Question

I want to make a simple app that has a table with a bar (~50px high) at the top of the view. The bar will include a search button. When pressing the search button I would like to swap out the view in the bar with a search bar. I can’t think of the best way to do this.

I have several options here. I could do it programmatically or make custom .xib files of each view and have them swapped out. With the custom .xib files, I don’t know how to pass the functionality to the main ViewController.

I figure there is something out there somewhere regarding this in bits and pieces. I wanted to get some opinions on what the best way to do this is.

Answer 1

I achieved this functionality in this way:

1. Create a UIToolbar and place it up the top (can be done in Storyboard), create a property for it
2. Create a UISearchBar and place it near the top, then create a property for it and set isHidden to true

In your code:

1. Set the UISearchBar’s frame to equal the toolbar’s frame.

   [self.searchBar setFrame:self.toolBar.frame];

2. Create a “Search” button in the toolbar which will set searchBar’s isHidden = NO and toolBar’s isHidden = YES.

3. Configure the serchBar’s cancel button to reverse the isHidden fields of both bars.

This will have no animations. Just a complete replace.

To have it animate, use something like:

[self.searchBar setHidden:NO];
[UIView transitionWithView:self.searchBar duration:0.5 options:UIViewAnimationOptionTransitionFlipFromLeft animations:^{} completion:^(BOOL finished) {
    [self.toolBar setHidden:YES];
}];