iOS 11 navigation bar height customizing

Question

Now in iOS 11, the sizeThatFits method is not called from UINavigationBar subclasses. Changing the frame of UINavigationBar causes glitches and wrong insets. So, any ideas how to customize navbar height now?

Answer 1

According to Apple developers (look here, here and here), changing navigation bar height in iOS 11 is not supported. Here they suggest to do workarounds like having a view under the navigation bar (but outside of it) and then remove the nav bar border. As a result, you will have this in storyboard:

look like this on the device:

Now you can do a workaround that was suggested in the other answers: create a custom subclass of UINavigationBar, add your custom large subview to it, override sizeThatFits and layoutSubviews, then set additionalSafeAreaInsets.top for the navigation's top controller to the difference customHeight - 44px, but the bar view will still be the default 44px, even though visually everything will look perfect. I didn't try overriding setFrame, maybe it works, however, as Apple developer wrote in one of the links above: "...and neither is [supported] changing the frame of a navigation bar that is owned by a UINavigationController (the navigation controller will happily stomp on your frame changes whenever it deems fit to do so)."

In my case the above workaround made views to look like this (debug view to show borders):

As you can see, the visual appearance is quite good, the additionalSafeAreaInsets correctly pushed the content down, the big navigation bar is visible, however I have a custom button in this bar and only the area that goes under the standard 44 pixel nav bar is clickable (green area in the image). Touches below the standard navigation bar height doesn't reach my custom subview, so I need the navigation bar itself to be resized, which the Apple developers say is not supported.

Answer 2

Updated 07 Jan 2018

This code is support XCode 9.2, iOS 11.2

I had the same problem. Below is my solution. I assume that height size is 66.

Please choose my answer if it helps you.

Create CINavgationBar.swift

   import UIKit

@IBDesignable
class CINavigationBar: UINavigationBar {

    //set NavigationBar's height
    @IBInspectable var customHeight : CGFloat = 66

    override func sizeThatFits(_ size: CGSize) -> CGSize {

        return CGSize(width: UIScreen.main.bounds.width, height: customHeight)

    }

    override func layoutSubviews() {
        super.layoutSubviews()

        print("It called")

        self.tintColor = .black
        self.backgroundColor = .red



        for subview in self.subviews {
            var stringFromClass = NSStringFromClass(subview.classForCoder)
            if stringFromClass.contains("UIBarBackground") {

                subview.frame = CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: self.frame.width, height: customHeight)

                subview.backgroundColor = .green
                subview.sizeToFit()
            }

            stringFromClass = NSStringFromClass(subview.classForCoder)

            //Can't set height of the UINavigationBarContentView
            if stringFromClass.contains("UINavigationBarContentView") {

                //Set Center Y
                let centerY = (customHeight - subview.frame.height) / 2.0
                subview.frame = CGRect(x: 0, y: centerY, width: self.frame.width, height: subview.frame.height)
                subview.backgroundColor = .yellow
                subview.sizeToFit()

            }
        }


    }


}

Set Storyboard

Set Custom NavigationBar class

Add TestView + Set SafeArea

ViewController.swift

import UIKit

class ViewController: UIViewController {

    var navbar : UINavigationBar!

    @IBOutlet weak var testView: UIView!

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()

        //update NavigationBar's frame
        self.navigationController?.navigationBar.sizeToFit()
        print("NavigationBar Frame : \(String(describing: self.navigationController!.navigationBar.frame))")

    }

    //Hide Statusbar
    override var prefersStatusBarHidden: Bool {

        return true
    }

    override func viewDidAppear(_ animated: Bool) {

        super.viewDidAppear(false)

        //Important!
        if #available(iOS 11.0, *) {

            //Default NavigationBar Height is 44. Custom NavigationBar Height is 66. So We should set additionalSafeAreaInsets to 66-44 = 22
            self.additionalSafeAreaInsets.top = 22

        }

    }

    override func didReceiveMemoryWarning() {
        super.didReceiveMemoryWarning()
        // Dispose of any resources that can be recreated.
    }


}

SecondViewController.swift

import UIKit

class SecondViewController: UIViewController {

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()

        // Do any additional setup after loading the view.


