Custom back button on navigation bar

Question

In my application there are many UIViewControllers with UINavigationControllers. There must be a "back" button and a "home" UIButton on the UINavigationBar. All of this works fine.

But some of my UIViewControllers have long names, and sometimes there is too small place left for it. I'm trying to replace the original label of the "back" button (it shows the title of the previous view) with a custom "Back", but whatever I tried it didn't work:

// Title didn't change
[self.navigationItem.backBarButtonItem setTitle:@"Back"];

// Action didn't set, no response from button ( button didn't do anything )
[self.navigationItem.leftBarButtonItem
   setAction:self.navigationItem.backBarButtonItem.action];

And I need the "back" button to have a style like in this question: Draw custom Back button on iPhone Navigation Bar

Answer 1

Try the following. It will definitely work:

- (void)viewDidLoad {
    [super viewDidLoad];

    UIImage *buttonImage = [UIImage imageNamed:@"back.png"];
    UIButton *button = [UIButton buttonWithType:UIButtonTypeCustom];
    [button setImage:buttonImage forState:UIControlStateNormal];
    button.frame = CGRectMake(0, 0, buttonImage.size.width, buttonImage.size.height);
    [button addTarget:self action:@selector(back) forControlEvents:UIControlEventTouchUpInside];

    UIBarButtonItem *customBarItem = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithCustomView:button];
    self.navigationItem.leftBarButtonItem = customBarItem;
    [customBarItem release];
}

- (void)back {
    [self.navigationController popViewControllerAnimated:YES];
}

Make sure you have an button image with the size of a navigation bar back button in your resource folder with name back.png.

Feel free if any other assistance is required.