Making the nav bar title a button (Swift)

Question

I'm trying to make the title of the nav bar its own button. Users in my app can have multiple profiles, and the nav bar title displays the username of their currently selected profile. Pressing this button should bring up a list of available profiles to choose from (handleShowProfiles). For some reason, the title displays but does not function as a button, it's just static text and touching it does nothing.

let changeProfileContainer : UIView = {
    let container = UIView()
    container.frame = CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: 200, height: 40)

    let button = UIButton(type: .custom)
    button.setTitle("@username ▼", for: .normal)
    button.setTitleColor(.black, for: .normal)
    button.frame = container.frame
    button.addTarget(self, action: #selector(handleShowProfiles), for: .touchUpInside)

    container.addSubview(button)
    return container
}()

func configureNavBar() {
    self.navigationController?.navigationBar.tintColor = .black
    self.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem = UIBarButtonItem(image: #imageLiteral(resourceName: "send"), style: .plain, target: self, action: #selector(handleSubmitPost))
    self.navigationItem.leftBarButtonItem = UIBarButtonItem(image: #imageLiteral(resourceName: "drafts"), style: .plain, target: self, action: #selector(handleDrafts))
    self.navigationItem.titleView = changeProfileContainer
}

Any ideas why the button part won't function? In Apple's documentation, it says you have to put the button inside a view, make the button type custom, and change the button's frame from it's default (0, 0, 0, 0). I'm pretty sure this is where I'm messing up but I dunno.

The button is located under UINavigationBar > _UINavigationBarContentView > _UITAMICAdaptorView > UIView > UIButton - username ▼ > UIButtonLabel - username ▼, if that's what you're asking for. — brianwantsblood, Mar 18 '19 at 22:41
Was wondering if maybe something is blocking it thus preventing clicks -- When you click on the button, does it react? (Normally when you click on a button, it gives some UI feedback) — Mocha, Mar 18 '19 at 22:42
Ah. I just added a print statement to see and I get nothing when I click the button. — brianwantsblood, Mar 18 '19 at 22:45

Mocha · Accepted Answer · 2019-03-18T23:49:53.207

1

Linked to self invocations in computed property -- See the last portion of Ahmad F's answer

Don't know why, but selectors in computed properties don't seem to work.

I tried adding the container view without computing it and clicking on the button works.

func configureNavBar() {
    self.navigationController?.navigationBar.tintColor = .black
    let container = UIView()
    container.frame = CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: 200, height: 40)

    let button = UIButton(type: .custom)
    button.setTitle("@username ▼", for: .normal)
    button.setTitleColor(.black, for: .normal)
    button.frame = container.frame
    button.addTarget(self, action: #selector(pressTitle), for: .touchUpInside)
    container.addSubview(button)
    navigationItem.titleView = container
}

edited Mar 18 '19 at 23:49

answered Mar 18 '19 at 23:06

Mocha

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Try the OP's original code but change it to a lazy property. Does that make the original code work? – rmaddy Mar 18 '19 at 23:52
@rmaddy yes, it does. That should be the accepted answer. Please post your answer and if possible an explanation why that is. – Mocha Mar 19 '19 at 00:18

Making the nav bar title a button (Swift)

1 Answers1