How do I hide/show the right button in the Navigation Bar

Question

I need to hide the right button in the Navigation Bar, then unhide it after the user selects some options.

Unfortunately, the following doesn't work:

NO GOOD: self.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem.hidden = YES;  // FOO CODE

Is there a way?

Answer 1

Hide the button by setting the reference to nil, however if you want to restore it later, you'll need to hang onto a copy of it so you can reassign it.

UIBarButtonItem *oldButton = self.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem;
[oldButton retain];
self.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem = nil;

//... later
self.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem = oldButton;
[oldButton release];

Personally, in my apps I make my nav buttons into @properties, so that I can trash & recreate them at will, so something like:

//mycontroller.h
UIBarButtonItem *rightNavButton;
@property (nonatomic, retain) UIBarButtonItem *rightNavButton;

//mycontroller.m
@synthesize rightNavButton;
- (UIBarButtonItem *)rightNavButton {
    if (!rightNavButton) {
        rightNavButton = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] init];
        //configure the button here
    }
    return rightNavButton;
}

//later, in your code to show/hide the button:
self.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem = self.rightNavButton;

Answer 2

For Swift 3

if let button = self.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem {
                    button.isEnabled = false
                    button.tintColor = UIColor.clear
                }`

Answer 3

Set reference to nil:

current_controller_in_navcontroller.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem =  nil;

Also be sure to call this in the controller currently shown by the navController, not for the navController itself.

Answer 4

Show:

[self.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem.customView setAlpha:1.0];

Hide:

[self.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem.customView setAlpha:0.0];

You can even animate its showing/hiding

[UIView animateWithDuration:0.2 animations:^{
        [self.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem.customView setAlpha:1.0];

    }];

Answer 5

Here's Matt's solution updated for Storyboards & ARC. Remember, IBOutlets are __weak by default, so you need to change that to strong for it not to be released too early.

@interface MAGTableViewController () <UITextFieldDelegate>

@property (strong, nonatomic) IBOutlet UIBarButtonItem *rightBarButton;

@end

@implementation MAGTableViewController

- (void)viewDidLoad
{
    [super viewDidLoad];

    [self.navigationItem setRightBarButtonItem:nil];
}

- (IBAction)rightBarButtonItemTapped:(id)sender
{
    [self.view endEditing:YES];
}

- (void)textFieldDidBeginEditing:(UITextField *)textField
{
    [self.navigationItem setRightBarButtonItem:self.rightBarButton];
}

- (void)textFieldDidEndEditing:(UITextField *)textField
{
    [self.navigationItem setRightBarButtonItem:nil];
}

@end

Answer 6

Credit has to go to learner for this answer which the answer is from this question:

hide and show left navigation bar button on demand in iOS-7

This is the answer, which is far more simple.

//hide and reveal bar buttons
-(void) hideAndDisableLeftNavigationItem
{
    [self.navigationItem.leftBarButtonItem setTintColor:[UIColor clearColor]];
    [self.navigationItem.leftBarButtonItem setEnabled:NO];
}

-(void) showAndEnableLeftNavigationItem
{
    [self.navigationItem.leftBarButtonItem setTintColor:[UIColor blueColor]];
    [self.navigationItem.leftBarButtonItem setEnabled:YES];
}

Then you just reference the method where you require it like within an (IBAction) like so:

[self hideAndDisableLeftNavigationItem];//[self showAndEnableLeftNavigationItem]; to show again

I tried all other methods and none worked, even referencing my button as a @property (...) UIBarButtonItem.... and nothing worked until I found this.

Answer 7

SWIFT 2.2

In swift 2.2 self.navigationItem does not work. Instead create an outlet of the NavigationItem (I named it below "nav") and use it.

Also the following suggestion did not work for me using Xcode 7.3 and swift 2.2

 nav.leftBarButtonItem?.customView?.hidden = true

So I used the idea of @Matt J above as follows (I have 2 items on the left):

1. Create outlets for the items in the navigation bar and variables to store them

   @IBOutlet weak var settingItem: UIBarButtonItem!
   @IBOutlet weak var logoItem: UIBarButtonItem!
   
   var sav_settingItem: UIBarButtonItem = UIBarButtonItem()
   var sav_logoItem: UIBarButtonItem = UIBarButtonItem()
   

2. Save the items in viewDidLoad()

   sav_settingItem = nav.leftBarButtonItems![0]
   sav_logoItem = nav.leftBarButtonItems![1]
   

3. To HIDE set them to nil

   nav.leftBarButtonItem = nil
   nav.leftBarButtonItem = nil
   

4. To SHOW them

   if (nav.leftBarButtonItem == nil) {
       nav.leftBarButtonItem = sav_settingItem
       nav.leftBarButtonItems?.append(sav_logoItem)
       return
   }
   

Answer 8

Show:

[self.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem.customView setHidden:NO];

Hide:

[self.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem.customView setHidden:YES];

Answer 9

My solution:

self.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem.customView.hidden=NO;

Answer 10

Swift 2:

Trick!

Hide:

if let btn = self.tabBarController!.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem {
        btn.enabled = false
        btn.title = ""
}

Show:

if let btn = self.tabBarController!.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem {
        btn.enabled = true
        btn.title = "ButtonName"
}

Answer 11

In swift 4 I has a trick to show / hide right or left button:

Step 1: Create a IBOutlet button in view controller:

@IBOutlet var navigationItemButton: UIBarButtonItem!

Step 2: Create Hide button function:

func hideNavigationButton() {
    navigationItemButton.isEnabled = false
    navigationItemButton.tintColor = UIColor.clear
}

Step 3: Create Show button function:

func showNavigationButton() {
    navigationItemButton.isEnabled = true
    navigationItemButton.tintColor = UIColor.white
}

Step 4: Just call the functions that you want, use hideNavigationButton() to hide, and showNavigationButton() to show the button.

Regards!

Answer 12

If you have only one bar button item in the right side you can use this one,

self.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem = nil;

Suppose if you have multiple bar button in the right side, for example suppose you have two bar button items(search button and filter button) in the right side of your navigation item. Now the right bar button items are

self.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItems = [searchItem,filterItem]

and you have to hide only search button, you can use like,

self.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItems = [filterItem]

Now what happening is, you can completely hide the search button from the navigation item and the filter item comes in the place of search item

Answer 13

Show:

//set navigationItem tint color white
self.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem.tintColor = [UIColor whiteColor];

Hide:

//set navigationItem tint clear white
self.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem.tintColor = [UIColor clearColor];

Answer 14

1. Assume you can reference the specific bar button as variable xxxButton

(please open Assistant Editor, Control+Drag xxx button to YourViewController class as outlet "xxxButton").

or you can use something like let xxxButton = navigationBar.buttons[1]

2. Hide xxxButton.customView = UIView() or navigationItem.rightBarButtonItems?.remove(at: (navigationItem.rightBarButtonItems?.index(of:xxxButton)!)!)

3. Show xxxButton.customView = nil or navigationItem.rightBarButtonItems?.insert(newElement: xxxButton, at:SOME_INDEX)

Hope helpful.

Answer 15

To hide:

if let topItem = self.navigationController?.navigationBar.topItem {
    topItem.rightBarButtonItem = nil
}

Answer 16

Set the the title to empty first and after swlwction just set again.

Answer 17

You can use below code:

    self.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem?.image = nil
    self.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem?.isEnabled = false

Answer 18

For swift 5 to hide rightBarButtonItem

self.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem?.customView?.isHidden = true