Setting the background image of a UINavigationBar

[iSDK]

UINavigationBars are UIView subclasses usually found within UINavigationControllers and most applications with full view tableview support. However, I have found a lot of different posts of numerous forums about people having difficulty adding a backgroundImage to their UINavigationBar.

The one line method to do so is:

[aNavigationBar insertSubview:[[[UIImageView alloc] initWithImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"aImageName"]] autorelease] atIndex:0];

In response to the difficulty, I decided to create a UINavigationBar subclass called MKNavigationBar which easily allows the developer to add an image to their navigationBar, add a titleView with a different font and colour, and clear both the title and the image.

MKNavigationBar can be found here: https://github.com/MaxKDevelopment/MKNavigationBar

Once you have downloaded it import it into your ViewController above the @implementation like so:

#import "MKNavigationBar"

Once you have done this, in your viewDidLoad method, or the method where you would like to implement the navigationBar subclass you can write the following code:

To set the backgroundImage:

MKNavigationBar *navigationBar = [[[MKNavigationBar alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0,0,320,44)] autorelease];
[navigationBar setBackgroundImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"imagename.png"]];
[self.view addSubview:navigationBar];

To add a titleView

[navBar setTitle:@"MKNavigationBar" colour:[UIColor whiteColor] andFont:[UIFont fontWithName:@"Futura" size:16]];

To clear the title:

[navBar clearTitle];

To clear the backgroundImage:

[navBar clearBackgroundImage];

If you have any suggestions for helper classes/tutorials please do post below or send me a PM.