Navigation controller back button title programmatically (no storyboard)

Question

hei, I'm new to navigation controllers and I've got one question for something that should be rather simple: How do I change the "back" item on the left site to have the title "Back" instead of the title of the previous view? I've tried this:

self.navigationItem.leftBarButtonItem.title =@"Back";

and it doesn't work, even though I can use similar code to add an image on the left, like this:

CGRect frame = CGRectMake(0, 0, 22.5, 22.5);
    UIButton *closeButton = [[UIButton alloc] initWithFrame:frame];
    [closeButton setBackgroundImage:UA_ICON_CLOSE_UI forState:UIControlStateNormal];
    [closeButton addTarget:self action:@selector(closeView)
         forControlEvents:UIControlEventTouchUpInside];
    [closeButton setShowsTouchWhenHighlighted:YES];

    UIBarButtonItem *rightButton =[[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithCustomView:closeButton];
    self.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem=rightButton;

Answer 1

You have to write this code in the view controller in advance, that is, when this view controller is in the view controller stack and you move to a new view controller, in the new view controller the "Back" button will be shown of top left instead of that's title.

If you write this way, self.navigationItem.leftBarButtonItem = nil or create another UIBarButtonItem, but this will not go back and did not have the nice back arrow by default. If you set in this way, this will be a button of this view controller. But you can give it an action to dismiss the view controller and go back.

Obj-C:

#define NAVBAR_BUTTON_BACK      @"Back"

UIBarButtonItem * nextBack = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc]
                                  initWithTitle:NAVBAR_BUTTON_BACK
                                  style:UIBarButtonItemStyleBordered
                                  target:nil action:nil];
    self.navigationItem.backBarButtonItem = nextBack;
    [nextBack release];

Swift:

navigationItem.backBarButtonItem = UIBarButtonItem(title: "", style: .plain, target: nil, action: nil)

Answer 2

UIBarButtonItem+WithImageOnly.h

#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>

@interface UIBarButtonItem (WithImageOnly)

- (id)initWithImageOnly:(UIImage*)image target:(id)target action:(SEL)action;

@end

UIBarButtonItem+WithImageOnly.m

#import "UIBarButtonItem+WithImageOnly.h"

@implementation UIBarButtonItem (WithImageOnly)

- (id)initWithImageOnly:(UIImage *)image target:(id)target action:(SEL)action {
    CGRect frame = CGRectMake(0, 0, image.size.width, image.size.height);
//    frame = CGRectInset(frame, 0, 0);

    UIButton *button = [[UIButton alloc] initWithFrame:frame];
    [button setImage:image forState:UIControlStateNormal];
    [button addTarget:target action:action forControlEvents:UIControlEventTouchUpInside];

    return [self initWithCustomView:button];
}

@end

Example Usage:

UIBarButtonItem *backButton = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithImageOnly:[UIImage imageNamed:@"SS-01-navbar-back-button.png"]
                                                                      target:self
                                                                      action:@selector(backTarget:)];
    self.navigationItem.leftBarButtonItem = backButton;