Question

I’m adding a series of buttons to a UINavigationBar using:

    NSArray *items;

        items = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:
                 fixedSpace,
                 refreshStopBarButtonItem,
                 flexibleSpace,
                 self.backBarButtonItem,
                 flexibleSpace,
                 self.forwardBarButtonItem,
                 flexibleSpace,
                 self.actionBarButtonItem,
                 fixedSpace,
                 nil];

    UIToolbar *toolbar = [[UIToolbar alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0.0f, 0.0f, toolbarWidth, 44.0f)];

    toolbar.items = items;

    toolbar.tintColor = [[UIColor whiteColor] colorWithAlphaComponent:1.0];

    toolbar.autoresizingMask = UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleHeight;

    self.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithCustomView:toolbar];

All working well.

However when I rotate to landscape mode the toolbar within the uinavigationbar doesn’t rotate.

Adding this code (found on SO) causes the toolbar to resize but not the buttons within it, so they are partially cropped at the bottom and no longer lines up with the toolbar background

- (void)willAnimateRotationToInterfaceOrientation:(UIInterfaceOrientation)toInterfaceOrientation duration:(NSTimeInterval)duration
{
    CGRect navigationToolbarFrame = self.navigationController.navigationBar.frame;
    CGRect customToolbarFrame = CGRectOffset(navigationToolbarFrame, 0.0, navigationToolbarFrame.size.height);
    [UIView animateWithDuration:duration animations:^{
        //self.toolbar.frame = customToolbarFrame;
        // FAILS!!!
        //self.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem.toolbar.frame = customToolbarFrame;
        // FAILS!!!
    }];
}

What is the correct way to address the toolbar within the uinavigationbar?
Something like…

self.toolbar.frame = customToolbarFrame;

Or do I have to specify a autoresizemask for the UIBarButtonItems?…

self.backBarButtonItem.autoresizingMask = UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleHeight;

… trying to do so like this fails

Answer 1

1. Very curious because this code rotates toolbar fine when I include it in my code. No problem rotating the toolbar.

2. I assume your view controller is responding to shouldAutorotateToInterfaceOrientation? Could you include screen snapshot of what you’re seeing?

3. Are you doing any UIToolbar category/subclass to eliminate its border? (I just subclass with empty (void)drawRect:(CGRect)rect to get rid of border, but I tried both that and the standard UIToolbar and both rotated fine.) Anyway, if you’re doing subclass/category of UIToolbar, please include that code?

4. Also, you could alternatively just use iOS 5’s rightBarButtonItems and bypass the toolbar altogether, e.g. self.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItems = items; will then add the array of UIBarButtonItem objects to the navigation bar.

5. This is a bit of a long shot, but how is your view controller being loaded? Some people try bypassing presentViewControllerAnimated and/or pushViewController and instead simply create a view controller, grab its view, add it as a subview of the previous view controller’s view. Unfortunately, this ends up with a disconnect between the view controller hierarchy and the view hierarchy, and according to WWDC 2011 session 102 on view controller containment, this can prevent rotation events from being transmitted correctly. Make sure you’re using presentViewControllerAnimated or pushViewController if this isn’t your root view controller.

I don’t do any of that willAnimateRotationToInterfaceOrientation or subsequent code, just the simple UIToolbar and it works fine during rotation, so I wonder if the problem rests elsewhere.