ios 13 - Custom SearchBar with UISearchBar _searchField not working

The SDK now provides UISearchBar.searchTextField so you can simply replace your private API implementation with the public API.

searchBar.searchTextField.backgroundColor = [UIColor blueColor];

If we want to support iOS 12 and earlier also while compiling with Xcode 11, then we can make an extension of UISearchBar where we can grab the textfield

extension UISearchBar {

    var textField : UITextField? {
        if #available(iOS 13.0, *) {
            return self.searchTextField
        } else { // Fallback on earlier versions
            for subview in subviews.first?.subviews ?? [] {
                if let textField = subview as? UITextField {
                    return textField
                }
            }
        }
        return nil
    }
}

USAGE

searchBar.textField?.font = UIFont.systemFont(ofSize: 15.0)

Here we can access all textField's properties and modify as per our needs in UISearchBar

There is a change in the view hierarchy. So by printing self.subviews[0]).subviews where self in UISearchBar

For iOS 12 and earlier

For iOS 13+

Along with UISearchBarBackground, now we have UISearchBarSearchContainerView and UISearchBarScopeContainerView whereas UISearchBarTextField is missing which is replaced by an extension provided by Apple in UISearchTextField class

extension UISearchBar {

    
    open var searchTextField: UISearchTextField { get }
}

So we can directly access searchBar.searchTextField in iOS 13 and above devices whereas it will lead to a crash if we try to access this property in iOS 12 and below OS devices.

The crash will be like this:

[UISearchBar searchTextField]: unrecognized selector sent to instance

Here is the Apple doc for this

I had the same crash, with IOS 13 you don't need anymore the .value(forKey:)

Here is the line that caused the crash:

if let searchField = searchController.searchBar.value(forKey: "_searchField") as? UITextField {

And this was the fix:

let searchField = searchController.searchBar.searchTextField

Do this:

 var searchTextField: UITextField?
    if #available(iOS 13.0, *) {
        searchTextField = searchBar.searchTextField
    } else {
        if let searchField = searchBar.value(forKey: "searchField") as? UITextField {
            searchTextField = searchField
        }
    }

This will give you search bar's text field appropriately based on version check.

It still works for me with key "searchField" without underscore. Swift 5

guard let searchField = searchBar.value(forKey: "searchField") as? UITextField else { return }

If u want check iOS Version!

 if #available(iOS 13.0, *) {
    searchBar.searchTextField.clearButtonMode = .never
 } else {
    searchBar.textField.clearButtonMode = .never
 }

Dont Forget the extension:

extension UISearchBar {

 var textField : UITextField{
    return self.value(forKey: "_searchField") as! UITextField
 }
}

Removed the "_" Underscore (while trying to access property) everywhere and it worked for all iOS versions.

extension UISearchBar {

    var textField : UITextField? {
        if #available(iOS 13.0, *) {
            return self.searchTextField
        } else {
            // Fallback on earlier versions
            return value(forKey: "_searchField") as? UITextField
        }
        return nil
    }
}

You can make check like this for iOS 11 and the earlier versions:

if #available(iOS 11, *){
            self.searchBar.placeholder = "Search by Name"
            self.searchBar.setSerchFont(textFont: UIFont(name:AppFontLato.Regular, size:14.0 * DeviceInfo.aspectRatio()))
            self.searchBar.setSerchTextcolor(color: Colors.black51)
        }
        else{
            if let searchTextField = self.searchBar.value(forKey: "_searchField") as? UITextField, let clearButton = searchTextField.value(forKey: "_clearButton") as? UIButton {
                searchTextField.placeholder = "Search by Name"
                searchTextField.font = UIFont(name:AppFontLato.Regular, size:14.0 * DeviceInfo.aspectRatio())
                searchTextField.textColor = Colors.black51
            }
        }

Hope this helps

I'm getting crash on cancel button value forkey. Is it possible to customize cancel button in iOS 13.

You can use this answer, working fine in iOS 13:-

https://stackoverflow.com/a/60503506/9863222

if #available(iOS 13.0, *) {
        self.searchBar.searchTextField.clearButtonMode = .never
    } else {
        // Fallback on earlier versions
        if let searchField = searchBar.value(forKey: "searchField") as? UITextField {
            searchField.clearButtonMode = .never
        }
    }