UISearchBar Keyboard Return Key - iphone

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
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.
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

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 7

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 8

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 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 = #" ";}