Add toolbar to UITableViewController

Question

What is the simplest way to add UIToolBar to UITableViewController? I'm depending on edit functionality, so I can't change UITableViewController to UIViewController easily.

Answer 1

No problem at all, UITableViewController is a subclass of UIViewController. And it so happens that in iPhone OS 3.0 any UIViewController (and subclasses) can work in conjunction with a UINavigationController to provide a context aware toolbar.

In order for this to work you must:

• Make sure that you use a UINavigationController to contain all your view controllers that needs a toolbar.
• Set the toolbarsItems property of the view controller that wants a toolbar.

This is almost as easy as as setting the view controller's title, and should be done the same way. Most probably by overriding the initWithNibName:bundle: initializer. As an example:

-(id)initWithNibName:(NSString*)name bundle:(NSBundle*)bundle;
{
  self = [super initWithNibName:name bundle:bundle];
  if (self) {
    self.title = @"My Title";
    NSArray* toolbarItems = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:
        [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithBarButtonSystemItem:UIBarButtonSystemItemAdd 
                                                      target:self
                                                      action:@selector(addStuff:)],
        [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithBarButtonSystemItem:UIBarButtonSystemItemSearch 
                                                      target:self
                                                      action:@selector(searchStuff:)],
        nil];
    [toolbarItems makeObjectsPerformSelector:@selector(release)];
    self.toolbarItems = toolbarItems;
    self.navigationController.toolbarHidden = NO;
  }
  return self;
}

You can also use setToolbarItems:animated: instead of assigning to the toolbarItems property, to add and remove toolbar items in an animated fashion on the fly.