Customized navigation bar hides buttons - iphone

Question

Hope you can help with this one too...
I wanted to customize my navigation bar by adding custom background picture. I found out perfect but a bit complicated method called:NavigationSwizzle. In previous project I worked without any serious problems, but now I'm stuck...
From my AppDelegate I am calling this static method:
#implementation SCAppUtils
+ (void)customizeNavigationController:(UINavigationController *)navController
{
//Customizing navigation BAR
UINavigationBar *navBar = [navController navigationBar];
[navBar setTintColor:kSCNavBarColor];
//Customizing TOOLBAR
[navController setToolbarHidden:NO animated:YES];
UIToolbar *toolBar = [navController toolbar];
UIImageView *imageView = (UIImageView *)[navBar viewWithTag:kSCNavBarImageTag];
UIImageView *imageView2 = (UIImageView *)[toolBar viewWithTag:kSCNavBarImageTag];
if (imageView == nil)
{
Utilities *utilities = [[Utilities alloc]init];
UIImage *img = [UIImage imageNamed:#"nav-bar-background.png"];
UIImage *img2 = [UIImage imageNamed:#"toolbar-background.png"];
imageView = [[UIImageView alloc] initWithImage:img];
imageView2 = [[UIImageView alloc] initWithImage:img2];
[imageView setTag:kSCNavBarImageTag];
[imageView2 setTag:kSCNavBarImageTag];
[navBar insertSubview:imageView atIndex:0];
[toolBar insertSubview:imageView2 atIndex:0];
[imageView release];
[imageView2 release];
[utilities release];
}
}
In rootNavigationController after calling second view controller by pushing it on the stack my right button, self.title, activityIndicator don't show. If I comment or set atIndex:-1 in line [navBar insertSubview:imageView atIndex:0]; then buttons show, but my customized background is gone and I get regular iPhone navigational tab.
In didSelectRowAtIndex of rootNavigationController I have:
//ADD BACK BUTTON TO VIEW
UIBarButtonItem *backButton = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithTitle:#"Home" style:UIBarButtonItemStyleDone target:nil action:nil];
self.navigationItem.backBarButtonItem = backButton;
//Home Button color
self.navigationController.navigationBar.tintColor = [UIColor colorWithRed:166.0 / 255 green:179.0 / 255 blue:191.0 / 255 alpha:1.0];
//PUSH TO NEXT VIEW
[self.navigationController pushViewController:detailViewController animated:YES];
Thank you in advance...
If you need more code or explanation, please don't hesitate to ask me...
Best regards,
Luka
EDIT:
Ok, I can make this question much simpler. I have a custom background image in my navigation bar. This image is obviously covering my
self.navigationItem.title = #"TITLE";
If I put alpha to: 0.3 of imageView that is in the background I can see my title:
imageView = [[UIImageView alloc] initWithImage:image];
[imageView setAlpha:0.3];
[imageView setTag:kSCNavBarImageTag];
[navBar insertSubview:imageView atIndex:0];
So the question is how can I send my navigationItem.title to front? Is it a UIView class descendent?
EDIT 2:
Really weird thing is that title is visible (above background image) in the rootController but after pushing another viewController title goes behind te background imageView ?!

Answer 1

I honestly think you forgot to add this code in the main.m. You main.m should look something like this:
#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>
#import "AppDelegate.h"
#import "SCClassUtils.h"
int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
[SCClassUtils swizzleSelector:#selector(insertSubview:atIndex:)
ofClass:[UINavigationBar class]
withSelector:#selector(scInsertSubview:atIndex:)];
[SCClassUtils swizzleSelector:#selector(sendSubviewToBack:)
ofClass:[UINavigationBar class]
withSelector:#selector(scSendSubviewToBack:)];
#autoreleasepool {
return UIApplicationMain(argc, argv, nil, NSStringFromClass([AppDelegate class]));
}
}

Answer 2

You might want to try this to customize your Navigationbar instead. I use it in my apps and it works like a charm
UIImage *theImage = [UIImage imageNamed:#"barImage.png"];
[self.navigationController.navigationBar insertSubview:[[[UIImageView alloc] initWithImage:theImage] autorelease] atIndex:0];
See if that fixes your issues with the buttons not appearing.

Answer 3

I found a solituion for my work. Create a view (viewBackground) with all the images and colors that conform the navigation bar and then y convert it in a image and use it like a background
UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions(viewBackground.bounds.size, viewBackground.opaque, 0.0);
[viewBackground.layer renderInContext:UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext()];
UIImage * img = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext();
UIGraphicsEndImageContext();
[[UINavigationBar appearance] setBackgroundImage:img forBarMetrics:UIBarMetricsDefault];
[self.navigationController.navigationBar setBackgroundImage:img forBarMetrics:UIBarMetricsDefault];