iOS 11 customise search bar in navigation bar

Question

I want to change the color of the text and icon in the iOS 11 searchbar when it is embedded in the navigation bar. So placeholder text, search text and search icon.

Answer 1

Put

UITextField.appearance(whenContainedInInstancesOf: [UISearchBar.self]).defaultTextAttributes = [NSForegroundColorAttributeName: UIColor.white]

and

UISearchBar.appearance().tintColor = UIColor.white in the AppDelegate.

Alternatively, put them both in [UIViewController viewDidLoad:]

Answer 2

In addition to Darko's answer. In my case I need to get pure white search textfield color. Also I need a custom borderLine and cornerRadius. So if I just set background color to white, set custom corner radius and custom border line I've got something like this.

The problem is that the search bar has some subviews and I've just removed them. Here is my code:

@interface YourViewController () <UISearchBarDelegate, UISearchControllerDelegate>
// your properties
@property (nonatomic,strong) UISearchController *searchController;
@property (nonatomic,strong) UISearchBar *searchBar;
@end

- (void)viewDidLoad {
[super viewDidLoad];

_searchController = [[UISearchController alloc] initWithSearchResultsController:self.resultsTableController];
_searchController.delegate = self;
_searchController.searchBar.delegate = self;
_searchBar = self.searchController.searchBar;

if (@available(iOS 11.0, *)) {

    UITextField *searchTextField = [_searchBar valueForKey:@"searchField"];
if (searchTextField != nil) {
        searchTextField.layer.cornerRadius = 4.f;
        searchTextField.layer.borderWidth = 1.f;
        searchTextField.clipsToBounds = YES;

        for (UIView *subView in searchTextField.subviews) {
            [subView removeFromSuperview];
        }
}

// Color for "Cancel" button
    _searchBar.tintColor = [UIColor blackColor];
// Add searchController to navgationBar
    _navigationItem.searchController = _searchController;
// Hide searchBar when scroll
    _navigationItem.hidesSearchBarWhenScrolling = YES;
}
}

Now I've got a searchBar with pure white background, custom cornerRadius, custom border width. Also I've disabled grey highlight when tap.

Answer 3

This code changes the background color of the text field

Swift 4

func application(_ application: UIApplication, didFinishLaunchingWithOptions launchOptions: [UIApplicationLaunchOptionsKey: Any]?) -> Bool {

        //background color of text field
         UITextField.appearance(whenContainedInInstancesOf: [UISearchBar.self]).backgroundColor = .cyan

        }

edited: sample of a UISearchBar in cyan

Answer 4

my two cents for Swift 4.x, lightly cleaned up.

Add in controller or App Delegate:

appearance.backgroundColor = .green
let myFont = UIFont.italicSystemFont(ofSize: 12)
let attribs = [
    NSAttributedString.Key(rawValue: NSAttributedString.Key.font.rawValue): myFont,
    NSAttributedString.Key(rawValue: NSAttributedString.Key.foregroundColor.rawValue): UIColor.red
]

appearance.defaultTextAttributes =  attribs

in controller:

self.searchBar.barTintColor = .blue

You will get Blue background, green search bar background, red italic font:

Answer 5

I just found out how to set also the rest of them: (with some help of Brandon, thanks!)

The "Cancel" text:

searchController.searchBar.tintColor = .white

The search icon:

searchController.searchBar.setImage(UIImage(named: "my_search_icon"), for: UISearchBarIcon.search, state: .normal)

The clear icon:

searchController.searchBar.setImage(UIImage(named: "my_search_icon"), for: UISearchBarIcon.clear, state: .normal)

The search text:

UITextField.appearance(whenContainedInInstancesOf: [UISearchBar.self]).defaultTextAttributes = [NSAttributedStringKey.foregroundColor.rawValue: UIColor.white]

Thanks for the help @Brandon!

The placeholder:

UITextField.appearance(whenContainedInInstancesOf: [UISearchBar.self]).attributedPlaceholder = NSAttributedString(string: "placeholder", attributes: [NSAttributedStringKey.foregroundColor: UIColor.white])

The white background:

let searchController = UISearchController(searchResultsController: nil)
searchController.delegate = self

let searchBar = searchController.searchBar
searchBar.tintColor = UIColor.white
searchBar.barTintColor = UIColor.white

if let textfield = searchBar.value(forKey: "searchField") as? UITextField {
    textfield.textColor = UIColor.blue
    if let backgroundview = textfield.subviews.first {

        // Background color
        backgroundview.backgroundColor = UIColor.white

        // Rounded corner
        backgroundview.layer.cornerRadius = 10;
        backgroundview.clipsToBounds = true;
    }
}

if let navigationbar = self.navigationController?.navigationBar {
    navigationbar.barTintColor = UIColor.blue
}

navigationItem.searchController = searchController
navigationItem.hidesSearchBarWhenScrolling = false

Taken from here.

Answer 6

I tried Daroko solution, but i had a problem when changing the background to pure white color (it’s was grey). My solution was to use the setSearchFieldBackgroundImage. also i don't want to rely on apple struct for getting the UITextField

  if #available(iOS 11.0, *) {
     let whiteImage = UIImage(color: UIColor.white, size: CGSize(width: searchController.searchBar.layer.frame.width, height: searchController.searchBar.layer.frame.height))
     searchController.searchBar.setSearchFieldBackgroundImage(whiteImage, for: .normal)
     self.navigationItem.searchController = searchController
     self.navigationItem.hidesSearchBarWhenScrolling = true
 }


public extension UIImage {
  public convenience init?(color: UIColor, size: CGSize = CGSize(width: 1, height: 1)) {
    let rect = CGRect(origin: .zero, size: size)
     UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions(rect.size, false, 0.0)
     color.setFill()
     UIRectFill(rect)
     let image = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext()
     UIGraphicsEndImageContext()
     guard let cgImage = image?.cgImage else { return nil }
     self.init(cgImage: cgImage)
} }

I used UIImage extension from : Create UIImage with solid color in Swift