UISearchBar: clear background color or set background image [duplicate]

Question

How can set the background image, or clear the background, of a search bar, like the note application?

Answer 1

A future-proof way:

[searchBar setBackgroundImage:[UIImage new]];
[searchBar setTranslucent:YES];

Answer 2

mj_ has the answer that i used. i was just going to comment as such but i can't yet. So i'll just post my own answer with my implementation where I add a search bar to the top of a table view with a semi-transparent BG.

DLog(@"    Add search bar to table view"); 

//could be a UIImageView to display an image..?
bg = [[[UIView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0, 320, 45)] autorelease];
bg.backgroundColor        = [UIColor blackColor];
UISearchBar *sb           = [[[UISearchBar alloc]initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0, 290, 45)] autorelease];
sb.barStyle               = UIBarStyleBlackTranslucent;
sb.showsCancelButton      = NO;
sb.autocorrectionType     = UITextAutocorrectionTypeNo;
sb.autocapitalizationType = UITextAutocapitalizationTypeNone;
sb.delegate               = self;
[bg addSubview:sb];
table.tableHeaderView     = bg;

for (UIView *subview in sb.subviews) {
    if ([subview isKindOfClass:NSClassFromString(@"UISearchBarBackground")]) {
        [subview removeFromSuperview];
        break;
    }
}   

Answer 3

I had problems w/ the answer above. I used the following.

for (UIView *subview in searchBar.subviews) {
    if ([subview isKindOfClass:NSClassFromString(@"UISearchBarBackground")]) {
        [subview removeFromSuperview];
        break;
    }
}

Answer 4

This worked for me (ios4.2+)

// Change the search bar background
-(void)viewWillAppear:(BOOL)animated {
    for (UIView *subview in self.searchBar.subviews) {
        if ([subview isKindOfClass:NSClassFromString(@"UISearchBarBackground")]) {
            UIView *bg = [[UIView alloc] initWithFrame:subview.frame];
            bg.backgroundColor = [UIColor colorWithPatternImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"search_bar_bg"]];
            [self.searchBar insertSubview:bg aboveSubview:subview];
            [subview removeFromSuperview];
            break;
        }
    }   
}

Answer 5

I just came up with a solution that works really well. You have to override the UISearchBar and then hide both the Background and Segment Control layers. Then Draw the background.

@ .m

#import "UISearchBar.h" 
#import <QuartzCore/QuartzCore.h>

@implementation UISearchBar(CustomBackground)

- (id)init
    {
        for ( UIView * subview in self.subviews ) 
        {
            if ([subview isKindOfClass:NSClassFromString(@"UISearchBarBackground") ] ) 
                subview.alpha = 0.0;  

            if ([subview isKindOfClass:NSClassFromString(@"UISegmentedControl") ] )
                subview.alpha = 0.0; 
        } 

        return self;
    }

+ (UIImage *) bgImagePortrait
    {
        static UIImage *image = nil;
        if (image == nil)
            image = [[UIImage imageNamed:@"UISearchBarBack.png"] retain ];

        return image;
    }

+ (UIImage *) bgImageLandscape
    {
        static UIImage *image = nil;
        if (image == nil)
            image = [[UIImage imageNamed:@"UISearchBarBack.png"] retain];

        return image;
    }

- (void) drawLayer:(CALayer *)layer inContext:(CGContextRef)contenxt
    {
        if ([self isMemberOfClass:[UISearchBar class]] == NO)
            return; 

        UIImage * image = ( self.frame.size.width > 320 ) ? [UISearchBar bgImageLandscape ] : [UISearchBar bgImagePortrait ];  

        for ( UIView * subview in self.subviews ) {
            if ([subview isKindOfClass:NSClassFromString(@"UISearchBarBackground") ] ) 
                subview.alpha = 0.0; 

            if ([subview isKindOfClass:NSClassFromString(@"UISegmentedControl") ] )
                subview.alpha = 0.0; 
        }

        CGContextTranslateCTM( contenxt , 0 , image.size.height );
        CGContextScaleCTM( contenxt, 1.0, -1.0 );
        CGContextDrawImage( contenxt , CGRectMake( 0 , 0 , image.size.width , image.size.height ), image.CGImage );
    }  

@end

@ .h

#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>
#import <QuartzCore/QuartzCore.h>


@interface UISearchBar(CustomBackground) 

@end

Hope this helps!