UINavigationBar setBackgroundImage: forBarMetrics: Not Working

Question

I just switched over to iOS 5 and everything appears to be working in my application aside from the custom navigation bar. I looked around and followed everybody's suggestion of calling the new methods setBackgroundImage: forBarMetrics: however it doesn't appear to work. This is the code I've tried to place both within the app delegate and within the viewDidLoad method of some of the view controllers:

UINavigationBar *nb = [[UINavigationBar alloc]init];
if( [nb respondsToSelector:@selector(setBackgroundImage:forBarMetrics:)] )
{
    UIImage *image = [UIImage imageNamed:@"navBarBackground.png"];
    [nb setBackgroundImage:image forBarMetrics:UIBarMetricsDefault];
}
[nb release];

Unfortunately this doesn't work. If anybody has any suggestions at all, I'm all ears!

score 44 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 13 '11 at 22:03

44

To apply image to all your navigation bars, use the appearance proxy:

[[UINavigationBar appearance] setBackgroundImage:image forBarMetrics:UIBarMetricsDefault];

For an individual bar:

// Assuming "self" is a view controller pushed on to a UINavigationController stack
[self.navigationController.navigationBar setBackgroundImage:image forBarMetrics:UIBarMetricsDefault];

In your example, the background image won't change because nb isn't hooked up to anything.

answered Oct 13 '11 at 22:03

Rob Bajorek

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Note that this will only work for devices running iOS 5. If you need to have backward compatibility to 4.x you will have to figure something else out. – RPeck Oct 17 '11 at 17:09
8

on iOS 7 this appears to be doing some really weird tiling – powerj1984 Sep 25 '13 at 19:54
@Odelya I re-did my background graphic to fit exactly, I think 320x64 off the top of my head – powerj1984 Oct 06 '13 at 15:15
Yes, this makes strange tiling in the navigation bar. the image width is less than 320. I want it centered. any solution? – karim May 12 '14 at 07:32
1

For all these methods, you need exactly 320x44/64 image. Otherwise iOS creates strange tiling! – karim May 12 '14 at 07:44

score 4 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 09 '11 at 06:44

4

Answer by rob is correct but if application runs on iOS 4.3 or lower app will crash. So you can implement this like

if([[UINavigationBar class] respondsToSelector:@selector(appearance)]) //iOS >=5.0
{
    [[UINavigationBar appearance] setBackgroundImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"navigationBar.png"] forBarMetrics:UIBarMetricsDefault];
    [[UINavigationBar appearance] setBackgroundImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"navBar-Landscape.png"] forBarMetrics:UIBarMetricsLandscapePhone];   

}

This will set image for both mode Landscape and Portrait

answered Nov 09 '11 at 06:44

Kamleshwar

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Unfortunately this does not work. The proper solution is this: if ([self.navigationController.navigationBar respondsToSelector:@selector(setBackgroundImage:forBarMetrics:)]) { //code } – Borut Tomazin Jan 26 '12 at 14:20
@BorutTomazin: This does actually work, quite well! You could do a further test to see if [UINavigationBar appearance] responds to selector `setBackgroundImage:forBarMetrics:`, but this is the 'first stage' in testing that UINavigationBar first responds to the `appearance` method (iOS5 only). – Chris Nolet Mar 13 '12 at 07:53
Thanks sir, your code snippet was of great help to me. And thanks once again that because of you i have iOS development as my career. A vote up from me :) – Arshad Parwez Jan 22 '13 at 11:39

score 3 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 13 '11 at 22:09

You need to get the navigation bar from a navigation controller. Right now you are just creating one and then it deallocs when you release it. You need to get the navigation controller for your view controller.

UINavigationController * navigationController = [self navigationController];
UINavigationBar * nb = [navigationController navigationBar];

score 3 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 20 '11 at 00:53

Note that if you want to apply the same to a toolbar, it is slightly different. Here's an example, building on Rob's answer:

    [[UIToolbar appearance] setBackgroundImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"NavBarDarkWoodGrain.png"] forToolbarPosition:UIToolbarPositionBottom barMetrics:UIBarMetricsDefault];

score 0 · Answer 5 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:34

0

You didn't do something like use a UINavigationBar subclass? If you do this and override drawRect: on iOS5 and above, things will break.

See my answer here for a way to support both OS versions.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:34

Community

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answered Oct 01 '12 at 08:44

Paul de Lange

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score 0 · Answer 6 · edited Sep 11 '13 at 22:21

This worked for me.

UIView *parentViewLeft = [[UIView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0, 320, 44)];
parentViewLeft.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];

if ([self.navigationController.navigationBar respondsToSelector:@selector(setBackgroundImage:forBarMetrics:)]) {
    [self.navigationController.navigationBar setBackgroundImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"navbar.png"]
                                                  forBarMetrics:UIBarMetricsDefault];    
} else {
    UIImageView* imgBG = [[UIImageView alloc]init];
    imgBG.image = [UIImage imageNamed:@"navbar.png"];
    imgBG.frame = CGRectMake(-10,0, 330, 44);
    [parentViewLeft addSubview:imgBG];
}

UIBarButtonItem *customBarButtomLeft = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithCustomView:parentViewLeft];
self.navigationItem.leftBarButtonItem = customBarButtomLeft;

UINavigationBar setBackgroundImage: forBarMetrics: Not Working

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