UIButton hidden behind UIToolbar

Question

Context

I've got a UIButton that I'm adding, method is below:

[self.view addSubview:[self returnCustomSubmitButton]];

I don't add the toolbar as a subview, I set the ViewControllers navigationController property toolBarHidden to NO. - [self.navigationController setToolbarHidden:NO animated:NO]; at viewWill apear

Extra Detail

The reason I'm doing this is because I want to create something like the toolbar (NOTE: This is a UITabBar, but I'm looking for the same shape) below - so I'm adding a toolbar and then adding a UIButton to the viewControllers view and using the toolbars coordinates to position the UIButton

I've tried to follow along to this (NOTE: Again this is for a UITabBar), but struggling: http://idevrecipes.com/2010/12/16/raised-center-tab-bar-button/

Problem

The UIButton is hidden behing the UIToolbar (I want it to sit on top of the toolbar).

Questions

• How do I solve this?
• Would it be a better approach to convert a UIButton to a UIBarButtItem? And add a UIButton to a viewController's toolbarItems array?
• How would I do this?

Update

After lots of attempts at fixing this, is this something to do with the fact I'm using UINavigationController and the fact that I'm adding a UIButton to the "Custom Content" area and the nav toolbar sits on top of that whatever I do. See below:

Answer 1

Although I think that the best solution is to create your UIToolbar programmatically and then create and add any custom UIBarButtonItems, here is a possible solution to your problem:

(Note: Apple says that you must not try to modify UINavigationController's default toolbar, so if you're planning to do so try the above suggestion)

- (void)viewDidLoad
{
    [super viewDidLoad];

    // Show the default toolbar
    [self.navigationController setToolbarHidden:NO];

    // Create a UIButton
    UIButton *button = [UIButton buttonWithType:UIButtonTypeCustom];
    [button setImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"btn"] forState:UIControlStateNormal];
    [button sizeToFit];

    // Add your targets/actions
    [button addTarget:self action:@selector(doSomething:) forControlEvents:UIControlEventTouchUpInside];

    // Position the button
    // I am sure that there must be
    // a million better ways to do this
    // (it's here just to illustrate the point)
    button.center = self.navigationController.toolbar.center;
    CGRect frame = button.frame;
    frame.origin.y = CGRectGetMaxY([UIScreen mainScreen].bounds) - button.frame.size.height;
    button.frame = frame;

    // Here is the tricky part. Toolbar is not part
    // of your controller's view hierarchy, it belongs
    // to the navigation controller. So add the button there 
    [self.navigationController.view addSubview:button];
}