Add toolbar to UITableViewController

Question

What is the simplest way to add UIToolBar to UITableViewController? I'm depending on edit functionality, so I can't change UITableViewController to UIViewController easily.

Solution 1

No problem at all, UITableViewController is a subclass of UIViewController. And it so happens that in iPhone OS 3.0 any UIViewController (and subclasses) can work in conjunction with a UINavigationController to provide a context aware toolbar.

In order for this to work you must:

• Make sure that you use a UINavigationController to contain all your view controllers that needs a toolbar.
• Set the toolbarsItems property of the view controller that wants a toolbar.

This is almost as easy as as setting the view controller's title, and should be done the same way. Most probably by overriding the initWithNibName:bundle: initializer. As an example:

-(id)initWithNibName:(NSString*)name bundle:(NSBundle*)bundle;
{
  self = [super initWithNibName:name bundle:bundle];
  if (self) {
    self.title = @"My Title";
    NSArray* toolbarItems = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:
        [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithBarButtonSystemItem:UIBarButtonSystemItemAdd 
                                                      target:self
                                                      action:@selector(addStuff:)],
        [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithBarButtonSystemItem:UIBarButtonSystemItemSearch 
                                                      target:self
                                                      action:@selector(searchStuff:)],
        nil];
    [toolbarItems makeObjectsPerformSelector:@selector(release)];
    self.toolbarItems = toolbarItems;
    self.navigationController.toolbarHidden = NO;
  }
  return self;
}

You can also use setToolbarItems:animated: instead of assigning to the toolbarItems property, to add and remove toolbar items in an animated fashion on the fly.

Solution 2

In order to make PeyloW's recipe to work, I needed to add the following additional line of code:

self.navigationController.toolbarHidden = NO;

Hope that helps...

Solution 3

- (void)viewWillAppear:(BOOL)animated
{
    [super viewWillAppear:animated];

    //Initialize the toolbar
    toolbar = [[UIToolbar alloc] init];
    toolbar.barStyle = UIBarStyleDefault;

    //Set the toolbar to fit the width of the app.
    [toolbar sizeToFit];

    //Caclulate the height of the toolbar
    CGFloat toolbarHeight = [toolbar frame].size.height;

    //Get the bounds of the parent view
    CGRect rootViewBounds = self.parentViewController.view.bounds;

    //Get the height of the parent view.
    CGFloat rootViewHeight = CGRectGetHeight(rootViewBounds);

    //Get the width of the parent view,
    CGFloat rootViewWidth = CGRectGetWidth(rootViewBounds);

    //Create a rectangle for the toolbar
    CGRect rectArea = CGRectMake(0, rootViewHeight - toolbarHeight, rootViewWidth, toolbarHeight);

    //Reposition and resize the receiver
    [toolbar setFrame:rectArea];

    //Create a button
    UIBarButtonItem *infoButton = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc]
                                   initWithTitle:@"back" style:UIBarButtonItemStyleBordered target:self action:@selector(info_clicked:)];

    [toolbar setItems:[NSArray arrayWithObjects:infoButton,nil]];

    //Add the toolbar as a subview to the navigation controller.
    [self.navigationController.view addSubview:toolbar];



[[self tableView] reloadData];

}

- (void) info_clicked:(id)sender {


 [self.navigationController popViewControllerAnimated:YES];
    [toolbar removeFromSuperview];

    }

And in Swift 3:

override func viewDidAppear(_ animated: Bool) {
    super.viewDidAppear(animated)

    //Initialize the toolbar
    let toolbar = UIToolbar()
    toolbar.barStyle = UIBarStyle.default

    //Set the toolbar to fit the width of the app.
    toolbar.sizeToFit()

    //Caclulate the height of the toolbar
    let toolbarHeight = toolbar.frame.size.height

    //Get the bounds of the parent view
    let rootViewBounds = self.parent?.view.bounds

    //Get the height of the parent view.
    let rootViewHeight = rootViewBounds?.height

    //Get the width of the parent view,
    let rootViewWidth = rootViewBounds?.width

    //Create a rectangle for the toolbar
    let rectArea = CGRect(x: 0, y: rootViewHeight! - toolbarHeight, width: rootViewWidth!, height: toolbarHeight)

    //Reposition and resize the receiver
    toolbar.frame = rectArea

    //Create a button
    let infoButton = UIBarButtonItem(title: "Back", style: UIBarButtonItemStyle.plain, target: self, action: #selector(infoClicked))

    toolbar.items = [infoButton]

    //Add the toolbar as a subview to the navigation controller.
    self.navigationController?.view.addSubview(toolbar)
}

func infoClicked() {
    //Handle Click Here
}

Comments

[Ben Clayton]

Agreed. I had to put that call in the viewDidLoad method, not the initWithNibName override. Then it works great.

[Admin]

Is the NavigationController required? I want to add a ToolBar to a TableViewController that is not part of a NavigationController. Do I need to use a NavigationController even though there will only ever be one view in it?

[PeyloW]

@sirjorj Yes the UINavigationController is required to get the free toolbar handling. Without it you must manage your own UIToolbar view instance.

[newton_guima]

what if i don't want to put buttons in this toolbar, instead, i want to put only a image in the center, what would i do differently? Thanks.

[codingFriend1]

This works great for me. I could not add a UINavigationController, so manually added a toolbar was the only way to go. Thanks!

[marko]

Nice. I think this should be the accepted answer. I wanted to add a toolbar to uitableviewcontroller, not enabling uinavigationcontroller.

[ghr]

This worked well for me but instead of adding UIBarButtonItems I added a view with a button from a storyboard to the toolbar. When compiled by Xcode 7.2.1 this worked on devices up to iOS11.4.1 (not tried on iOS12). When I then started to use Xcode 9.2 and Xcode 10, the button did not respond on devices or simulator running iOS11+ (but did on simulator running iOS9 an 10). The 'solution' I came up with was to remove and recreate the toolbar (again) in viewDidAppear. Creating the toolbar in viewDidAppear and not also in viewWillAppear did not work.

[Hussain KMR Behestee]

For me it worked: self.navigationController?.isToolbarHidden = false;