Changing the size of the UISearchBar TextField?

Question

I have a UITableView with an Index on the side; I want to add a UISearchBar to it, but the index overlaps with the "x" to clear the search. I've noticed in the Contacts application, the textfield within the UISearchBar is resized to accommodate this, but I can't work out how to do this in my own app.

I have tried the following in my viewDidLoad, but it does not seem to work.

UITextField * textField = (UITextField *)[[self.search subviews] objectAtIndex:0]; CGRect r = textField.frame;  [textField setFrame:CGRectMake(r.origin.x, r.origin.y, r.size.height, r.size.width-30)]; 

Any ideas?

Answer 1

it's much easier than all these suggestions. In interface builder, instead of putting the Search Bar as the header of your Table View, you can put a View instead. Then, put a Navigation Bar inside this View. Grab the left resizing handle of the Navigation Bar and pull it to the right until the N B is only 25 pixels wide. Clear out the Title in the N B (double click to select it, then delete). Then, add a Search Bar into the same View. Move its right resizing handle to the left, adjust so that it abuts the N B. That's it.

You can enable a cancel button if you want too and it also won't overlap the index (remains within the search bar).

Apparently a Table View can only have 1 subview in its header, that's why you need to put the View first, then the N B and Search Bar inside it.

UPDATE: see Beginning iPhone Development from Apress, p. 241 of SDK 3 edition. You just disable the index while searching.

- (NSArray *)sectionIndexTitlesForTableView:(UITableView *)tableView {     if (isSearching) {         return nil;     }     return keys; } 

Also they talk about adding a magnifying glass to the top of the index.

Great book all around.

Answer 2

Why not just make the actual UISearchBar smaller horizontally, and place an (empty) UINavigationBar to the right of it? They will render the exact same background.

Better than hacking the internals of Apple's objects that could change.

Also, when animating the UISearchBar's width, you'll notice that the inner text field is not animated along with it. You can fix this by calling UISearchBar's "layoutSubviews" within your animation block after changing its frame. (that's where it determines the size of the inner text field)