UIToolbar gradient fix - iphone

I am using UIToolbar in my project for this lock screen. Everything is fine except the gradient on the UIToolbar is very short. I mean its height is not equal. I have attached the screen shot. I want the UIToolbar to be like figure B.
Any idea how to achieve this.

Best thing you can do is setting appearance for your UIToolBar:
UIImage *gradientImage = [[UIImage imageNamed:#"upperBar.png"]
resizableImageWithCapInsets:UIEdgeInsetsMake(-4, 300, 10, 300)];
UIToolbar *toolbar = [UIToolBar appearance];
[toolbar setBackgroundImage:gradientImage forToolbarPosition:UIToolbarPositionAny barMetrics:UIBarMetricsDefault];
Where upperBar.png is the gradient image you want.

A UIToolbar in iOS6 and earlier always draws its shine over the top 22px. If you want a bigger shine, you'll have to provide a background image using setBackgroundImage:forToolbarPosition:barMetrics:.
Two more things, though:
UIToolbar on an iPhone expects to be at the bottom of your content; if you're using it to give you a background suitable for the top, you should use a UINavigationBar instead.
The appearance of toolbars, navigation bars, and the lock screen has changed in iOS7. You may want to rethink your approach so that your app doesn't look bad in the near future.

Related

UINavigationBar handle rotation

I'm trying to handle the rotation of a UINavigationBar with UINavigationItem (i'm not using the UINavigationController), i have successfully made so that the height and width show according, but that does not seems to be correct, as the UINavigationBar still acts as being in portrait mode (big title and button), also when i set a custom background for both metrics, it seems to only show the portrait background metric, ignoring completely the landscape one.
[[UINavigationBar appearance] setBackgroundImage:[UIImage imageNamed:#"modal-top-landscape"] forBarMetrics:UIBarMetricsLandscapePhone];
[[UINavigationBar appearance] setBackgroundImage:[UIImage imageNamed:#"modal-top"] forBarMetrics:UIBarMetricsDefault];
Is there a way to tell the UINavigationBar that is rotated and should show the text and buttons accordingly?
I attach some screenshots:
One workaround for this is to use a UINavigationController, and use a CGRectOffset to remove the margin that leaves the status bar... add the Controller to the parent controller (also the view).

