Remove Search Bar from Navigation Bar

Question

I am adding search bar on navigation bar, in iOS 7, using searchVC.displaysSearchBarInNavigationBar = YES;, which adds it on navigation bar as expected and works fine.

Now, I want to add a subview on navigation bar. When subview is added, I want to modify navigation bar, i.e. remove search bar from navigation bar and add some title on navigation bar. But, not able to remove Search Bar.

Tried a lot to remove search bar from navigation bar, but in vain.

The approaches I have followed so far are:

1. setting displaysSearchBarInNavigationBar propery to NO searchVC.displaysSearchBarInNavigationBar = NO;

2. setting navigation title is not working too.

   self.navigationItem.title = @"Some Title";

3. adding custom label view to titleView of navigationItem:

   UILabel *lbl = [[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0, 169, 44)]; lbl.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor]; lbl.textColor = [UIColor whiteColor]; lbl.textAlignment = NSTextAlignmentCenter; lbl.font = FontText_20; lbl.text = @"Draw Area"; self.navigationItem.titleView = lbl;

I used below code for adding search bar to navigation bar:

- (void)setupSearchBar {

        // setup search bar
        searchBar = [[UISearchBar alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0, 160, 44.0)];
        searchBar.placeholder = @"Address / City / Zip";
        searchBar.delegate = self;
        searchBar.showsCancelButton = YES;
        
        // setup search bar viewcontroller
        searchVC = [[UISearchDisplayController alloc] initWithSearchBar:searchBar contentsController:self];
        searchVC.delegate = self;
        searchVC.searchResultsDataSource = self;
        searchVC.searchResultsDelegate = self;
        searchVC.displaysSearchBarInNavigationBar = YES;
    
}

Answer 1

From apple docs for property "displaysSearchBarInNavigationBar" UISearchDisplayController

Discussion When you return YES to display the search bar in a navigation bar, the system uses the search display controller’s navigationItem property and ignores the navigation item, if set, of the searchContentsController view controller. The displayed search field occupies as much width in the navigation bar as possible.

That means your navigationItem that you change would not used, therefore your changes doesn't have any effect.

Did you try to hide the complete searchbar? You can get there as a property of your UISearchDisplayController instance.

searchVC.searchbar.hidden = YES;

I have not tested that, but maybe you can see the title of the navigationItem from your UISearchDisplayController instance, after you hide the searchbar?

searchVC.navigationItem.title = @"title";

From apple docs for property "navigationItem" UISearchDisplayController

Discussion You can configure the navigation item as described in the UINavigationItem Class Reference, with the exception of configuring the title view.

Maybe the searchbar is part of the titleView, and that seems to be not configurable :(

Hope this helps you?