        // Create BackButton
        var backButton: UIBarButtonItem!
        let backImage = imageFromText("Back", font: UIFont.systemFont(ofSize: 16), maxWidth: 1000, color:UIColor.white)
        backButton = UIBarButtonItem(image: backImage, style: UIBarButtonItemStyle.plain, target: self, action: #selector(SecondViewController.back(_:)))

        self.navigationItem.leftBarButtonItem = backButton
        self.navigationItem.leftBarButtonItem?.setBackgroundVerticalPositionAdjustment(-10, for: UIBarMetrics.default)


    }
    override var prefersStatusBarHidden: Bool {

        return true
    }
    @objc func back(_ sender: UITabBarItem){

        self.navigationController?.popViewController(animated: true)

    }


    //Helper Function : Get String CGSize
    func sizeOfAttributeString(_ str: NSAttributedString, maxWidth: CGFloat) -> CGSize {
        let size = str.boundingRect(with: CGSize(width: maxWidth, height: 1000), options:(NSStringDrawingOptions.usesLineFragmentOrigin), context:nil).size
        return size
    }


    //Helper Function : Convert String to UIImage
    func imageFromText(_ text:NSString, font:UIFont, maxWidth:CGFloat, color:UIColor) -> UIImage
    {
        let paragraph = NSMutableParagraphStyle()
        paragraph.lineBreakMode = NSLineBreakMode.byWordWrapping
        paragraph.alignment = .center // potentially this can be an input param too, but i guess in most use cases we want center align

        let attributedString = NSAttributedString(string: text as String, attributes: [NSAttributedStringKey.font: font, NSAttributedStringKey.foregroundColor: color, NSAttributedStringKey.paragraphStyle:paragraph])

        let size = sizeOfAttributeString(attributedString, maxWidth: maxWidth)
        UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions(size, false , 0.0)
        attributedString.draw(in: CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: size.width, height: size.height))
        let image = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext()
        UIGraphicsEndImageContext()
        return image!
    }




    override func didReceiveMemoryWarning() {
        super.didReceiveMemoryWarning()
        // Dispose of any resources that can be recreated.
    }



}

Yellow is barbackgroundView. Black opacity is BarContentView.

And I removed BarContentView's backgroundColor.

That's It.

Answer 3

this works for me :

- (CGSize)sizeThatFits:(CGSize)size {
    CGSize sizeThatFit = [super sizeThatFits:size];
    if ([UIApplication sharedApplication].isStatusBarHidden) {
        if (sizeThatFit.height < 64.f) {
            sizeThatFit.height = 64.f;
        }
    }
    return sizeThatFit;
}

- (void)setFrame:(CGRect)frame {
    if ([UIApplication sharedApplication].isStatusBarHidden) {
        frame.size.height = 64;
    }
    [super setFrame:frame];
}

- (void)layoutSubviews
{
    [super layoutSubviews];

    for (UIView *subview in self.subviews) {
        if ([NSStringFromClass([subview class]) containsString:@"BarBackground"]) {
            CGRect subViewFrame = subview.frame;
            subViewFrame.origin.y = 0;
            subViewFrame.size.height = 64;
            [subview setFrame: subViewFrame];
        }
        if ([NSStringFromClass([subview class]) containsString:@"BarContentView"]) {
            CGRect subViewFrame = subview.frame;
            subViewFrame.origin.y = 20;
            subViewFrame.size.height = 44;
            [subview setFrame: subViewFrame];
        }
    }
}

Answer 4

Added: The problem is solved in iOS 11 beta 6 ,so the code below is of no use ^_^

---

Original answer:

Solved with code below :

(I always want the navigationBar.height + statusBar.height == 64 whether the hidden of statusBar is true or not)

 @implementation P1AlwaysBigNavigationBar

- (CGSize)sizeThatFits:(CGSize)size {
    CGSize sizeThatFit = [super sizeThatFits:size];
    if ([UIApplication sharedApplication].isStatusBarHidden) {
        if (sizeThatFit.height < 64.f) {
            sizeThatFit.height = 64.f;
        }
    }
    return sizeThatFit;
}

