Question

I’ve overrided(placed in category, or swizzled) UINavigationBar’s drawRect to show custom background. In iOS 5 it’s not working. What should I do?

Answer 1

There’s some possible solutions:

Quickest fix For laziest of us :

@interface MyNavigationBar : UINavigationBar

@end

@implementation MyNavigationBar

- (void)drawRect:(CGRect)rect {

}

@end

@implementation UINavigationBar (BecauseIMLazyHacks)
/*
 Another Ugly hack for iOS 5.0 support
*/
+ (Class)class {
  return NSClassFromString(@"MyNavigationBar");
}

-(void)drawRect:(CGRect)rect {

  CGContextRef context = UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext();
  CGContextTranslateCTM(context, 0, self.frame.size.height);
  CGContextScaleCTM(context, 1.0, -1.0);

  CGContextDrawImage(context, CGRectMake(0, 0, 
  self.frame.size.width, self.frame.size.height), barBackground.CGImage);      

}
@end

Again. It works, but You shouldn’t do it like this.

Another way, as suggested in WWDC’11 is to override UINavigationBar (Create MyNavigationBar) and initialize UINavigationController from xib like here :

http://www.iosdevnotes.com/2011/09/custom-uinavigationbars-techniques/

And finally, use logic flow switch for iOS5.0 and iOS5.0-
Use new API where it’s possible.

Categories is wrong path, Swizzling is wrong path. (They’re just whispering in your ears:”Give yourself to the Dark Side. It is the only way you can save your apps.”)