UIBarButton Item Won't Appear in Navigation Bar

Question

I understand there are other questions like this but so far I have not been able to get an answer that works for so this is why I am writing this.

I right now have the following code to place a leftBarButtonItem:

   let user = FIRAuth.auth()?.currentUser
    var imageView: UIImageView?

    override func viewDidAppear(_ animated: Bool) {
        super.viewDidAppear(animated)

        setupNavBar()
    }

    func setupNavBar() {

        //left bar button item setup

        let url = URL(string: (self.user?.photoURL?.absoluteString)!)
        let data = try? Data(contentsOf: url!)
        imageView?.image = UIImage(data: data!)

        imageView?.layer.masksToBounds = true
        imageView?.layer.borderWidth = 1.5
        imageView?.layer.borderColor = UIColor.white.cgColor
        imageView?.layer.cornerRadius=(imageView?.bounds.width)! / 2

        let profileImageButton = UIBarButtonItem(image: UIImage(named: (self.user?.photoURL?.absoluteString)!), style: .plain, target: self, action:#selector(UserGroupsMainViewController.navLeftBarButtonTapped))

        self.navigationController?.navigationItem.leftBarButtonItem = profileImageButton
    }

    func navLeftBarButtonTapped() {

    } 

For some reason, the button does not appear on the navigation controller. I do know for sure that I have a URL that is not nil because I tested it in my print output. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

Answer 1

Just use navigationItem not navigationController.navigationItem

Ok, I just saw your problem.

You are using a URL as the "name" of an image. It doesn't work that way.

The function UIImage(named: "blah") will load an image from the app bundle stored with the name given.

If you want to download the image from a URL then you need to have a download task run in the background and then load the image once that's done.

Try using the AlamofireImage framework also.