detect long press on UINavigationItem's back button - objective-c

Question

I want to add functionality to my back buttons through my UINavigationController-based app where long-pressing the back button will pop to root. However, I can't figure out where to attach the gesture recognizer. Do I subclass UINavigationBar and try and detect if the long press is in the left button region?
I've heard of people adding similar functionality before. Anyone have any ideas?

Answer 1

I know this question is old, but I came up with a solution. Instead of trying to add the gesture recognizer to the button itself (which would be ideal), I added it to the self.navigationController.navigationBar and then in the action method, use the locationInView to see if I'm over the back button. I wasn't entirely sure about how to identify the back button precisely, so I'm clumsily just grabbing the the first subview with an x coordinate less than some arbitrary value, but it seems promising. If someone has a better way to identify the frame of the back button, let me know.
- (void)longPress:(UILongPressGestureRecognizer *)sender
{
if (sender.state == UIGestureRecognizerStateEnded)
{
// set a default rectangle in case we don't find the back button for some reason
CGRect rect = CGRectMake(0, 0, 100, 40);
// iterate through the subviews looking for something that looks like it might be the right location to be the back button
for (UIView *subview in self.navigationController.navigationBar.subviews)
{
if (subview.frame.origin.x < 30)
{
rect = subview.frame;
break;
}
}
// ok, let's get the point of the long press
CGPoint longPressPoint = [sender locationInView:self.navigationController.navigationBar];
// if the long press point in the rectangle then do whatever
if (CGRectContainsPoint(rect, longPressPoint))
[self doWhatever];
}
}
- (void)addLongPressGesture
{
if (NSClassFromString(#"UILongPressGestureRecognizer"))
{
UILongPressGestureRecognizer *longPress = [[UILongPressGestureRecognizer alloc] initWithTarget:self action:#selector(longPress:)];
[self.navigationController.navigationBar addGestureRecognizer:longPress];
[longPress release];
}
}

Answer 2

I believe UIGestureRecognizers can only be added to UIViews and subclasses of UIViews.
http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/uikit/reference/UIView_Class/UIView/UIView.html
The back button is a UIBarButtonItem that descends from NSObject. Therefore, you won't be able to attach a gesture recognizer to a standard back button using
UILongPressGestureRecognizer *longPressGesture =
[[[UILongPressGestureRecognizer alloc]
initWithTarget:self action:#selector(longPress:)] autorelease];
[self.navigationItem.backBarButtonItem addGestureRecognizer:longPressGesture];
You can however add a custom view to a UIBarButtonItem. A custom view could just as easily be a UIView, UIButton, UILabel, etc.
Example:
UIView *myTransparentGestureView = [[UIView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0,0,40,30)];
[myTransparentGestureView addGestureRecognizer:longPressGesture];
[self.navigationItem.backBarButtonItem setCustomView:myTransparentGestureView];
// Or you could set it like this
// self.navigationItem.backBarButtonItem.customView = myTransparentGestureView;
[myTransparentGestureView release];
You have to be careful however, since setting properties on backBarButtonItem applies to the next view that you push. So if you have view A that pushes to view B and you want the gesture to be recognized when you tap back in view B. You must set it up in view A.

Answer 3

I followed a slightly different path, figured I'd share it. The above answers are fine, but really, if the long press is in the leading 1/3 of the nav bar, that's good enough for me:
- (void)longPress:(UILongPressGestureRecognizer *)gr
{
NSLog(#"longPress:");
UINavigationBar *navBar = [self navigationBar];
CGFloat height = navBar.bounds.size.height;
CGPoint pt = [gr locationOfTouch:0 inView:navBar];
//NSLog(#"PT=%# height=%f", NSStringFromCGPoint(pt), height);
if(CGRectContainsPoint(CGRectMake(0,0,100,height), pt)) {
[self popToViewController:self.viewControllers[0] animated:YES];
}
}

Answer 4

Here's my solution:
In appDelegate (the "owner" of the nav bar in my app), In applicationDidFinishLaunchingWithOptions:
Get the nav bar view and add the gesture recognizer to the whole view:
// Get the nav bar view
UINavigationBar *myNavBar = nil;
for (UIView *view in [self.window.rootViewController.view subviews]) {
if ([view isKindOfClass:[UINavigationBar class]]) {
NSLog(#"Found Nav Bar!!!");
myNavBar = (UINavigationBar *)view;
}
}
UILongPressGestureRecognizer *longPress = [[UILongPressGestureRecognizer alloc] initWithTarget:self
action:#selector(backButtonLongPress:)];
[myNavBar addGestureRecognizer:longPress];
NSLog(#"Gesture Recognizer Added.");
Then in appDelegate, in -(void) backButtonLongPress:(id) sender
Check to see if the gesture occurs within the frame of the back button:
if ([sender state] == UIGestureRecognizerStateBegan) {
// Get the nav bar view
UINavigationBar *myNavBar = nil;
for (UIView *view in [self.window.rootViewController.view subviews]) {
if ([view isKindOfClass:[UINavigationBar class]]) {
NSLog(#"Found Nav Bar!!!");
myNavBar = (UINavigationBar *)view;
}
}
// Get the back button view
UIView *backButtonView = nil;
for (UIView *view in [myNavBar subviews]) {
if ([[[view class] description] isEqualToString:#"UINavigationItemButtonView"]) {
backButtonView = view;
NSLog(#"Found It: %#", backButtonView);
NSLog(#"Back Button View Frame: %f, %f; %f, %f", backButtonView.frame.origin.x, backButtonView.frame.origin.y, backButtonView.frame.size.width, backButtonView.frame.size.height);
}
}
CGPoint longPressPoint = [sender locationInView:myNavBar];
NSLog(#"Touch is in back button: %#", CGRectContainsPoint(backButtonView.frame, longPressPoint) ? #"YES" : #"NO");
if (CGRectContainsPoint(backButtonView.frame, longPressPoint)) {
// Place your action here
}
// Do nothing if outside the back button frame
}