iOS5 Toolbar background image

I'm very new to iOS programming.
I'm trying to set the toolbar background to a custom image.
I'm also using storyboards.
How do I go about that?
Do I edit UIToolbar in the UI Kit framework? Do I need to change something in Storyboard?
Thanks,
You can use UIToolbar's built-in -setBackgroundImage:forToolbarPosition:barMetrics: method:
// portrait
[yourToolbar setBackgroundImage:[UIImage imageNamed:#"YourToolbarBkg-Portrait.png"] forToolbarPosition:UIToolbarPositionAny barMetrics:UIBarMetricsDefault];
// landscape
[yourToolbar setBackgroundImage:[UIImage imageNamed:#"YourToolbarBkg-Landscape.png"] forToolbarPosition:UIToolbarPositionAny barMetrics: UIBarMetricsLandscapePhone];
YourToolbarBkg-Portrait.png will be 320x44 bkg image for portrait mode
YourToolbarBkg-Landscape.png will be 480x32 bkg image for landscape mode.
UIToolbar inherits from UIView. This just worked for me:
[topBar insertSubview:[[[UIImageView alloc] initWithImage:[UIImage imageNamed:BAR_BKG_IMG]] autorelease] atIndex:0];
UPDATED
topBar ------ is the outlet of the UIToolBar u are using
use this code where u are creating ur UIToolBar the class which implements the UIToolbar..
plus tell me y r u using Toolbar whats ur main purpose for it
Instead of editing UIToolBar, why not create a UIView of the same size and skin that however you would like? That would be easier if you are new.
Or if you want to override UIToolbar:
#implementation UIToolbar (CustomImage)
- (void)drawRect:(CGRect)rect {
UIImage *image = [UIImage imageNamed: #"image.png"];
[image drawInRect:CGRectMake(0, 0, self.frame.size.width, self.frame.size.height)];
}
#end
Had a right faff with background images for ToolBars and NavBars. I know setting the background image of a NavBar and ToolBar is generally a doddle. But, when you're presenting modal VC's, for some insane reason, where a NavBar is being added and you DO change the background image, it appears to double in size. Altering the height has strange results.
My issue was where I was using a NavController all over my App, but needed a modal view for one or two aspects of it. Simple enough. However, I needed either a NavBar or ToolBar type header with a Done button to pop the VC off the stack. Again, not an issue. But I needed the NavBar or ToolBar to look the same as everywhere else in my App.
I settled on a ToolBar, seeing as the VC was being presented modally. So, there my ToolBar sat, in typical Apple-blue. Nice, but not how the rest of my App looked, where a blackened image was being used for each NavBar. Using the iOS 5 appearance proxy, I altered the background image of the ToolBar. And this worked. But, unless I had the UIImage in exactly the proportions and size expected by the Tool Bar, I was in a pickle. The image simply did not look right at all. So, I decided to create a UIIMageView, where I could control the content mode, then insert a subview onto the toolBar.
Take a look at my code below.
UIImageView *toolbarImageView = [[UIImageView alloc] initWithImage:[UIImage imageNamed:NAV_BAR_BACKGROUND]];
[toolbarImageView setFrame:[self.IBOToolBar bounds]];
[toolbarImageView setContentMode:UIViewContentModeScaleAspectFill];
[self.IBOToolBar insertSubview:toolbarImageView atIndex:1];
It's a bit of a fluff but I do hope this helps someone alter the image on their ToolBar.
NAV_BAR_BACKGROUND can be defined as follows:
#define NAV_BAR_BACKGROUND #"navBarBlackMattDarkSquare.png"

Alter a UIBarButtonItem view to be transparent programmatically

I've had trouble getting this to work, nowhere have I seen a working example on the web. Now offering bounty on this as its making me crazy. It should be easy, but that doesn't seem to be the case.
I'd like my buttons on my UINavigationBar to be semi-transparent such that they allow the background of whatever is on the UINavigationBar to show through. This effect is seen in many applications, image examples below. You can do this by setting a custom background on the item, which i think is an unacceptable solution because it requires that you prepare images beforehand, and they won't be adaptable for variable buttons etc. They will not look like Apple UI and I don't believe there is a reason to do this either, UIKit is already drawing the background for these buttons, we just need to change it. The correct solution uses the bar items and views generated by Apple's apis.
UIBarButtonItem is not a UIView subclass. When you create one and add it to a UINavigationBar, some code somewhere in the framework draws a view for it. The framework methods seem to resist anything related to allowing transparency of the bar items, such as the tintColor property.
For example, this does NOT work:
UINavigationItem *item = [[UINavigationItem alloc] init];
UIBarButtonItem *editButton = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithTitle:#"SUCKS" style:UIBarButtonItemStyleBordered target:self action:#selector(whatever:)];
editButton.tintColor = [UIColor colorWithWhite:0.4 alpha:0.3];
item.leftBarButtonItem = editButton;
Nothing I do will make UINavigationBar allow semi-transparency for its bar items. I believe at runtime we need to:
Get the image for the bar item
Mask it for transparency
Set the new image on the bar item
But I haven't been able to get the image at runtime or mask it properly. How do you do this?
Create a custom uiview and draw a semi-transparent black rectangle in it and use that view with initWithCustomView.
see
and
Failing that, you may have to use an image (png). e.g. a 1x1 black pixel png with 30% opacity.You could then initWithImage.
EDIT: I have had this second approach working using:
buttonThree = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithTitle:#" sort button " style:UIBarButtonItemStyleBordered target:self action:#selector(sortMethod)];
UIImage *thebgUIimage = [UIImage imageNamed:#"semi.png"];
[buttonThree setBackgroundImage:thebgUIimage forState:UIControlStateNormal barMetrics:UIBarMetricsDefault];
This results in a button that has a transparent background image that the navbar background image shows through. However, you would need to create an image with the rounded corners on and so need an image for each button width. Also I found this thread after trying the above
A brilliant hack is to use the UISegmentedControl with a single segment (as a button) and set its tint color. Have a look at http://charles.lescampeurs.org/2011/02/10/tint-color-uibutton-and-uibarbuttonitem. I have personally implemented this. Feel free to ask any questions.
Instead of searching for code and breaking your head, my suggestion is just to have transparent image which has just border similar to button (add shadow if necessary), create a button of custom type, add the transparent background image to it and you can text as you want. From this custom button, create your bar button item accordingly.
If you're targeting for iOS 5, you can set the background image of the button.
[_button setBackgroundImage:#"image" forState:UIControlStateNormal barMetrics:UIBarMetricsDefault];
Note that you'll need to set background images for state UIControlSateSelected and again for both control states for barMetrics: UIBarMetricsLandscape, if your application allows landscape orientation.
Note again this is an iOS 5 feature.
I believe your answer is here: http://sebastiancelis.com/2009/12/21/adding-background-image-uinavigationbar/

