Hiding Cancel button on search bar in UISearchController

Question

I'm trying to hide the Cancel button of the search bar in the UISearchController, but unfortunately setting the following in viewDidLoad() does not work:

override func viewDidLoad() {
    super.viewDidLoad()

    searchResultsTableController = UITableViewController()
    searchResultsTableController.tableView.delegate = self

    searchController = UISearchController(searchResultsController: searchResultsTableController)
    searchController.searchResultsUpdater = self
    searchController.searchBar.sizeToFit()
    searchResultsView.tableHeaderView = searchController.searchBar

    searchController.delegate = self
    searchController.dimsBackgroundDuringPresentation = false
    searchController.searchBar.delegate = self

    searchController.searchBar.searchBarStyle = .Minimal
    searchController.searchBar.showsCancelButton = false

    definesPresentationContext = true
}

I have also tried using the above code in this delegate method:

func didPresentSearchController(searchController: UISearchController) {
    searchController.searchBar.showsCancelButton = false
}

This approach works but will show the Cancel button briefly before hiding it, which is not ideal. Any suggestions?

Boaz

can you elaborate more on your implementation? where did you put searchController.searchBar.showsCancelButton = false – Hoenack

Answer 1

I ended up subclassing both UISearchBar and UISearchController as suggested:

CustomSearchBar.swift

import UIKit

class CustomSearchBar: UISearchBar {

    override func layoutSubviews() {
        super.layoutSubviews()
        setShowsCancelButton(false, animated: false)
    }
}

CustomSearchController.swift

import UIKit

class CustomSearchController: UISearchController, UISearchBarDelegate {

    lazy var _searchBar: CustomSearchBar = {
        [unowned self] in
        let result = CustomSearchBar(frame: CGRectZero)
        result.delegate = self

        return result
    }()

    override var searchBar: UISearchBar {
        get {
            return _searchBar
        }
    }
}

Boaz

Thank you for posting this solution. I'm going to file a radar for this, as one would expect setShowsCancelButton would stick throughout the object's lifecycle using the factory object. – Jobye

Filed radar # 29859105 – Jobye

I'm on Swift 3 & iOS 10 and this almost works. Instead, I tried other answer from this thread and got a result. Instead of overriding layoutSubviews, you override setShowsCancelButton(:animated:). – Nel

Answer 2

Rejoice! As of iOS 13, there is access to automaticallyShowsCancelButton on UISearchController. Set it to false to hide the cancel button.

Sletten

for me the cancel button flies across the screen and then hides. – Emogene

Answer 3

func didPresentSearchController(_ searchController: UISearchController) {
    searchController.searchBar.becomeFirstResponder()
    searchController.searchBar.showsCancelButton = true
}


func didDismissSearchController(_ searchController: UISearchController) {
    searchController.searchBar.showsCancelButton = false
}

In my case all the above solutions dint work. You need to show in didPresentSearchController and hide it in didDismissSearchController. Earlier I was just hiding in didDismissSearchController which was still showing Cancel button on cancelling.

Roundelay

Answer 4

Hide the Cancel button in search bar delegate methods and set your delegate searchController.searchBar.delegate=self UISearchBarDelegate

func searchBarTextDidBeginEditing(searchBar: UISearchBar) {

}

func searchBarTextDidEndEditing(searchBar: UISearchBar) {

}

Armington

Unfortunately this doesn't work. The Cancel button still shows up unaffected. – Boaz

have u set the delegate properly,check whether delegate func are getting called or not?Its working on ma end – Armington

Answer 5

Try subclassing UISearchBar and implement:

override func layoutSubviews() {
   super.layoutSubviews()
   self.setShowsCancelButton(false, animated: false)
}

This SO thread may help you more in this direction.

Octodecimo

Answer 6

The same answer as given by @Griffith and @Abhinav but using extension:

extension UISearchBar {
    override open func layoutSubviews() {
        super.layoutSubviews()
        setShowsCancelButton(false, animated: false)
    }
}

This code is from Swift 4.

Sonatina