Setting action for back button in navigation controller

Question

I'm trying to overwrite the default action of the back button in a navigation controller. I've provided a target an action on the custom button. The odd thing is when assigning it though the backbutton attribute it doesn't pay attention to them and it just pops the current view and goes back to the root:

UIBarButtonItem *backButton = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] 
                                  initWithTitle: @"Servers" 
                                  style:UIBarButtonItemStylePlain 
                                  target:self 
                                  action:@selector(home)];
self.navigationItem.backBarButtonItem = backButton;

As soon as I set it through the leftBarButtonItem on the navigationItem it calls my action, however then the button looks like a plain round one instead of the arrowed back one:

self.navigationItem.leftBarButtonItem = backButton;

How can I get it to call my custom action before going back to the root view? Is there a way to overwrite the default back action, or is there a method that is always called when leaving a view (viewDidUnload doesn't do that)?

Answer 1

I don't believe this is possible, easily. The only way I believe to get around this is to make your own back button arrow image to place up there. It was frustrating for me at first but I see why, for consistency's sake, it was left out.

You can get close (without the arrow) by creating a regular button and hiding the default back button:

self.navigationItem.leftBarButtonItem = [[[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithTitle:@"Servers" style:UIBarButtonItemStyleDone target:nil action:nil] autorelease];
self.navigationItem.hidesBackButton = YES;

Answer 2

I believe this thread covers your question:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1184474/1184663#1184663

(In summary, backButtonItem doesn't work like you want it to -- go look at the other thread for alternatives.)

Answer 3

I used in my application answer from this thread

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1557290/how-to-trap-the-back-button-event/1557930#1557930

Answer 4

This technique allows you to change the text of the "back" button without affecting the title of any of the view controllers or seeing the back button text change during the animation.

Add this to the init method in the calling view controller:

UIBarButtonItem *temporaryBarButtonItem = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] init];   
temporaryBarButtonItem.title = @"Back";
self.navigationItem.backBarButtonItem = temporaryBarButtonItem;
[temporaryBarButtonItem release];

Answer 5

Try putting this into the view controller where you want to detect the press:

-(void) viewWillDisappear:(BOOL)animated {
    if ([self.navigationController.viewControllers indexOfObject:self]==NSNotFound) {
       // back button was pressed.  We know this is true because self is no longer
       // in the navigation stack.  
    }
    [super viewWillDisappear:animated];
}