iOS 7: How to set UIBarButtonItem backButtonBackgroundImage for UIControlStateHighlighted?

Question

I am trying to set the background image for back button in normal and highlighted states.

- (void)configureBackButtonInNavigationItem:(UINavigationItem *)item
{
          


        

Answer 1

Currently Apple has bug on interactivePopGestureRecognizer (which makes to freeze navigation controller's view after swiping back on push animation, you will see nested pop animation can result in corrupted navigation bar warning in console), by the way, we can make a small hack to work around that bug.

Here is a solution that works fine for me,

Subclass a NavigationController class and make it to delegate the gesture

@interface CBNavigationController : UINavigationController 
@end

@implementation CBNavigationController

- (void)viewDidLoad
{
  __weak CBNavigationController *weakSelf = self;

  if ([self respondsToSelector:@selector(interactivePopGestureRecognizer)])
  {
    self.interactivePopGestureRecognizer.delegate = weakSelf;
    self.delegate = weakSelf;
  }
}

// Hijack the push method to disable the gesture

- (void)pushViewController:(UIViewController *)viewController animated:(BOOL)animated
{
  if ([self respondsToSelector:@selector(interactivePopGestureRecognizer)])
    self.interactivePopGestureRecognizer.enabled = NO;

  [super pushViewController:viewController animated:animated];
}

#pragma mark UINavigationControllerDelegate

- (void)navigationController:(UINavigationController *)navigationController
       didShowViewController:(UIViewController *)viewController
                    animated:(BOOL)animate
{
  // Enable the gesture again once the new controller is shown

  if ([self respondsToSelector:@selector(interactivePopGestureRecognizer)])
    self.interactivePopGestureRecognizer.enabled = YES;
}


@end

When the user starts swiping backwards in the middle of a transition, the pop events stack up and "corrupt" the navigation stack. My workaround is to temporarily disable the gesture recognizer during push transitions, and enable it again when the new view controller loads. Again, this is easier with a UINavigationController subclass.

After this, you can calmly use item.leftBarButtonItem and UIButton as custom view.