How do I change a text label on a UIToolbar at runtime?

[Sachelis]

I’m trying to add a text label on a toolbar in my UIViewController. I first tried adding a UILabel to the view. I can connect it to the File’s Owner from the Interface Builder, but if I position the label on top of the toolbar, it isn’t displayed at runtime.

So I added a UIButtonBarItem with a Plain style (so it displays text but not the button frame). However, Interface Builder won’t let me connect the button item’s “referencing outlet” with the File’s Owner (when I control drag from the button to the xib “panel,” the “File’s Owner” doesn’t highlight and permit a drop).

Any ideas?

Thanks!

[garyshaf]

Originally Posted by Sachelis

I’m trying to add a text label on a toolbar in my UIViewController. I first tried adding a UILabel to the view. I can connect it to the File’s Owner from the Interface Builder, but if I position the label on top of the toolbar, it isn’t displayed at runtime.

So I added a UIButtonBarItem with a Plain style (so it displays text but not the button frame). However, Interface Builder won’t let me connect the button item’s “referencing outlet” with the File’s Owner (when I control drag from the button to the xib “panel,” the “File’s Owner” doesn’t highlight and permit a drop).

Any ideas?

Thanks!

I use the following code on my Navigation Bar. If you change it to add to your toolbar subview, it should work:

UILabel *label = [[[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0,0,10,10)] autorelease];
	label.textColor = [UIColor whiteColor];
	label.backgroundColor =[UIColor clearColor]; 
	label.font = [UIFont fontWithName:@"Verdana" size:16.0];
	self.navigationItem.titleView = label;
	label.text = @"Your Text";
	[label sizeToFit];

[Sachelis]

Originally Posted by garyshaf

I use the following code on my Navigation Bar. If you change it to add to your toolbar subview, it should work:

UILabel *label = [[[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0,0,10,10)] autorelease];
	label.textColor = [UIColor whiteColor];
	label.backgroundColor =[UIColor clearColor]; 
	label.font = [UIFont fontWithName:@"Verdana" size:16.0];
	self.navigationItem.titleView = label;
	label.text = @"Your Text";
	[label sizeToFit];

Thanks Gary. Your your code is changing the titleView of a navigation bar, whereas I have a toolbar which is a different critter. I can access self.toolbarItems. I suspect there is a way to cycle through the toolbarItems and locate my button to change its text.

[Sachelis]

<blush> I found that I could add a UILabel to the view and have it appear on top of the toolbar. When I previously tried, I positioned the UILabel too low on the view and it was being covered by the tab control.

A side note, in case somebody ends up on this thread trying to modify objects on a toolbar: you can add a UIToolbar variable to your view class, connect the toolbar to the variable, and then access the objects in your toolbar (you can also see the objects in the debugger). However, I wasn't able to change the titles at runtime, but this is handy for other purposes.

NSArray *buttonBarItems = self.myToolbar.items;
UIBarItem *pButton = [buttonBarItems objectAtIndex:2];