Is it possible to change UITabBarItem badge color

Question

I want to change background color of UITabBarItem badge but can\'t find any resource on how to make it.

Answer 1

I have the same problem and solved it by creating a little category that replace the BadgeView with an UILabel that you can customize easily.

https://github.com/enryold/UITabBarItem-CustomBadge/

Answer 2

For people using Swift, I managed to improve on TimWhiting answer in order to have the badge view working on any screen size and any orientation.

 extension UITabBarController {

    func setBadges(badgeValues: [Int]) {

        for view in self.tabBar.subviews {
            if view is CustomTabBadge {
                view.removeFromSuperview()
            }
        }

        for index in 0...badgeValues.count-1 {
            if badgeValues[index] != 0 {
                addBadge(index, value: badgeValues[index], color:UIColor(paletteItem: .Accent), font: UIFont(name: Constants.ThemeApp.regularFontName, size: 11)!)
            }
        }
    }

    func addBadge(index: Int, value: Int, color: UIColor, font: UIFont) {
        let badgeView = CustomTabBadge()

        badgeView.clipsToBounds = true
        badgeView.textColor = UIColor.whiteColor()
        badgeView.textAlignment = .Center
        badgeView.font = font
        badgeView.text = String(value)
        badgeView.backgroundColor = color
        badgeView.tag = index
        tabBar.addSubview(badgeView)

        self.positionBadges()
    }

    override public func viewDidLayoutSubviews() {
        super.viewDidLayoutSubviews()
        self.positionBadges()
    }

    // Positioning
    func positionBadges() {

        var tabbarButtons = self.tabBar.subviews.filter { (view: UIView) -> Bool in
            return view.userInteractionEnabled // only UITabBarButton are userInteractionEnabled
        }

        tabbarButtons = tabbarButtons.sort({ $0.frame.origin.x < $1.frame.origin.x })

        for view in self.tabBar.subviews {
            if view is CustomTabBadge {
                let badgeView = view as! CustomTabBadge
                self.positionBadge(badgeView, items:tabbarButtons, index: badgeView.tag)
            }
        }
    }

    func positionBadge(badgeView: UIView, items: [UIView], index: Int) {

        let itemView = items[index]
        let center = itemView.center

        let xOffset: CGFloat = 12
        let yOffset: CGFloat = -14
        badgeView.frame.size = CGSizeMake(17, 17)
        badgeView.center = CGPointMake(center.x + xOffset, center.y + yOffset)
        badgeView.layer.cornerRadius = badgeView.bounds.width/2
        tabBar.bringSubviewToFront(badgeView)
    }
}

class CustomTabBadge: UILabel {}

Answer 3

No you can't change the color but you can use your own badges instead. Add this extension at the file scope and you can customise the badges however you like. Just call self.tabBarController!.setBadges([1,0,2]) in any of your root view controllers.

To be clear that is for a tab bar with three items, with the badge values going from left to right.

extension UITabBarController {
    func setBadges(badgeValues:[Int]){

        var labelExistsForIndex = [Bool]()

        for value in badgeValues {
            labelExistsForIndex.append(false)
        }

        for view in self.tabBar.subviews {
            if view.isKindOfClass(PGTabBadge) {
                let badgeView = view as! PGTabBadge
                let index = badgeView.tag

                if badgeValues[index]==0 {
                    badgeView.removeFromSuperview()
                }

                labelExistsForIndex[index]=true
                badgeView.text = String(badgeValues[index])

            }
        }

        for var i=0;i<labelExistsForIndex.count;i++ {
            if labelExistsForIndex[i] == false {
                if badgeValues[i] > 0 {
                    addBadge(i, value: badgeValues[i], color:UIColor(red: 4/255, green: 110/255, blue: 188/255, alpha: 1), font: UIFont(name: "Helvetica-Light", size: 11)!)
                }
            }
        }


    }

    func addBadge(index:Int,value:Int, color:UIColor, font:UIFont){

        let itemPosition = CGFloat(index+1)
        let itemWidth:CGFloat = tabBar.frame.width / CGFloat(tabBar.items!.count)

        let bgColor = color

        let xOffset:CGFloat = 12
        let yOffset:CGFloat = -9

        var badgeView = PGTabBadge()
        badgeView.frame.size=CGSizeMake(17, 17)
        badgeView.center=CGPointMake((itemWidth * itemPosition)-(itemWidth/2)+xOffset, 20+yOffset)
        badgeView.layer.cornerRadius=badgeView.bounds.width/2
        badgeView.clipsToBounds=true
        badgeView.textColor=UIColor.whiteColor()
        badgeView.textAlignment = .Center
        badgeView.font = font
        badgeView.text = String(value)
        badgeView.backgroundColor = bgColor
        badgeView.tag=index
        tabBar.addSubview(badgeView)

    }
}

class PGTabBadge: UILabel {

}

Answer 4

It appears that no. You may only set the value. From Apple's documentation badge is:

Text that is displayed in the upper-right corner of the item with a surrounding red oval.

Answer 5

Take a look here @ UITabbarItem-CustomBadge.

A complete demonstration is following

it takes only two line of code, if you want to use the default implementation

- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions {

  //supplying the animation parameter
  [UITabBarItem setDefaultAnimationProvider:[[DefaultTabbarBadgeAnimation alloc] init]];
  [UITabBarItem setDefaultConfigurationProvider:[[DefaultSystemLikeBadgeConfiguration alloc] init]];

  //rest of your code goes following...

  return YES;
}

Answer 6

You can now do it in the storyboard too, by selecting your tab bar item and going to the attributes inspector.