How to set the activity indicator in the navigation bar?

Question

I am new to iphone development. I want to set an activity indicator in the navigation bar. I see my activity indicator below the navigation bar. My code is here

- (IBAction) gomethod : (id) sender {
    xxMapSubviewcontroller = [[XxMapSubviewcontroller alloc] init];
    [self.navigationController pushViewController:xxMapSubviewcontroller animated:YES];

    activityIndicator = [[UIActivityIndicatorView alloc] initWithActivityIndicatorStyle:UIActivityIndicatorViewStyleGray];
    activityIndicator.frame = CGRectMake(0.0, 0.0, 20.0, 20.0);
    [activityIndicator startAnimating];

    [xxMapSubviewcontroller.view addSubview:activityIndicator];
}

How can i set my activity indicator in the navigation bar? Please help me out. Thanks.

Marta

Answer 1

I add the below piece of code in the view where i wanted the activity indicator in the navigation bar.

activityIndicator = [[UIActivityIndicatorView alloc] initWithActivityIndicatorStyle:UIActivityIndicatorViewStyleGray];
UIBarButtonItem * barButton = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithCustomView:activityIndicator];
[self navigationItem].rightBarButtonItem = barButton;
[activityIndicator startAnimating];

Marta

I noticed that on iOS 7 you need to use activityIndicator = [[UIActivityIndicatorView alloc] initWithActivityIndicatorStyle:UIActivityIndicatorViewStyleGray]; or the indicator will not appear. – Diestock

Answer 2

Swift Code:

let activityIndicator = UIActivityIndicatorView(frame: CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: 20, height: 20))
let barButton = UIBarButtonItem(customView: activityIndicator)
self.navigationItem.setRightBarButton(barButton, animated: true)
activityIndicator.startAnimating()

Round

Answer 3

This worked for me in Swift:

let activityIndicator: UIActivityIndicatorView = UIActivityIndicatorView.init(activityIndicatorStyle: .White)
let refreshBarButton: UIBarButtonItem = UIBarButtonItem(customView: activityIndicator)
self.navigationItem.leftBarButtonItem = refreshBarButton
activityIndicator.startAnimating()

Instable

This crashes in 10.1.1 with: libc++abi.dylib: terminating with uncaught exception of type NSException – Pedicle

Works on 11.4 without any issues. – Coign

Answer 4

You are creating a new activity indicator view here, which is fine, but you are not referring to the activity indicator in the status bar.

To show the activity indicator in the status bar, simply call this:

[[UIApplication sharedApplication] setNetworkActivityIndicatorVisible:YES];

Vitrics

I want to display the activity indicator in the navigation bar – Marta

I needed Warrior's solution because I am hiding the status bar. Not that there's anything wrong with your solution of course! – Totem

Answer 5

On storyboard: Create BarButtonItem at the navigation bar. Add View to be son of your BarButtonItem and ActivityIndicator to be son of your View.

Floatation

Yes, on StoryBoard: drag to navigation bar the BarButtonItem, now drag the UIView to be subview of BarButtonItem, now drag the ActivityIndicator to be subview of the UIView. – Floatation

Answer 6

Swift

1. Connect UIBarButtonItem from storyboard to yourViewController
2. remove week from its definition like: @IBOutlet var btNavigaitonRight: UIBarButtonItem!

3. Use these methods for start and stopping activity indicator:

   var activityIndicator = UIActivityIndicatorView()
   
   func startBarButtonIndicator() {
       activityIndicator = UIActivityIndicatorView(frame: CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: 20, height: 20))
       activityIndicator?.color = .gray
       let barButton = UIBarButtonItem(customView: activityIndicator!)
       self.navigationItem.setRightBarButton(barButton, animated: true)
       activityIndicator?.startAnimating()
   }
   
   func stopBarButtonIndicator() {
       activityIndicator?.stopAnimating()
       navigationItem.setRightBarButton(btNavigaitonRight, animated: true)
   }
   

Bumboat

Answer 7

Like WhatsApp:

//Declare

let activityIndicator = UIActivityIndicatorView(activityIndicatorStyle: .gray)

//ViewDidLoad

self.activityIndicator.hidesWhenStopped = true

func showIndicator() {
    self.navigationItem.titleView = self.activityIndicator
    self.activityIndicator.isHidden = false
}

func hideIndicator() {
    self.navigationItem.titleView = nil
}

Ballplayer

Answer 8

Thanks! My indicator is working now.

I am sharing a code example for fellow noobs, to put this in context.

- (void)viewDidLoad

// custom button images
UIImage *customImage = [UIImage imageNamed:@"menu24"];
UIImage *customImage2 = [UIImage imageNamed:@"search24"];
UIImage *customImage3 = [UIImage imageNamed:@"back24"];

// These are linked in my story board to Navigation Item
[self customiseBarBtnItem:[self menu_button] 
    customImage:customImage selector:@selector(menuPressed:)];
[self customiseBarBtnItem:[self search_button] 
    customImage:customImage2 selector:@selector(searchPressed:)];
[self customiseBarBtnItem:[self backButton] 
    customImage:customImage3 selector:@selector(backPressed:)];

//initialize the activity indicator - as @antf comment suggests for ios7   
UIActivityIndicatorView *actInd=[[UIActivityIndicatorView alloc]                                      
     initWithActivityIndicatorStyle:UIActivityIndicatorViewStyleGray];

//store it as a property on the view controller
self.activityIndicator = actInd;

// this sets up activity indicator    
UIBarButtonItem *progress_indicator = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] 
     initWithCustomView:[self activityIndicator]];

// link custom buttons AND activity indicator in desired order to navigation bar
self.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItems =
    [NSArray arrayWithObjects:
         self.menu_button,
         self.search_button, 
         progress_indicator, 
         nil];

// For completeness - this is how I programmatically show/hide my back button

if ( bShowBack == YES ) 
     self.navItemBar.leftBarButtonItem = self.backButton;
else 
     self.navItemBar.leftBarButtonItem = Nil;

// I use my activity indicator with a UIWebView so trigger it as follows

  - (void)webViewDidStartLoad:(UIWebView *)webView
  {    
    [[self activityIndicator] startAnimating];
  }

  - (void)didFailLoadWithError:(UIWebView *)webView 
          didFailLoadWithError:(NSError *)error
  {    
     [[self activityIndicator] stopAnimating];
  }

  - (void)webViewDidFinishLoad:(UIWebView *) webView
  {
     [[self activityIndicator] stopAnimating];
  }

Beaker

Answer 9

In Swift, I did the following:

Enable: UIApplication.sharedApplication().networkActivityIndicatorVisible = true

Disable: UIApplication.sharedApplication().networkActivityIndicatorVisible = false

Reardon

This goes into the status bar though – Lamarckism

You're not wrong. I mis-read the OP - apologies. Having said that, I came across this post searching for an answer of how to solve the problem of showing the network activity indicator in the status bar - hopefully my answer will still provide some help to someone, if not to the OP. – Reardon

Answer 10

I had a similar question with response here: iphone - programatically change navigation bar button to activity indicator

I wanted to change the refresh button in the nav bar to the activity indicator and back again.

Coumas

Answer 11

try this : self.navigationItem.leftBarButtonItem.customView = your_view

Flowerless

Answer 12

I tried to use it now and the code mentioned by warrior didn't work exactly as is. I had to change the initialization of activityIndicator:

activityIndicator = [[UIActivityIndicatorView alloc] initWithActivityIndicatorStyle:UIActivityIndicatorViewStyleGray];

With this change it should work as expected.

Pavkovic