- (void)setFrame:(CGRect)frame {
    if ([UIApplication sharedApplication].isStatusBarHidden) {
        frame.size.height = 64;
    }
    [super setFrame:frame];
}

- (void)layoutSubviews
{
    [super layoutSubviews];

    if (![UIApplication sharedApplication].isStatusBarHidden) {
        return;
    }

    for (UIView *subview in self.subviews) {
        NSString* subViewClassName = NSStringFromClass([subview class]);
        if ([subViewClassName containsString:@"UIBarBackground"]) {
            subview.frame = self.bounds;
        }else if ([subViewClassName containsString:@"UINavigationBarContentView"]) {
            if (subview.height < 64) {
                subview.y = 64 - subview.height;
            }else {
                subview.y = 0;
            }
        }
    }
}
@end

Answer 5

Simplified with Swift 4.

class CustomNavigationBar : UINavigationBar {

    private let hiddenStatusBar: Bool

    // MARK: Init
    init(hiddenStatusBar: Bool = false) {
        self.hiddenStatusBar = hiddenStatusBar
        super.init(frame: .zero)
    }

    required init?(coder aDecoder: NSCoder) {
        fatalError("init(coder:) has not been implemented")
    }

    // MARK: Overrides
    override func layoutSubviews() {
        super.layoutSubviews()

        if #available(iOS 11.0, *) {
            for subview in self.subviews {
                let stringFromClass = NSStringFromClass(subview.classForCoder)
                if stringFromClass.contains("BarBackground") {
                    subview.frame = self.bounds
                } else if stringFromClass.contains("BarContentView") {
                    let statusBarHeight = self.hiddenStatusBar ? 0 : UIApplication.shared.statusBarFrame.height
                    subview.frame.origin.y = statusBarHeight
                    subview.frame.size.height = self.bounds.height - statusBarHeight
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

Answer 6

Along with overriding -layoutSubviews and -setFrame: you should check out the newly added UIViewController's additionalSafereaInsets property (Apple Documentation) if you do not want the resized navigation bar hiding your content.

Answer 7

Although it's fixed in beta 4, it seems the background image of the nav bar does not scale with the actual view (you can verify this by looking at at in the view-hierarchy viewer). A workaround for now is to override layoutSubviews in your custom UINavigationBar and then use this code:

- (void)layoutSubviews
{
  [super layoutSubviews];

  for (UIView *subview in self.subviews) {
    if ([NSStringFromClass([subview class]) containsString:@"BarBackground"]) {
        CGRect subViewFrame = subview.frame;
        subViewFrame.origin.y = -20;
        subViewFrame.size.height = CUSTOM_FIXED_HEIGHT+20;
        [subview setFrame: subViewFrame];
    }
  }
}

If you notice, the bar background in fact has an offset of -20 to make it appear behind the status bar, so the calculation above adds that in.

Answer 8

on Xcode 9 Beta 6 I still have the issue. The Bar always looks 44 pixel height and it is pushed under the status bar.

In order to solve that I made a subclass with @strangetimes code (in Swift)

class NavigationBar: UINavigationBar {

  override func layoutSubviews() {
    super.layoutSubviews()

    for subview in self.subviews {
      var stringFromClass = NSStringFromClass(subview.classForCoder)
      print("--------- \(stringFromClass)")
      if stringFromClass.contains("BarBackground") {
        subview.frame.origin.y = -20
        subview.frame.size.height = 64
      }
    }
  }
}

and I place the bar lower than the status bar

let newNavigationBar = NavigationBar(frame: CGRect(origin: CGPoint(x: 0,
                                                                       y: 20),
                                                         size: CGSize(width: view.frame.width,
                                                                      height: 64)
      )
    ) 

Answer 9

This works well for the regular navigation bar. If your using the LargeTitle this wont work well because the titleView size isn't going to be a fixed height of 44 points. But for the regular view this should be suffice.

