Change UISearchBar/Keyboard Search Button Title

Question

In the UISearchBar control, is the a way to change the Search key title for the keyboard to Done?

Here i explained http://stackoverflow.com/a/26712861/2981840 — Chidhambaram, Nov 03 '14 at 11:05

score 99 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 24 '10 at 20:51

99

For a searchbar named tablesearchbar:

// Set the return key and keyboard appearance of the search bar
        for (UIView *searchBarSubview in [tableSearchBar subviews]) {

            if ([searchBarSubview conformsToProtocol:@protocol(UITextInputTraits)]) {

                @try {

                    [(UITextField *)searchBarSubview setReturnKeyType:UIReturnKeyDone];
                    [(UITextField *)searchBarSubview setKeyboardAppearance:UIKeyboardAppearanceAlert];
                }
                @catch (NSException * e) {

                    // ignore exception
                }
            }
        }

answered Apr 24 '10 at 20:51

RunLoop

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Will this get past the App Store approval process? – zekel Jun 17 '10 at 00:26
4

As no private APIs are accessed, approval should not be withheld – RunLoop Jun 17 '10 at 05:53
2

Great answer. Extra caveat: instead of using @try-@catch (which we know in objective-C aren't so cheap and well optimized), I would prefer adding a second condition to the if statement: && [searchBarSubview isKindOfClass:[UITextField class]] in order to get rid of the @try-catch. – Andrea Sprega Jun 27 '13 at 15:07
6

Looping over subviews didn't work for me in iOS 7, but looping over subviews of subviews did (see my answer). – Gregory Cosmo Haun Sep 05 '13 at 16:34
//if you're not on the main thread, insert this after 'setReturnKeyType': ______ [(UITextField *)searchBarSubview performSelectorOnMainThread:@selector(reloadInputViews) withObject:nil waitUntilDone:NO]; – codrut Oct 08 '13 at 13:19
Not working for me, I have posted [my question](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/28577158/uisearchbar-returnkeytype-not-working-for-ios-8). Please help me – Pradip Vanparia Feb 18 '15 at 06:29

score 52 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 28 '15 at 14:59

52

At least for iOS 8, simply:

    [self.searchBar setReturnKeyType:UIReturnKeyDone];

answered Jan 28 '15 at 14:59

pickwick

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score 43 · Answer 3 · edited Jun 26 '14 at 11:45

43

As of iOS 7 beta 5, Run Loop's answer didn't work for me, but this did:

for(UIView *subView in [searchBar subviews]) {
    if([subView conformsToProtocol:@protocol(UITextInputTraits)]) {
         [(UITextField *)subView setReturnKeyType: UIReturnKeyDone];
    } else {
        for(UIView *subSubView in [subView subviews]) {
            if([subSubView conformsToProtocol:@protocol(UITextInputTraits)]) {
                [(UITextField *)subSubView setReturnKeyType: UIReturnKeyDone];
            }
        }      
    }
}

edited Jun 26 '14 at 11:45

Dom

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answered Sep 05 '13 at 00:56

Gregory Cosmo Haun

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5

Just in case it isn't clear, the reason if/else is used is the if is for iOS 6 backward compatibility and the else is for iOS 7. – James Kuang Sep 18 '13 at 14:13

score 18 · Answer 4 · edited Mar 20 '18 at 12:42

18

For Swift to change return key of UISearchBar

searchBar.returnKeyType = UIReturnKeyType.done

enum available are as below

public enum UIReturnKeyType : Int {

    case default
    case go
    case google
    case join
    case next
    case route
    case search
    case send
    case yahoo
    case done
    case emergencyCall
    @available(iOS 9.0, *)
    case continue
}

edited Mar 20 '18 at 12:42

AamirR

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answered May 06 '16 at 06:51

Hardik Thakkar

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score 18 · Answer 5 · answered Jan 23 '12 at 22:36

18

One more useful hint, to the Run Loop code (in "@try") section.

