How do I hide/show the right button in the Navigation Bar

Question

I need to hide the right button in the Navigation Bar, then unhide it after the user selects some options.

Unfortunately, the following doesn't work:

NO GOOD: self.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem.hidden = YES;  // FOO CODE 

Is there a way?

Answer 1

Hide the button by setting the reference to nil, however if you want to restore it later, you'll need to hang onto a copy of it so you can reassign it.

UIBarButtonItem *oldButton = self.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem; [oldButton retain]; self.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem = nil;  //... later self.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem = oldButton; [oldButton release]; 

Personally, in my apps I make my nav buttons into @properties, so that I can trash & recreate them at will, so something like:

//mycontroller.h UIBarButtonItem *rightNavButton; @property (nonatomic, retain) UIBarButtonItem *rightNavButton;  //mycontroller.m @synthesize rightNavButton; - (UIBarButtonItem *)rightNavButton {     if (!rightNavButton) {         rightNavButton = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] init];         //configure the button here     }     return rightNavButton; }  //later, in your code to show/hide the button: self.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem = self.rightNavButton;