Like @frangulyan apple suggested to add a view beneath the navBar and hide the thin line (shadow image). This is what I came up with below. I added an uiview to the navigationItem's titleView and then added an imageView inside that uiview. I removed the thin line (shadow image). The uiview I added is the same exact color as the navBar. I added a uiLabel inside that view and that's it.

Here's the 3d image. The extended view is behind the usernameLabel underneath the navBar. Its gray and has a thin line underneath of it. Just anchor your collectionView or whatever underneath of the thin separatorLine.

The 9 steps are explained above each line of code:

class ExtendedNavController: UIViewController {

    fileprivate let extendedView: UIView = {
        let view = UIView()
        view.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
        view.backgroundColor = .white
        return view
    }()

    fileprivate let separatorLine: UIView = {
        let view = UIView()
        view.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
        view.backgroundColor = .gray
        return view
    }()

    fileprivate let usernameLabel: UILabel = {
        let label = UILabel()
        label.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
        label.font = UIFont.systemFont(ofSize: 14)
        label.text = "username goes here"
        label.textAlignment = .center
        label.lineBreakMode = .byTruncatingTail
        label.numberOfLines = 1
        return label
    }()

    fileprivate let myTitleView: UIView = {
        let view = UIView()
        view.backgroundColor = .white
        return view
    }()

    fileprivate let profileImageView: UIImageView = {
        let imageView = UIImageView()
        imageView.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
        imageView.clipsToBounds = true
        imageView.backgroundColor = .darkGray
        return imageView
    }()

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        view.backgroundColor = .white

        // 1. the navBar's titleView has a height of 44, set myTitleView height and width both to 44
        myTitleView.frame = CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: 44, height: 44)

        // 2. set myTitleView to the nav bar's titleView
        navigationItem.titleView = myTitleView

        // 3. get rid of the thin line (shadow Image) underneath the navigationBar
        navigationController?.navigationBar.setValue(true, forKey: "hidesShadow")
        navigationController?.navigationBar.layoutIfNeeded()

        // 4. set the navigationBar's tint color to the color you want
        navigationController?.navigationBar.barTintColor = UIColor(red: 249.0/255.0, green: 249.0/255.0, blue: 249.0/255.0, alpha: 1.0)

        // 5. set extendedView's background color to the same exact color as the navBar's background color
        extendedView.backgroundColor = UIColor(red: 249.0/255.0, green: 249.0/255.0, blue: 249.0/255.0, alpha: 1.0)

        // 6. set your imageView to get pinned inside the titleView
        setProfileImageViewAnchorsInsideMyTitleView()

        // 7. set the extendedView's anchors directly underneath the navigation bar
        setExtendedViewAndSeparatorLineAnchors()

        // 8. set the usernameLabel's anchors inside the extendedView
        setNameLabelAnchorsInsideTheExtendedView()
    }

    override func viewWillDisappear(_ animated: Bool) {
        super.viewWillDisappear(true)

        // 9. **Optional** If you want the shadow image to show on other view controllers when popping or pushing
        navigationController?.navigationBar.setBackgroundImage(nil, for: .default)
        navigationController?.navigationBar.setValue(false, forKey: "hidesShadow")
        navigationController?.navigationBar.layoutIfNeeded()
    }

    func setExtendedViewAndSeparatorLineAnchors() {

        view.addSubview(extendedView)
        view.addSubview(separatorLine)

        extendedView.topAnchor.constraint(equalTo: view.safeAreaLayoutGuide.topAnchor).isActive = true
        extendedView.leadingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: view.leadingAnchor).isActive = true
        extendedView.trailingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: view.trailingAnchor).isActive = true
        extendedView.heightAnchor.constraint(equalToConstant: 29.5).isActive = true

        separatorLine.topAnchor.constraint(equalTo:  extendedView.bottomAnchor).isActive = true
        separatorLine.leadingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: view.leadingAnchor).isActive = true
        separatorLine.trailingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: view.trailingAnchor).isActive = true
        separatorLine.heightAnchor.constraint(equalToConstant: 0.5).isActive = true
    }

    func setProfileImageViewAnchorsInsideMyTitleView() {

        myTitleView.addSubview(profileImageView)

        profileImageView.topAnchor.constraint(equalTo: myTitleView.topAnchor).isActive = true
        profileImageView.centerXAnchor.constraint(equalTo: myTitleView.centerXAnchor).isActive = true
        profileImageView.widthAnchor.constraint(equalToConstant: 44).isActive = true
        profileImageView.heightAnchor.constraint(equalToConstant: 44).isActive = true

