hide and show left navigation bar button on demand in iOS-7

Question

I added my left navigation bar button using the storyboard. but I want it to hide when I first load the screen. And then in response to something else, I want it to show. The navigation bar has a method for hiding the back button. But there is no method for hiding/showing the left button. Is there a simple way for doing this? Or do I have to use two methods: the hiding method creates an empty button and the showing method creates the correct button? The button in question is just the Add template that iOS provides (which makes it easy to just use the one in the storyboard than to create my own).

Solution 1

Here is how I solved it

-(void) hideAndDisableRightNavigationItem
{
    [self.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem setTintColor:[UIColor clearColor]];
    [self.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem setEnabled:NO];
}

-(void) showAndEnableRightNavigationItem
{
    [self.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem setTintColor:[UIColor blackColor]];
    [self.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem setEnabled:YES];
}

Solution 2

Swift version of @learner answer

func hideAndDisableRightNavigationItem (){
  self.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem?.enabled = false
  self.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem?.tintColor = UIColor.clearColor()
}

func showAndEnableRightNavigationItem(){
   self.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem?.enabled = true
   self.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem?.tintColor = UIColor. blackColor()
}

Comments

[App Dev Guy]

That is sexy. Best solution on stack.

[App Dev Guy]

I referenced this in my answer on a similar question. Hope you don't mind. stackoverflow.com/questions/5588767/…

[Mathi Arasan]

What if I have more than one navigation bar button items? left or right where ever..