Question

I know how to remove/change UISearchBar background color around search field:

[[self.searchBar.subviews objectAtIndex:0] removeFromSuperview];
self.searchBar.backgroundColor = [UIColor grayColor];

But don’t know how to do this inside it like that:

This needs to be compatible with iOS 4.3+.

Answer 1

Use this code to change the searchBar’s UITextField backgroundImage:

UITextField *searchField;
NSUInteger numViews = [searchBar.subviews count];
for (int i = 0; i < numViews; i++) {
    if ([[searchBar.subviews objectAtIndex:i] isKindOfClass:[UITextField class]]) { //conform?
        searchField = [searchBar.subviews objectAtIndex:i];
    }
}
if (searchField) {
    searchField.textColor = [UIColor whiteColor];
    [searchField setBackground: [UIImage imageNamed:@"yourImage"]]; //set your gray background image here
    [searchField setBorderStyle:UITextBorderStyleNone];
}

Use the below code to change the UISearchBarIcon:

 UIImageView *searchIcon = [[UIImageView alloc] initWithImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"yourSearchBarIconImage"]];
searchIcon.frame = CGRectMake(10, 10, 24, 24);
[searchBar addSubview:searchIcon];
[searchIcon release];

Also, to change the searchBar icon you can use the following built-in method on UISearchBar (which is available from iOS 5+):

- (void)setImage:(UIImage *)iconImage forSearchBarIcon:(UISearchBarIcon)icon state:(UIControlState)state

Here you can set 4 types of UISearchBarIcon i.e.:

1. UISearchBarIconBookmark
2. UISearchBarIconClear
3. UISearchBarIconResultsList
4. UISearchBarIconSearch

I hope this help you…