How to make image insets for image within UISegmentedControl?

I have UISegmented control with image -to be able to set background tint. This is added to navigation bar through code in viewDidLoad:
UISegmentedControl *myCustomButton = [[UISegmentedControl alloc] initWithItems:
[NSArray arrayWithObjects:[UIImage imageNamed:#"spiral"],nil]];
[myCustomButton setSegmentedControlStyle:UISegmentedControlStyleBar];
[myCustomButton setTintColor:[UIColor blackColor]];
UIBarButtonItem *segmentBarItem = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc]
initWithCustomView:myCustomButton];
self.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem = segmentBarItem;
problem is that the image within the button gets stretched all the way it can, so I would like to use image insets, but how do I call them for that code?
I've tried this:
[self.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem setImageInsets:UIEdgeInsetsMake(5, 5, 5, 5)];
but it does not do anything visible.
I'm not sure there's an easy programmatic way to do this. What I've done is just make png images with transparent backgrounds in photoshop (or whatever image editor) and make them fit so that your image fits vertically in the button and has a size that will fit just about right in your button. It's a bit of work to make the images, but usually you're not going to be changing your button size once you have the screen layout set up.

How do i set the height of the UINavigationBar in an iphone app

Im using a typical situation with UINavigationController, id like to make the navigation bar a bit taller. setting its bounds and frame dont seem to make a difference, im using this code
//set up the navigation
UINavigationController *navigationController = [UINavigationController new];
[navigationController.navigationBar setBarStyle:UIBarStyleBlack];
[navigationController.navigationBar setTintColor:[UIColor purpleColor]];
[navigationController.navigationBar setBounds:CGRectMake(0.0, 0.0, 480.0, 100.0)];
[navigationController.navigationBar setFrame:CGRectMake(0.0, 0.0, 480.0, 100.0)];
but to no avail. any ideas?
I don't think you can change the height of a navigation bar. Except when you add a prompt message... But that's not what you want.
Frame is the visible area of a view. Bounds is the internal area. Usually this has an origin of (0, 0) and is as wide and high as the frame. However, when the content exceeds the visible area (like with a UIScrollView) the bounds can be larger (and the origin different). You rarely see bounds that are smaller than their respective frames.
EDIT: Looking at your code, what is [UINavigationController new] about? You should do [[UINavigationController alloc] init], shouldn't you?
Also, what you are doing is not really subclassing...
At the time of 2009, there is probably no way to change the height of UINavigationController. However, in iOS SDK 4.3, there is a way (hack).
To change the height of UINavigationController, change its frame size in viewWillAppear:animated: function. Then, the height will stay customized throughout whole app.
As far as I know the standard navigation bar height should not be changed.
"Specifically, it is alright to
modify the barStyle, tintColor, and translucent properties, but you
must never directly change UIView-level properties such as the frame,
bounds, alpha, or hidden properties directly."
If you like to customize the appearance of navigation bar you can use the appearance proxy [UINavigationBar appearance] in iOS 5