Scope Not Shown When Search Bar Is Activated

Recently, I noticed a minor issue after updating iOS. The scope bar did not appear when the search bar was activated. Typically, I prefer to display the scope bar simultaneously with the search bar activation. This allows users to select a scope item before searching.

An Example Case

Here is a snapshot. When I pull down the screen, only the search bar is displayed, but the scope bar is missing.

The scope bar appears when text is entered into the search bar. However, if a user selects a scope item, the search text disappears. This means that the user has to re-enter text if they selecte a different scope item. This is very inconvenient.

Solution

I spent some time thinking about the issue before diving into my project. It became apparent that there were some logic or behavior changes in iOS. Soon, I discovered that a property of the search bar had been deprecated and a new property was recommended as its replacement.

1. private func configSearchControll() {
2.  let sc =  UISearchController(searchResultsController: nil)
3.  // config search controller
4.  if #available(iOS 16.0, *) {
5.        sc.scopeBarActivation = .onSearchActivation
6.    } else {
7.        if #available(iOS 13.0, *) {
8.            sc.automaticallyShowsScopeBar = true
9.        } else {
10.            // Fallback on earlier versions
11.        }
12.    }
13. }

I noticed that the deprecated property of automaticallyShowsScopeBar is a boolean type with only one choice. With the iOS update, the recommented property of scopeBarActivation is an enum type with several options. After further testing, I found that only the enumerator onSearchActivation is meeting my requirements.

The above method is called in the event of viewDidLoad.

1. override func viewDidLoad() {
2.  super.viewDidLoad()
3.  // some configuration codes
4.  DispatchQueue.main.async {
5.    [weak self] in
6.      guard let this = self else { return }
7.      this.configSearchController()
8.  }
9. }

With above code updated, my iOS app TapMyNotes now works as expected!

I'll update my app TapMyNotes on the App Store with this bug-fix, as well as other new and exiting features, soon!

References

• Apple Developer: Instance Property automaticallyShowsScopeBar (deprecated)
• My post soltion to a question at SO: Swift 4 - iOS 11 Search bar scope won't appear as it should
• My iOS productivity app: TapMyNotes