make UItextfield to function like UISearchBar

Question

I want to change the looks of UISearchBar : So,

If there's a way by which I can make my UITextField (in a custom background for search) to function like UISearchBar ? or subclassing and overriding the - (void)layoutSubviews is the only way ?

Kindly tell How to subclass it !!!

Answer 1

you can change the UISearchBar background using this bellow code..

for (UIView *subview in searchBar.subviews) {
        if ([subview isKindOfClass:NSClassFromString(@"UISearchBarBackground")]) {
            UIView *bg = [[UIView alloc] initWithFrame:subview.frame];
            bg.backgroundColor = [UIColor colorWithPatternImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"SkyBackground.jpeg"]];
            [searchBar insertSubview:bg aboveSubview:subview];
            [subview removeFromSuperview];
            break;
        }
    }

From this code you can set image or anything else for background of UISearchBar .

Also see my this answer with some other functionality to change the searchbar component layout.. How to change inside background color of UISearchBar component on iOS

UPDATE:

for change the Cancel button appearance use this bellow code...

   UIButton *cancelButton = nil;

    for(UIView *subView in searchBar.subviews)
    {
        if([subView isKindOfClass:[UIButton class]])
        {
            cancelButton = (UIButton*)subView;
            //do something here with this cancel Button
        }
    }

Answer 2

Its also possible using UITextFieldDelegates

- (BOOL)textField:(UITextField *)textField shouldChangeCharactersInRange:(NSRange)range replacementString:(NSString *)string{    
NSString *searchString;
if (string.length > 0) {        
    searchString = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@%@",textField.text, string];
} else {
   searchString = [textField.text substringToIndex:[textField.text length] - 1];
}
NSPredicate *filter = [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:@"SELF CONTAINS[cd] %@", searchString];
resultArray = [[resultTempArray filteredArrayUsingPredicate:filter] mutableCopy];

if (!searchString || searchString.length == 0) {

    resultArray = [resultTempArray mutableCopy];
} else {
    if (resultArray.count == 0) {
NSLog(@"No data From Search");
    }
}    
[tableView reloadData];    
return YES;
}

Answer 3

Filtering using UItextfield delegate methods

#pragma mark - UITEXTFIELD DELEGATE METHODS -

- (BOOL)textFieldShouldReturn:(UITextField *)textField{
    [textField resignFirstResponder];
    return YES;
}

- (BOOL)textFieldShouldClear:(UITextField *)textField{
    arrFilterSearch = nil;
    arrFilterSearch = [NSMutableArray arrayWithArray:arrSearch];
    UITableView *tblView = (UITableView *)[self.view viewWithTag:tblView_Tag];
    [tblView reloadData];
    return YES;
}

- (BOOL)textField:(UITextField *)textField shouldChangeCharactersInRange:(NSRange)range replacementString:(NSString *)string{
    NSString *searchKey = [textField.text stringByAppendingString:string];
    arrFilterSearch = nil;
    searchKey = [searchKey stringByReplacingCharactersInRange:range withString:@""];
    if (searchKey.length) {
            NSPredicate *pred = [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:@"firstname contains[cd] %@", searchKey];
            arrFilterSearch = [NSMutableArray arrayWithArray:[arrSearch filteredArrayUsingPredicate:pred]];
    }
    else
        arrFilterSearch = [NSMutableArray arrayWithArray:arrSearch];

    UITableView *tblView = (UITableView *)[self.view viewWithTag:tblView_Tag];
    [tblView reloadData];
    return YES;
}

Answer 4

Try this

    self.TextFieldSearch = (UITextField *)[self.Search.subviews lastObject];
    [self.TextFieldSearch removeFromSuperview];
    [self.view addSubview:self.TextFieldSearch];
    self.TextFieldSearch.delegate = self;
    self.TextFieldSearch.font = [UIFont systemFontOfSize:10];
    self.TextFieldSearch.keyboardAppearance =  UIKeyboardAppearanceAlert;
    [self.Search removeFromSuperview];

Answer 5

Changing the UIsearchBar background is one way to get a customized UISearchBar. But if you want limited functionality of searching a table you can have normal text Field and hook up a search button to filter results of tableview in another array and update tabledata with that array.

UIsearchBar's - (void)searchBar:(UISearchBar *)searchBar textDidChange:(NSString *)searchText is almost equivalent to UItextField's valieChanged IBAction

Answer 6

Ok, I got the same issue, and I subclassed UISearchBar! Here you go

- (void) layoutSubviews {

[super layoutSubviews];
UITextField *searchField = nil;
    for (UIView *subview in self.subviews) {
        if ([subview isKindOfClass:NSClassFromString(@"UISearchBarBackground")]) {
            [subview removeFromSuperview];
        }

        if ([subview isKindOfClass:[UITextField class]]) {
            searchField = (UITextField *)subview;
            searchField.leftViewMode = UITextFieldViewModeNever;
            [searchField setValue:[UIFont systemFontOfSize:8] forKeyPath:@"_placeholderLabel.font"];
             [searchField setBackground: [UIImage imageNamed:@"images.png"] ];
              searchField.clearButtonMode = UITextFieldViewModeNever;
        }

}
self.showsCancelButton = NO;
}