This enabled "Done" button when text field is empty:

UITextField *tf = (UITextField *)searchBarSubview;
tf.enablesReturnKeyAutomatically = NO;

answered Jan 23 '12 at 22:36

theWalker

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1

Thanks! This also works with the solution of Gregory for iOS7. – jbandi Mar 08 '14 at 17:24

score 3 · Answer 6 · answered Sep 28 '16 at 19:08

Just a reminder! If you searchBar stays as first responder, after you change your returnKeyType, you need to dismiss your keyboard and pop it up again to see the changes.

search.resignFirstResponder()
searchBar.returnKeyType = UIReturnKeyType.Done
search.becomeFirstResponder()

Cœur · Answer 7 · 2014-01-15T13:24:10.337

As it is a protocol with optional methods, you should test each method separately instead of try-catching.

for (UIView *searchBarSubview in searchBar.subviews)
{
    if ([searchBarSubview conformsToProtocol:@protocol(UITextInputTraits)])
    {
        // keyboard appearance
        if ([searchBarSubview respondsToSelector:@selector(setKeyboardAppearance:)])
            [(id<UITextInputTraits>)searchBarSubview setKeyboardAppearance:UIKeyboardAppearanceAlert];
        // return key 
        if ([searchBarSubview respondsToSelector:@selector(setReturnKeyType:)])
            [(id<UITextInputTraits>)searchBarSubview setReturnKeyType:UIReturnKeyDone];
        // return key disabled when empty text
        if ([searchBarSubview respondsToSelector:@selector(setEnablesReturnKeyAutomatically:)])
            [(id<UITextInputTraits>)searchBarSubview setEnablesReturnKeyAutomatically:NO];
        // breaking the loop when we are done
        break;
    }
}

This will work for iOS <= 6. For iOS >= 7, you need to loop in searchBar.subviews[0].subviews.

score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Jan 10 '14 at 01:32

I tried all the solutions shown here, and none of them worked for my UISearchBar (xcode5 compiling for iOS7). I ended up with this recursive function which worked for me:

- (void)fixSearchBarKeyboard:(UIView*)searchBarOrSubView {

    if([searchBarOrSubView conformsToProtocol:@protocol(UITextInputTraits)]) {
        if ([searchBarOrSubView respondsToSelector:@selector(setKeyboardAppearance:)])
            [(id<UITextInputTraits>)searchBarOrSubView setKeyboardAppearance:UIKeyboardAppearanceAlert];
        if ([searchBarOrSubView respondsToSelector:@selector(setReturnKeyType:)])
            [(id<UITextInputTraits>)searchBarOrSubView setReturnKeyType:UIReturnKeyDone];
        if ([searchBarOrSubView respondsToSelector:@selector(setEnablesReturnKeyAutomatically:)])
            [(id<UITextInputTraits>)searchBarOrSubView setEnablesReturnKeyAutomatically:NO];
    }

    for(UIView *subView in [searchBarOrSubView subviews]) {
        [self fixSearchBarKeyboard:subView];
    }
}

I then called it like so:

_searchBar = [[UISearchBar alloc] init];
[self fixSearchBarKeyboard:_searchBar];

With Xcode 5 + iOS7, text input will be in a sub-subview instead of a subview. So basically you used my Xcode 4 solution and added a recursive call. For best performances, you can test for iOS version, and if it's iOS7, you browse through `subviews[0].subviews` instead of `subviews`. — Cœur, Jan 15 '14 at 13:21

score 0 · Answer 9 · answered Feb 02 '16 at 07:18

Just for covering all the iOS versions:

NSArray *subviews = [[[UIDevice currentDevice] systemVersion] floatValue] < 7 ? _searchBar.subviews : _searchBar.subviews[0].subviews;

for (UIView *subview in subviews)
{
    if ([subview conformsToProtocol:@protocol(UITextInputTraits)])
    {
        UITextField *textField = (UITextField *)subview;
        [textField setKeyboardAppearance: UIKeyboardAppearanceAlert];
        textField.returnKeyType = UIReturnKeyDone;
        break;
    }
}

RyeMAC3 · Answer 10 · 2011-08-12T23:10:21.587

Since the Alert-style keyboards are semi-transparent, I can see my view behind it. It doesn't look very good since I have multiple elements behind the keyboard that makes it hard for the keys to stand out. I wanted an all-black keyboard.

So I animated a black UIImageView into position behind the keyboard when text is edited. This gives the appearance of an all-black keyboard.

- (void)textFieldDidBeginEditing:(UITextField *)textField {

    [UIView beginAnimations:nil context:nil];
    [UIView setAnimationDuration:0.25]; 

    blackBoxForKeyboard.frame = CGRectMake(0, 377, 320, 216);
    [UIView commitAnimations]; 

}

Change UISearchBar/Keyboard Search Button Title

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