In my detail VC, I am implementing this UISplitViewController delegate method:
- (void)splitViewController:(UISplitViewController*)svc willHideViewController:(UIViewController *)aViewController withBarButtonItem:(UIBarButtonItem*)barButtonItem forPopoverController:(UIPopoverController*)pc
It is then easy for me to set the title of the button, but the result is just a button with plain text, and no back arrow. I am looking to get something like the Mail app where the master popover button also has the back chevron.
How can I do this?
Create your custom bar button item, with the chevron image, set up as you want, and set the target and action of your bar button item to be that of the one passed by the delegate callback. This way, your bar button will perform the same action as the one the system passes to you. You must create your own bar button with an image, because there is no possible way with AppStore approved API to create back bar buttons.
In iOS7, the private subclasses are UINavigationItemView + _UINavigationBarBackIndicatorView. One is the button, the other - the chevron. _UINavigationBarBackIndicatorView is a subclass of UIImageView. So it's pretty close to what you will achieve.