UIButton as UINavigationItem titleView

Question

I'm trying to place a UIButton as the titleView for my UINavigationItem. This is my code but it doesn't work. The title is completely blank.

override func viewDidLoad() {
    super.viewDidLoad()

    let titleButton = UIButton()
    titleButton.titleLabel?.font = UIFont(name: "HelveticaNeue-Medium", size: 16)
    titleButton.titleLabel?.textAlignment = NSTextAlignment.Center;
    titleButton.titleLabel?.text = "My Custom Title"
    titleButton.titleLabel?.sizeToFit()

    self.navigationItem.titleView = titleButton
}

Here is a screenshot of the missing title.

screenshot

Debug and check if it has an actual frame – rcat24 Feb 11 '15 at 15:00 — rcat24, Feb 11 '15 at 15:00

score 4 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 11 '15 at 15:20

4

If you are using Storyboards, you can drag a UIButton to the titleView. If Interface Builder doesn't let you do it, it's because you need to drag first a UINavigationItem to the navigation bar, so you can then drag views inside, like your UIButton.

answered Feb 11 '15 at 15:20

Gorka

331
1
5

1

Oh snap! I didn't know that was even possible. I'm going to accept the other answer as it directly answers what was wrong with the code in the question. However, I am going to go this route because it makes a lot more sense. – Fenda Feb 11 '15 at 15:27
I'm glad it helped, @Fenda! Interface Builder is getting more and more powerful time to time, but in silence ;) – Gorka Feb 11 '15 at 15:28

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 11 '15 at 14:59

3

To set the title of the button you shouldn't be directly setting the text of the label, you should be configuring the button to set the title for a particular state using func setTitle(_ title: String?, forState state: UIControlState).

Generally you set the title for .Normal and that will then apply to all states (as the default).

answered Feb 11 '15 at 14:59

Wain

118,658
15
128
151

Thanks! What a rookie mistake. :) – Fenda Feb 11 '15 at 15:18

UIButton as UINavigationItem titleView

2 Answers2