UIBarButtonItem changing title not working

Question

How can I change the title of a UIBarButtonItem? I have the following code which is called when an edit button is pressed on my UINavigationBar.

-(void)editButtonSelected:(id)sender {
    NSLog(@"edit button selected!");
    if(editing) {
        NSLog(@"notediting");
        [super setEditing:NO animated:NO];
        [tableView setEditing:NO animated:NO];
        [tableView reloadData];
        [rightButtonItem setTitle:@"Edit"];
        [rightButtonItem setStyle:UIBarButtonItemStylePlain];
        editing = false;
    }
    else {
        NSLog(@"editing");
        [super setEditing:YES animated:YES];
        [tableView setEditing:YES animated:YES];
        [tableView reloadData];
        [rightButtonItem setTitle:@"Done"];
        [rightButtonItem setStyle:UIBarButtonItemStyleDone];
        editing = true;
    }
}

The edit button is changing color (so the line which sets the style is working), however the line which sets the title of the button is not working.

Answer 1

I've done the following to dynamically change the title of a UIBarButtonItem. In this situation I am not using a UIViewTableController and cannot use the standard editButton. I have a view with a tableView as well as other subviews and wanted to emulate the behavior of the limited UIViewTableController.

- (void)InitializeNavigationItem
{
    NSMutableArray *array = [[NSMutableArray alloc] initWithCapacity:2];
    UIBarButtonItem* barButton;

    barButton = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithBarButtonSystemItem:UIBarButtonSystemItemAdd 
                                                              target:self 
                                                              action:@selector(addNewItem:)];
    barButton.style = UIBarButtonItemStyleBordered;
    [array addObject:barButton];

    // --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    barButton = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithTitle:@"Edit" style:UIBarButtonItemStyleBordered
                                                              target:self 
                                                              action:@selector(editMode:)];
    barButton.style = UIBarButtonItemStyleBordered;
    barButton.possibleTitles = [NSSet setWithObjects:@"Edit", @"Done", nil];
    [array addObject:barButton];

    self.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItems = array;
}

- (IBAction)editMode:(UIBarButtonItem *)sender
{
    if (self.orderTable.editing)
    {
        sender.title = @"Edit";
        [self.orderTable setEditing:NO animated:YES];
    }
    else
    {
        sender.title = @"Done";
        [self.orderTable setEditing:YES animated:YES];
    }
}

Note that I didn't use the the UIBarButtonSystemItemEdit barButton, you cannot manually change the name of that button, which makes sense.

You also might want to take advantage of the possibleTitles property so that the button doesn't resize when you change the title.

If you are using a Storyboard/XIB to create/set these buttons, ensure that the Bar Button Item Identifier is set to Custom for the button which you'd want to control the title for.

Answer 2

I had this problem and resolved it by setting the UIBarButtonItem style to the custom type when it's initialised. Then the titles would set when changing their title values.

You may also want to set the possibleTitle value in the viewDidLoad method to ensure the button is sized correctly for all the possible titles it can have.