        // round the profileImageView
        profileImageView.layoutIfNeeded()
        profileImageView.layer.cornerRadius = profileImageView.frame.width / 2
    }

    func setNameLabelAnchorsInsideTheExtendedView() {

        extendedView.addSubview(usernameLabel)

        usernameLabel.topAnchor.constraint(equalTo: extendedView.topAnchor).isActive = true
        usernameLabel.leadingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: view.leadingAnchor).isActive = true
        usernameLabel.trailingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: view.trailingAnchor).isActive = true
    }
}

Answer 10

This is what I use. It works for regular content (44.0 px) if you use UISearchBar as title or other views that modify the size of the bar content, you must update the values accordingly. Use this at your own risk since it might brake at some point.

This is the navbar with 90.0px height hardcoded, working on both iOS 11 and older versions. You might have to add some insets to the UIBarButtonItem for pre iOS 11 to look the same.

class NavBar: UINavigationBar {

    override init(frame: CGRect) {
        super.init(frame: frame)

        if #available(iOS 11, *) {
            translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
        }
    }

    required init?(coder aDecoder: NSCoder) {
        fatalError("init(coder:) has not been implemented")
    }

    override func sizeThatFits(_ size: CGSize) -> CGSize {
        return CGSize(width: UIScreen.main.bounds.width, height: 70.0)
    }

    override func layoutSubviews() {
        super.layoutSubviews()

        guard #available(iOS 11, *) else {
            return
        }

        frame = CGRect(x: frame.origin.x, y:  0, width: frame.size.width, height: 90)

        if let parent = superview {
            parent.layoutIfNeeded()

            for view in parent.subviews {
                let stringFromClass = NSStringFromClass(view.classForCoder)
                if stringFromClass.contains("NavigationTransition") {
                    view.frame = CGRect(x: view.frame.origin.x, y: frame.size.height - 64, width: view.frame.size.width, height: parent.bounds.size.height - frame.size.height + 4)
                }
            }
        }

        for subview in self.subviews {
            var stringFromClass = NSStringFromClass(subview.classForCoder)
            if stringFromClass.contains("BarBackground") {
                subview.frame = CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: self.frame.width, height: 90)
                subview.backgroundColor = .yellow
            }

            stringFromClass = NSStringFromClass(subview.classForCoder)
            if stringFromClass.contains("BarContent") {
                subview.frame = CGRect(x: subview.frame.origin.x, y: 40, width: subview.frame.width, height: subview.frame.height)

            }
        }
    }
}

And you add it to a UINavigationController subclass like this:

class CustomBarNavigationViewController: UINavigationController {

    init() {
        super.init(navigationBarClass: NavBar.self, toolbarClass: nil)
    }

    override init(nibName nibNameOrNil: String?, bundle nibBundleOrNil: Bundle?) {
        super.init(nibName: nibNameOrNil, bundle: nibBundleOrNil)
    }

    override init(rootViewController: UIViewController) {
        super.init(navigationBarClass: NavBar.self, toolbarClass: nil)

        self.viewControllers = [rootViewController]
    }

    required public init?(coder aDecoder: NSCoder) {
        fatalError("init(coder:) has not been implemented")
    }

}

Answer 11

I was doubling the height of my navigation bar so I could add a row of status icons above the default navigation controls, by subclassing UINavigationBar and using sizeThatFits to override the height. Fortunately this has the same effect, and is simpler, with fewer side effects. I tested it with iOS 8 through 11. Put this in your view controller:

- (void)viewDidLoad {
    [super viewDidLoad];
    if (self.navigationController) {
        self.navigationItem.prompt = @" "; // this adds empty space on top
    }
}