UINavigationController: How to cancel the back button event?

Question

In my UIViewController I have a UINavigationController with a default back button. When the user clicks the back button, a warning message should appear: "Do you really want to go back?". I know, that it is not possible to trap the back button event. It's only possible the use viewWillDisappear and set a flag:

- (void)viewWillDisappear:(BOOL)animated {
    if (backBtnPressed) {
        UIAlertView *alert = [[[UIAlertView alloc] initWithTitle:@"Question" message:@"Do you really want to go back?" delegate:self cancelButtonTitle:@"No" otherButtonTitles: @"Yes", nil] autorelease];
        [alert show];   
    }
}

- (void)alertView:(UIAlertView *)alertView didDismissWithButtonIndex:(NSInteger)buttonIndex {
    if (buttonIndex == 0) {
        // don't go back!
        // cancel the back button event
    }
    else if (buttonIndex == 1) {
        // go back
    }
}

But with this code I have no chance! I can't stop the back button event, isn't it?

Do I have to write my own back button and set it as leftBarButtonItem? Or is there anybody with a great idea? :-)

Thanks for your help!

Answer 1

My answer from another thread matches this question. So I repost it here:

I've implemented UIViewController-BackButtonHandler extension. It does not need to subclass anything, just put it into your project and override navigationShouldPopOnBackButton method in UIViewController class:

-(BOOL) navigationShouldPopOnBackButton {
    if(needsShowConfirmation) {
        // Show confirmation alert
        // ...
        return NO; // Ignore 'Back' button this time
    }
    return YES; // Process 'Back' button click and Pop view controller
}

Download sample app.

Answer 2

What you need to do is to use the delegate of the navigation bar, and not the navigation controller.

- (BOOL)navigationBar:(UINavigationBar *)navigationBar shouldPushItem:(UINavigationItem *)item; // called to push. return NO not to.
- (void)navigationBar:(UINavigationBar *)navigationBar didPushItem:(UINavigationItem *)item;    // called at end of animation of push or immediately if not animated
- (BOOL)navigationBar:(UINavigationBar *)navigationBar shouldPopItem:(UINavigationItem *)item;  // same as push methods
- (void)navigationBar:(UINavigationBar *)navigationBar didPopItem:(UINavigationItem *)item;