Hide UITableView search bar

Question

I have a UITableViewController with a UISearchDisplayController setup in the standard way (with the search bar inside the tableView). I'd like the search bar to start out hidden - really hidden, not merely scrolled away as in this solution. Then I'd like to present the search UI when the user presses a button, and hide it again (really hide it) after the user selects one of the items found in the search.

Here's the almost working code for that:

- (void)viewWillAppear:(BOOL)animated
{
    [super viewWillAppear:animated];

    self.searchDisplayController.searchBar.prompt = @"Add an item";
    self.searchDisplayController.searchBar.placeholder = @"Type the item name";

    // i do this to trigger the formatting logic below
    [self.searchDisplayController setActive:YES animated:NO];
    [self.searchDisplayController setActive:NO animated:NO];
    // rest of my view will appear
}

- (void)searchDisplayControllerDidEndSearch:(UISearchDisplayController *)controller {

    NSTimeInterval duration = (self.isViewLoaded && self.view.window)? 0.3 : 0.0;
    __block CGFloat searchBarHeight = controller.searchBar.frame.size.height;

    [UIView animateWithDuration:duration animations:^{
        self.tableView.contentOffset = CGPointMake(0, searchBarHeight);
        self.tableView.contentInset = UIEdgeInsetsMake(-searchBarHeight, 0, 0, 0);  // trouble here, I think
    } completion:^(BOOL finished) {
        controller.searchBar.hidden = YES;
    }];
}

to show

- (IBAction)pressedAddButton:(id)sender {

    self.searchDisplayController.searchBar.hidden = NO;
    [self.searchDisplayController setActive:YES animated:YES];
}

I think I'm properly setting the content inset, but it behaves unexpectedly: with the code as shown, the table allows the content move up too far, i.e. with only two not-very-tall rows, I'm able to scroll down, pushing most of those two rows above the top of the table...like there's no bottom bounce. When I comment out the contentInset line, the table lets me pull the content down too far, leaving a big gap above row 0, presumably where the search bar is sitting hidden.

Much obliged if anyone can help.

Answer 1

To anyone else who might have this problem (which appears to be nobody) -

The only way forward I could find was to abandon the UITableViewController in favor of a UIViewController with a uiview whose children are the table view and search bar.

I manage the layout as above:

- (void)setSearchHidden:(BOOL)hidden animated:(BOOL)animated {

    UISearchBar *searchBar = self.searchDisplayController.searchBar;
    CGFloat searchBarHeight = searchBar.frame.size.height;

    CGFloat offset = (hidden)? -searchBarHeight : searchBarHeight;
    NSTimeInterval duration = (animated)? 0.3 : 0.0;

    [UIView animateWithDuration:duration animations:^{
        searchBar.frame = CGRectOffset(searchBar.frame, 0.0, offset);
        self.tableView.frame = UIEdgeInsetsInsetRect(self.tableView.frame, UIEdgeInsetsMake(offset, 0, 0, 0));
    } completion:^(BOOL finished) {if (!hidden) [searchBar becomeFirstResponder];}];
}

Except in a method that gets called when the add function starts and ends.

(About twice a year, I come to the conclusion that UITableViewController is more trouble than it's worth. Then, at approximately the same frequency, I forget I learned that).