UISearchBar cancel button not styled if displayed before viewDidAppear

Question

I'm setting the cancel button's tint like so:

[UIBarButtonItem appearance].tintColor = [UIColor highlightedTextColor];

And it works well if the cancel button is shown after or during viewDidAppear e.g. if Cancel is displayed when the search bar receives focus:

However if this is performed before, e.g. in viewDidLoad or even in viewWillAppear:

- (void)viewWillAppear:(BOOL)animated {
    [super viewWillAppear:animated];
    [self.searchBar setShowsCancelButton:YES animated:NO];
}

Then the result isn't as nice:

The text is actually there, though only a very faint shadow can be detected with the Color Meter. Has anyone else encountered this problem and found a solution? The best one I could find is to show the cancel button in the viewDidAppear.

Answer 1

To me it works fine, I create UISearchBar inside a UIView. The viewDidLoad:

- (void)viewDidLoad {
    [super viewDidLoad];
    _searchBar = [[UISearchBar alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(10.0f, 0.0f, self.view.bounds.size.width-20, 44.0f)];
    _searchBar.autoresizingMask = UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleWidth;
    _searchBar.autoresizingMask = UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleHeight;
    _searchBar.showsCancelButton = YES;
    //_searchBar.searchBarStyle = UISearchBarStyleMinimal;
    [_searchBar sizeToFit];
    [_searchBar becomeFirstResponder];
    _searchBar.delegate = self;
    _searchBar.barTintColor = color;
    _searchBar.tintColor = color;
    [[UIBarButtonItem appearanceWhenContainedInInstancesOfClasses:@[[UISearchBar class]]] setTitleTextAttributes:[NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys:
                                                                                              [UIColor whiteColor],
                                                                                              NSForegroundColorAttributeName,
                                                                                              nil]
                                                                                    forState:UIControlStateNormal];
    _barWrapper = [[UIView alloc]initWithFrame:self.navigationController.navigationBar.bounds];
    [_barWrapper addSubview:_searchBar];
    _barWrapper.autoresizingMask = UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleWidth;
}

In viewWillAppear I put the barWrapper in the navigationbar.

- (void)viewWillAppear:(BOOL)animated {
    [super viewWillAppear:animated];
    [self.navigationController.navigationBar addSubview:_barWrapper];
    [_searchBar becomeFirstResponder];
}

To finalize, in viewWillDisappear I remove the barWrapper from navigation bar.

- (void)viewWillDisappear:(BOOL)animated{
    [_barWrapper removeFromSuperview];
}