UItabBarItem highlight state image

Question

I'd like to be able to change the highlighted state image on an UITabBarItem when it is selected? Is it possible to subclass and access this? or do I need to roll my own navigation code?

-> start edit I didn't articulate what I was looking for earlier. I am looking for the semi-transparent white overlay reference that the device adds to the selected state/image of the UITabBar. See image! http://solomon71.com/images/UITabBarItem.png

could you just swap the icon when the tab is selected or deselected? — wkw, Nov 08 '09 at 22:29

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 08 '09 at 22:28

There is no documented or supported way to set your own highlighted image. Having said that, in 2.2 you could do it by subclassing UITabBarItem and implementing -[UIImage *)selectedImage.

Strictly speaking you are not calling private API, since selectedImage is not a reserved method name (and is actually a fairly reasonable name for someone to use themselves). Having said that, I am sure this is not intended and it could break at any time in a future release. It wouldn't shock me if this was already broken in 3.x (I never shipped anything that did this, just experimented with it for a client).

Thanks for this info. In 3.0 simulator this still works. See my edited question. — Paul Solomon, Nov 09 '09 at 05:59

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 28 '13 at 10:52

try this one.

I have change the selected tabbatitem image like -

in tabbar controller delegate method

- (void)tabBarController:(UITabBarController *)tabBarController didSelectViewController:(UIViewController *)viewController

{
    if([tabBarController selectedIndex] == 0)
    {
        [viewController.tabBarItem setFinishedSelectedImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"selected.png"]withFinishedUnselectedImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"unselect.png"]];
    }    
}

through this you can change your image.

Or you can use directly in your view controllers init(or ViewWillAppear) method, like

        [viewController.tabBarItem setFinishedSelectedImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"selected.png"]withFinishedUnselectedImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"unselect.png"]];

UItabBarItem highlight state image

2 Answers2

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