How to subclass UINavigationBar for a UINavigationController programmatically?

Solution 1:

In iOS 6 they added a new method to UINavigationController that is retractively available in iOS 5 as well:

- (id)initWithNavigationBarClass:(Class)navigationBarClass
                    toolbarClass:(Class)toolbarClass;

Now you can just pass your custom class when the navigation controller is instantiated.

Solution 2:

As of iOS6, this is now quite simple to accomplish without swizzling or messing with other classes by using UINavigationControllers method initWithNavigationBarClass:toolbarClass:

- (id)initWithNavigationBarClass:(Class)navigationBarClass 
                    toolbarClass:(Class)toolbarClass;

From the docs:

Initializes and returns a newly created navigation controller that uses your custom bar subclasses.

_{Answer updated for iOS6.}

Solution 3:

The only supported way to do this in iOS 4 is to use the Interface Builder method. You don't have to use IB to do anything except set the UINavigationBar subclass (you can still do all of your view set up programmatically).

Solution 4:

- (id)initWithNavigationBarClass:(Class)navigationBarClass toolbarClass:(Class)toolbarClass;

I faced one problem with the above method. There is a "initWithRootViewController" method to initialize UINavigationController. But, if I use "initWithNavigationBarClass" to init the UINavigationController, then there is no way I could set "rootViewController" for the UINavigationController.

This link Changing a UINavigationController's rootViewController helped me to add a rootViewController after the UINavigationController is initialized with "initWithNavigationBarClass". Basically, the trick is to subclass UINavigationController. Though I haven't tested it in IB yet, but it is working fine in code.

Solution 5:

Kind of an amendment to the answers above for those that still want to use initWithRootViewController. Subclass UINavigationController and then:

- (id) initWithRootViewController:(UIViewController *)rootViewController
{
    self = [super initWithNavigationBarClass:[CustomNavigationBar class] toolbarClass:nil];
    if (self)
    {
        self.viewControllers = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:rootViewController, nil];
    }

    return self;
}