Next/Previous Keyboard Toolbar iOS7

Question

Currently, I am trying to set the next/previous buttons on my keyboard toolbar to the new, sleek iOS 7 back button/forward buttons that get put in navigation controllers to go b

Answer 1

1) Download latest files from: https://github.com/simonbs/BSKeyboardControls

2) Import the images for back/next buttons. These can be whatever you want and you can set the appropriate sizes so that they look good. Joshua has a good set. I have mine saved as "keyboardBack.png" and "keyboardForward.png"

3) In BSKeyboardControls.m, update initWithFields:fields. Here you can do some customization like setting the width of your back/next buttons. I removed the Done button here too to follow your screenshot but you can add it back.

- (id)initWithFields:(NSArray *)fields
{
    if (self = [super initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0.0f, 0.0f, 320.0f, 44.0f)])
    {
        // Creates toolbar
        [self setToolbar:[[UIToolbar alloc] initWithFrame:self.frame]];
        [self.toolbar setBarStyle:UIBarStyleDefault];
        [self.toolbar setAutoresizingMask:(UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleLeftMargin | UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleRightMargin | UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleWidth)];
        [self addSubview:self.toolbar];

        // Import images
        UIImage *backImage = [[UIImage imageNamed:@"keyboardBack"] imageWithRenderingMode:UIImageRenderingModeAlwaysOriginal];
        UIImage *forwardImage = [[UIImage imageNamed:@"keyboardForward"] imageWithRenderingMode:UIImageRenderingModeAlwaysOriginal];

        // Create segmentedcontrol
        self.segmentedControl = [[UISegmentedControl alloc] initWithItems:@[backImage, forwardImage]];
        self.segmentedControl.tintColor = [UIColor clearColor];

        // Set button widths
        [self.segmentedControl setWidth:50 forSegmentAtIndex:0];
        [self.segmentedControl setWidth:50 forSegmentAtIndex:1];

        // Other BSKeyboardControls stuff
        [self.segmentedControl addTarget:self action:@selector(segmentedControlValueChanged:) forControlEvents:UIControlEventValueChanged];
        [self.segmentedControl setMomentary:YES];
        [self.segmentedControl setEnabled:NO forSegmentAtIndex:BSKeyboardControlsDirectionPrevious];
        [self.segmentedControl setEnabled:NO forSegmentAtIndex:BSKeyboardControlsDirectionNext];
        [self setSegmentedControlItem:[[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithCustomView:self.segmentedControl]];
        [self setVisibleControls:(BSKeyboardControlPreviousNext)];
        [self setFields:fields];
    }

    return self;
}

4) The left padding on the toolbar is a bit too much, so you can fix it by adding a negative separator in toolbarItems: in BSKeyboardControls.m:

- (NSArray *)toolbarItems
{
    NSMutableArray *items = [NSMutableArray arrayWithCapacity:3];
    if (self.visibleControls & BSKeyboardControlPreviousNext)
    {
        UIBarButtonItem *negativeSeperator = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithBarButtonSystemItem:UIBarButtonSystemItemFixedSpace
                                                                                           target:nil
                                                                                           action:nil];
        negativeSeperator.width = -12;

        [items addObject:negativeSeperator];
        [items addObject:self.segmentedControlItem];

    }

    if (self.visibleControls & BSKeyboardControlDone)
    {
        [items addObject:[[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithBarButtonSystemItem:UIBarButtonSystemItemFlexibleSpace target:nil action:nil]];
        [items addObject:self.doneButton];
    }

    return items;
}

Note: I probably don't have the button widths and paddings to the exact specs, but you can tweak it to your liking!

Answer 2

Using Xcode 7.3, you can also just enter a symbol as the title for the Bar Item. This works both in code and in Interface Builder:

• Place your cursor where you want the symbol to appear (eg, title box in IB or within quotes in code).
• In Xcode's menu, click Edit, then Emoji & Symbols. (Alternatively, press control-command-space to bring up the list of characters.)
• In the search box, type less or greater.
• Then, select the symbol you want.

The less-than and greater-than symbols are colored blue in the toolbar by default.

In code:

backButton.title = "＜"

In IB:

Answer 3

These are the images used in toolbar, e.g. the back and forward button images:

Answer 4

You can use this great tool by @iftekhar and customise IQSegmentedNextPrevious according to your need for giving images instead of next previous button.

Answer 5

Use the icons shared by Joshua and then try with below piece of code and you will be good to go. I have not added the done button here.

UIImage *backImage = [[UIImage imageNamed:@"backImage"] imageWithRenderingMode:UIImageRenderingModeAlwaysOriginal];
UIImage *forwardImage = [[UIImage imageNamed:@"forward"] imageWithRenderingMode:UIImageRenderingModeAlwaysOriginal];
self.segmentedControl = [[UISegmentedControl alloc] initWithItems:@[backImage, forwardImage]];
[self.segmentedControl addTarget:self action:@selector(segmentedControlChangedState:) forControlEvents:UIControlEventValueChanged];
self.segmentedControl.segmentedControlStyle = UISegmentedControlStyleBar;
self.segmentedControl.tintColor = [UIColor clearColor];
UIBarButtonItem *aSegmentedControlBarButtonItem = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithCustomView:self.segmentedControl];
[self setItems:@[aSegmentedControlBarButtonItem, self.flexibleSpace]];

Answer 6

If you don't mind living on the edge you could use Apple's undocumented system items to achieve the iOS 7 look. Here are left and right bar button items.

    [self setDoneButton:[[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithBarButtonSystemItem:105 target:nil action:nil]];
    [self setDoneButton:[[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithBarButtonSystemItem:106 target:nil action:nil]];

Source: http://iphonedevwiki.net/index.php/UIBarButtonItem