UISearchBar Keyboard Return Key

Question

I am using a UISearchBar to match text input against entries in a database and display the matched results to the user in a UITableView, as they type.

All is well, however, I cannot find a way to alter the return key type of the search bar's keyboard. By default it replaces the standard return key with a Search button. Because I am doing a live search as the user types, I do not need this button and having it there and inactive has raised some usability issues.

Attempted solutions

1. I can set a keyboard with the setKeyboard:UIKeyboardType method, however this doesn't seem to override the default setting of replacing the return key (on the standard keyboard) with a Search key and it does not allow access to change this return key.

2. I have thought about using a UITextField, giving me access to the returnKeyType property through the UITextInputTraits protocol. My problem with this however is that I am implementing the UISearchBarDelegate method searchBar:(UISearchBar *)searchBar textDidChange:(NSString *)searchText, which I would lose with the UITextField.

Is there a way that I can keep the functionality of the search bar's delegate methods, whilst having legitimate access to the keyboard's return key?

In fact, almost the exact screen I am implementing is found in Apple's Clock application
Screenshot:

So any help on a clean solution would be much appreciated. Note the return key on the bottom right instead of the default Search button'.

Answer 1

Slightly different in iOS 7 compared to the answer of @sudip.

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

Answer 2

I tried all of these solutions without luck until I realized that in IOS8, you can just set searchBar.returnKey = .Done or whatever UIReturnKeyType you like. Sigh.

Answer 3

Try this:

for(UIView *subView in searchBar.subviews) {
    if([subView conformsToProtocol:@protocol(UITextInputTraits)]) {
        [(UITextField *)subView setKeyboardAppearance: UIKeyboardAppearanceAlert];
    }
}

If you want to dismiss the return key (i.e., make it do nothing), set the "returnKeyType" property on the UITextField subview to "UIReturnKeyDone" along with "keyboardAppearence".

Answer 4

I had to add some lines to Neo's answer. Here is my code to add a "Done" button for UISearchbar :

for(UIView *subView in sb_manSearch.subviews) {
    if([subView conformsToProtocol:@protocol(UITextInputTraits)]) {

        UITextField *t = (UITextField *)subView;
        [t setKeyboardAppearance: UIKeyboardAppearanceAlert];

        t.returnKeyType = UIReturnKeyDone;
        t.delegate = self;
        break;
    }
}

Answer 5

To change Search into Done text. Use below code.

youtSearchBar.returnKeyType = .done

Answer 6

UPDATE : From iOS 7 onwards, the accepted answer will not work, below version will the work on iOS 7 onwards.

 UIView *subViews =  [[_searchBar subviews] firstObject];
        for(UIView *subView in [subViews subviews]) {
            if([subView conformsToProtocol:@protocol(UITextInputTraits)]) {
                [(UITextField *)subView setEnablesReturnKeyAutomatically:NO];
            }
        }

Answer 7

for (UIView *subView in view.subviews) {
    if ([subView isKindOfClass:[UITextField class]])
    {
        UITextField *txt = (UITextField *)subView;

        @try {

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

            // ignore exception
        }
    }
}

Answer 8

you can do it by :

- (void)viewDidLoad 
{
     // Adding observer that will tell you keyboard is appeared.
     [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self selector:@selector(keyboardDidShow:) 
                                                 name:UIKeyboardDidShowNotification object:nil];        

    [super viewDidLoad];
}

- (void)keyboardDidShow:(NSNotification *)note 
{
    keyboardTest = [self getKeyboard];

    [keyboardTest setReturnKeyEnabled: YES];
}

- (id) getKeyboard  // Method that returns appeared keyboard's reference 
{
    id keyboardView;

    // locate keyboard view
    UIWindow* tempWindow = [[[UIApplication sharedApplication] windows] objectAtIndex:1];
    UIView* keyboard;

    for(int i=0; i<[tempWindow.subviews count]; i++) 
    {
        keyboard = [tempWindow.subviews objectAtIndex:i];

        if ([[[UIDevice currentDevice] systemVersion] floatValue] >= 3.2) 
        {           
            if([[keyboard description] hasPrefix:@"<UIPeripheralHost"] == YES)
            {
                keyboard = [[keyboard subviews] objectAtIndex:0];
                keyboardView = keyboard ;
            }
        } 
        else
        {
            if([[keyboard description] hasPrefix:@"<UIKeyboard"] == YES)
                keyboardView = keyboard ;
        }

    }
    return keyboardView ;
}

Answer 9

I just found the simplest wait to hack this, just put a blank when beginning editing search field

-(void)searchBarTextDidBeginEditing:(UISearchBar *)searchBar{
    //Add a blank character to hack search button enable
    searchBar.text = @" ";}