How to remove shadow below UINavigationBar with UISearchController

Question

I could successfully remove the shadow below the navigation bar with the following line of code.

self.navigationController?.navigationBar.shadowImage = UIImage()

When I added a search controller however, the shadow reappeared.

self.navigationItem.searchController = UISearchController(searchResultsController: nil)

I tried the following, but resulted an unexpected behavior.

self.navigationController?.navigationBar.setBackgroundImage(UIImage(), for: .default)
self.navigationController?.navigationBar.barTintColor = .white
self.navigationController?.navigationBar.isTranslucent = false

How do I remove the shadow under a navigation bar when there is a search controller attached?

Answer 1

I have not found good solution too...

for now I will hide it this way:

override func viewDidAppear(_ animated: Bool) {
        super.viewDidAppear(animated)
        if let imageView = navigationItem.searchController?.searchBar.superview?.subviews.first?.subviews.first as? UIImageView {
            imageView.isHidden = true
        }
    }

Answer 2

Here's the solution that I use

1. Create a separate class extending a UINavigationController instance, lets call it BaseNavigationController. Here's your class for you

2. If you are using storyboards, assign BaseNavigationController to your UINavigationController scene in the storyboard

3. If you are initializing a navigation controller via code, ex: UINavigationController.init(rootViewController: someViewControllerInstance) then simply use BaseNavigationController.init(rootViewController: someViewControllerInstance)

An example of the class is shown below:

open class BaseNavigationController:UINavigationController {

    override open func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        setNavigationBar()
        setNavBarBorder(false)
    }

    func setNavigationBar(color:UIColor?=UIColor.white, tint:UIColor?=UIColor.darkGray){
        let appearance = UIBarButtonItem.appearance()
        appearance.setBackButtonTitlePositionAdjustment(UIOffset.init(horizontal: 0.0, vertical: 0), for: .default)
        self.navigationBar.barTintColor = color!
        self.navigationBar.isTranslucent = false
        self.navigationBar.tintColor = tint!
        self.navigationBar.titleTextAttributes = [ NSAttributedString.Key.foregroundColor: tint! ]
    }

    func setTitleColor(_ color:UIColor?=UIColor.darkGray){

    }

    func setNavBarBorder(_ enable:Bool) {
        self.navigationBar.setBackgroundImage((enable ? nil : UIImage()), for: UIBarMetrics.default)
        self.navigationBar.shadowImage = (enable ? nil : UIImage())
        self.navigationBar.setValue(true, forKey: "hidesShadow")
    }

}

Now, the fun part, if you are handling ambiguous layout you might need to do this in viewWillLayoutSubviews otherwise putting this bit of code in viewWillAppear of the viewController instance.

(self.navigationController as? BaseNavigationController)?. setNavBarBorder(false)

the interesting bit of code is in self.navigationBar.setValue(true, forKey: "hidesShadow"), for some versions of iOS.