UINavigationController "back button" custom text?

Question

The "back button" by default shows the title of the last view in the stack, is there a way to have custom text in the back button instead?

Answer 1

From this link:

self.navigationItem.backBarButtonItem =
  [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithTitle:@"Custom Title"
            style:UIBarButtonItemStyleBordered
           target:nil
           action:nil];

Answer 2

I found a handy solution to this by simply setting the title of the controller before pushing another controller onto the stack, like this:

self.navigationItem.title = @"Replacement Title";
[self.navigationController pushViewController:newCtrl animated:YES];

Then, make sure to set the original title in viewWillAppear, like this:

-(void)viewWillAppear:(BOOL)animated
{
  ...
  self.navigationItem.title = @"Original Title";
  ...
}

This works because the default behavior of UINavigationController when constructing the back button during a push operation is to use the title from the previous controller.

Answer 3

Expanding on Aubrey's suggestion, you can do this in the child view controller:

create two variables for storing the old values of the parent's navigationItem.title and the parent's navigationItem

UINavigationItem* oldItem;
NSString* oldTitle;

in viewDidLoad, add the following:

oldItem = self.navigationController.navigationBar.topItem;  
oldTitle = oldItem.title;  
[oldItem setTitle: @"Back"];  

in viewWillDisappear, add the following:

[oldItem setTitle: oldTitle];  
oldTitle = nil;  // do this if you have retained oldTitle
oldItem = nil;   // do this if you have retained oldItem

It's not perfect. You will see the the title of the parent view change as the new controller is animated in. BUT this does achieve the goal of custom labeling the back button and keeping it shaped like a standard back button.

Answer 4

I use this:

// In the current view controller, not the one that is one level up in the stack
- (void)viewDidLoad {
    [super viewDidLoad];
    self.navigationController.navigationBar.backItem.title = @"Custom text";
}