Adding button to left of UISearchBar

[ErikCarlson]

Hi All,

I am tearing my hair out on this one. my client wants to add a button to the left of a search bar like the example below:




But I just can't figure out how to do it. Apple don't seem to provide any documented method for adding custom buttons to a UISearchBar, let alone to the left of the search bar.

I've tried hacking around in Interface Builder adding a UIToolbar with a button in it to the left but I cannot find any combination of styles where the two line up properly to give the impression that they are one. there is always what looks like one pixel difference in the vertical alignment as you can see from the picture below:



I've searched around and just can't find the answer, but as we can see from the screenshot it must be possible! I'm hoping someone here has an idea?

Thank you in advance for your help.

Erik

[split]

I did this on iPad, but it should work on iPhone too.
Basic idea is to use UIToolbar and add serch bar as UIBarButtonItem. I did it with very customized elements, so I'm not sure if it will work. Let me know.

The code is written straight from my head, so there may be mistakes.

// button
UIBarButtonItem *settingsButtonItem = // create settings button

// search bar
UISearchBar *searchBar = [[UISearchBar alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0, 260, 44)];
UIBarButtonItem *searchBarButtonItem = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithCustomView:searchBar];
[searchBar release];

// toolbar is UIToolbar
[toolbar setItems:[NSArray arrayWithObjects:settingsButtonItem, searchBarButtonItem nil] animated:NO];

[xwwxy]

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