iOS how to dim UITabBar and UINavigationController without hiding them? - iphone

Question

I'm trying to reduce the brightness of my app at night, and while I have pretty good control over my UIView, the UITabBar and UINavigationController are giving me trouble.
How can I dim UITabBar and UINavigationController them without hiding them?

Answer 1

For the UITabBar you could do:
tabBar.alpha = 0.5
A UINavigationController is not a view, it is a controller, thus it doesn't make sense when you say you want to dim it. If you meant that you want to dim the UINavigationBar, you could do:
navigationController.navigationBar.alpha = 0.5;
Or if you want to dim everything in the navigationController:
navigationController.view.alpha = 0.5;

Answer 2

I would create a subclass of UIView that provides a solid black view. Next, you're going to have to pass touch events through the view so you will need to override -pointInside:withEvent:, return NO and pass the message up to the superview. Insert this view as a subview of the view you're trying to dim. Use the alpha property to control the dimming effect.
Edit I'm bored. Here's something I just threw together.
IADimmingView.h
#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>
#interface IADimmingView : UIView
- (id)initWithContainingView:(UIView *)view;
- (void)dim;
#end
IADimmingView.m
#import "IADimmingView.h"
#interface IADimmingView ()
#property (strong, nonatomic) UIView *containingView;
#end
#pragma mark -
#implementation IADimmingView
#synthesize containingView;
- (id)initWithContainingView:(UIView *)view
{
NSParameterAssert(view);
self = [super initWithFrame:view.frame];
if (!self)
return nil;
containingView = view;
self.backgroundColor = [UIColor blackColor];
return self;
}
- (BOOL)pointInside:(CGPoint)point withEvent:(UIEvent *)event
{
[self.containingView pointInside:point withEvent:event];
return NO;
}
- (void)dim
{
[self.containingView addSubview:self];
}
#end
In your view controller, it is used like this...
IADimmingView *dimmingView = [[IADimmingView alloc] initWithContainingView:self.tabBarController.tabBar];
dimmingView.alpha = 0.75;
[dimmingView dim];

Answer 3

You may make them custom. This was asked many times here, for example: Custom colors in UITabBar
Just do the same with navigation bar.

Answer 4

This is how the navigationBar is declared in the documentation:
The navigation bar managed by the navigation controller. (read-only)
It is permissible to customize the appearance of the navigation bar using the methods and properties of the UINavigationBar class but you must never change its frame, bounds, or alpha values or modify its view hierarchy directly. To show or hide the navigation bar, you should always do so through the navigation controller by changing its navigationBarHidden property or calling the setNavigationBarHidden:animated: method.
This is the answer that I used to fix this: Visible buttons with transparent navigation bar