for display the badge number. Below i have add my code for you.

// Initialize NKNumberBadgeView...
MKNumberBadgeView *number = [[MKNumberBadgeView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(60, 00, 30,20)];
number.value = 10;

// Allocate UIButton
UIButton *btn = [UIButton  buttonWithType:UIButtonTypeCustom];
    btn.frame = CGRectMake(0, 0, 70, 30);
    btn.layer.cornerRadius = 8;
    [btn setTitle:@"Button" forState:UIControlStateNormal];
    [btn addTarget:self action:nil forControlEvents:UIControlEventTouchUpInside];
    //[btn setBackgroundColor:[UIColor blueColor]];
    [btn setBackgroundColor:[UIColor colorWithRed:0.0 green:0.0 blue:0.1 alpha:0.2]];
    btn.font = [UIFont systemFontOfSize:13];
    //[btn setFont:[UIFont systemFontOfSize:13]];
    [btn addSubview:number]; //Add NKNumberBadgeView as a subview on UIButton

// Initialize UIBarbuttonitem...
UIBarButtonItem *proe = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithCustomView:btn];
self.navigationItem.leftBarButtonItem = proe;

Thanks.

phyzalis has a good answer, there's a categorized version of his solution here:

UIBarButtonItem+Badge

Here's how you can use it:

// Build your regular UIBarButtonItem with Custom View
UIImage *image = [UIImage imageNamed:@"someImage"];
UIButton *button = [UIButton buttonWithType:UIButtonTypeCustom];
button.frame = CGRectMake(0,0,image.size.width, image.size.height);
[button addTarget:self action:@selector(buttonPress:) forControlEvents:UIControlEventTouchDown];
[button setBackgroundImage:image forState:UIControlStateNormal];

// Make BarButton Item
UIBarButtonItem *navLeftButton = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithCustomView:button];
self.navigationItem.leftBarButtonItem = navLeftButton;

// this is the key entry to change the badgeValue
self.navigationItem.leftBarButtonItem.badgeValue = @"1";

I did something similar to MaxMa, but I just went ahead and added the badge directly to the self.navigationController.navigationBar.

MKNumberBadgeView *numberBadge = [[MKNumberBadgeView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(35, 0, 40, 40)];
numberBadge.value = 1;

[self.navigationController.navigationBar addSubview:numberBadge];

Just make sure to remove it from the subview during viewWillDisappear and add it back during viewDidAppear. It still seems a little hacky, but I'm more comfortable with this hack then changing the nav bar z-order.

To remove it during viewWillDisappear

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