UISearchBar cannot become first responder after UITableView did re-appear

Question

I have an iPhone app for iOS8. UIPageViewController has a child view of UITableViewController, and that's where I put UISearchController.

When the UITableViewController is presented for the first time, I have no trouble activating the search by doing

[self.searchController.searchBar becomeFirstResponder];

However, once the view controller gets invisible either by pushing to another table view controller, or modally presenting a UIViewController (visually masking it), the searchBar can no longer become first responder after it reappears.

The search itself can be done by

 [self.searchController setActive:YES];

but, there is no caret blinking this way (user has to tap inside searchBar to start typing).

I have almost identical UITableViewController with UISearchController without the incident. So, I must be missing something, but I would like your opinion on which direction I should pay attention on solving this.

Below is how I set the search controller.

 @interface MonthTableViewController () <UISearchResultsUpdating, UISearchControllerDelegate>

 @property (nonatomic, strong) UISearchController *searchController;

 UITableViewController *searchController = [[UITableViewController alloc]initWithStyle:UITableViewStylePlain];
 searchController.tableView.dataSource = self;
 searchController.tableView.delegate = self;
 self.searchController = [[UISearchController alloc] initWithSearchResultsController:searchController];
 self.searchController.searchResultsUpdater = self;
 self.searchController.delegate = self;
 self.searchController.searchBar.frame = CGRectMake(self.searchController.searchBar.frame.origin.x, self.searchController.searchBar.frame.origin.y, self.searchController.searchBar.frame.size.width, 44.0);
 self.tableView.tableHeaderView = self.searchController.searchBar;
 self.definesPresentationContext = YES;

 // Hide search bar
 CGRect myBounds = self.tableView.bounds;
 myBounds.origin.y += self.searchController.searchBar.frame.size.height;
 _lastlyAddedTableBoundY = self.searchController.searchBar.frame.size.height;
 self.tableView.bounds = myBounds;

tsuyoski tsuyoski · Accepted Answer · 2014-12-12T20:54:22

I solved it by going Xcode > Product > Analyze.

I simply forgot to add

[super viewWillAppear:(BOOL)animated];

inside -(void)ViewWillAppear:(BOOL)animated on the corresponding UITableViewController.

Hopefully, my mistake can save someone's time in the future.

UISearchBar cannot become first responder after UITableView did re-appear

1 Answers