How can I set a button background color on iPhone?

Question

How can I set a custom background color of a button?

Interface Builder doesn\'t seem to have an interface to do this.

Is it only available programmatically

Answer 1

Building further on @Denny1989 I've solved a problem getting errors (invalid context 0x0) when setting up the button in viewDidLoad. The button needs to be laid out before it has a size and thus cannot be depended on until after the view appears. This category adds a color for UIControlStateNormal. If other control states are necessary for your app you need to add them similarly to the category.

//  UIButton+ColoredBackground.h

#import 

@interface UIButton (ColoredBackground)

@property (nonatomic, retain) UIColor *buttonColorNormal;

@property (nonatomic, retain) NSNumber *madeBackgroundImages;

- (void)setBackgroundColor:(UIColor *)backgroundColor forState:(UIControlState)state;

- (void)drawRect:(CGRect)rect;

- (void)awakeFromNib;

@end

and

//  UIButton+ColoredBackground.m

#import "UIButton+ColoredBackground.h"
#import 
#import 

#define kCornerRadius 8.0f
#define kStrokeColor [UIColor darkGrayColor]
#define kStrokeWidth 1.0f



@implementation UIButton (ColoredBackground)

static char UIB_ButtonColorNormal_KEY;
static char UIB_MadeBackgroundImages_KEY;

@dynamic buttonColorNormal;

-(void)setButtonColorNormal:(NSObject *)buttonColorNormal
{
    objc_setAssociatedObject(self, &UIB_ButtonColorNormal_KEY, buttonColorNormal, OBJC_ASSOCIATION_RETAIN_NONATOMIC);
}

-(NSObject*)buttonColorNormal
{
    return (NSObject*)objc_getAssociatedObject(self, &UIB_ButtonColorNormal_KEY);
}

@dynamic madeBackgroundImages;

-(void)setMadeBackgroundImages:(NSObject *)madeBackgroundImages
{
    objc_setAssociatedObject(self, &UIB_MadeBackgroundImages_KEY, madeBackgroundImages, OBJC_ASSOCIATION_RETAIN_NONATOMIC);
}

-(NSObject*)madeBackgroundImages
{
    return (NSObject*)objc_getAssociatedObject(self, &UIB_MadeBackgroundImages_KEY);
}
- (void)awakeFromNib {
    [self setMadeBackgroundImages:[NSNumber numberWithBool:FALSE]];
    [super awakeFromNib];
}

- (void)drawRect:(CGRect)rect {
    // if background images were not created from color do so here
    // if self.buttonColorNormal is not set behaves like normal button
    if ((self.buttonColorNormal)&&(![[self madeBackgroundImages] boolValue])) {
        [self setBackgroundColor:[self buttonColorNormal] forState:UIControlStateNormal];
        [self setMadeBackgroundImages:[NSNumber numberWithBool:TRUE]];
    }
    [super drawRect:rect];
}

- (void)setBackgroundColor:(UIColor *)backgroundColor forState:(UIControlState)state {

    gcSize = CGSizeMake(2*kCornerRadius +1, self.bounds.size.height);
    UIGraphicsBeginImageContext(gcSize);

    CGColorSpaceRef rgb = CGColorSpaceCreateDeviceRGB();

    UIColor *gradientStart = [UIColor colorWithRed:0.80 green:0.80 blue:0.80 alpha:0.2];
    UIColor * gradientEnd = [UIColor colorWithRed:0.0 green:0.0 blue:0.0 alpha:0.5];
    NSArray *colors = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:(id)gradientStart.CGColor, (id)gradientEnd.CGColor, nil];
    CGFloat locations[2] = { 0.0f, 1.0f };
    CGGradientRef _gradient = CGGradientCreateWithColors(rgb, (__bridge CFArrayRef)colors, locations);
    CGColorSpaceRelease(rgb);
    CGContextSetBlendMode(UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext(), kCGBlendModeOverlay);
    CGContextDrawLinearGradient(UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext(), _gradient, CGPointMake(0.0, kStrokeWidth), CGPointMake(0.0, self.bounds.size.height-kStrokeWidth), 0);

    UIBezierPath *outsideEdge = [UIBezierPath bezierPathWithRoundedRect:CGRectMake(0.0, 0.0, gcSize.width, gcSize.height) cornerRadius:kCornerRadius];
    [backgroundColor setFill];
    [kStrokeColor setStroke];
    outsideEdge.lineWidth = kStrokeWidth;
    [outsideEdge stroke];
    [outsideEdge fill];
    CFRelease(_gradient);

    // Create the background image
    UIImage *image = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext();
    UIGraphicsEndImageContext();

    // Set image as button's background image (stretchable) for the given state
    [self setBackgroundImage:[image stretchableImageWithLeftCapWidth:kCornerRadius topCapHeight:0.0] forState:state];

    // Ensure rounded button
    self.clipsToBounds = YES;
    self.layer.cornerRadius = kCornerRadius;

    // add colored border
    self.layer.borderColor = kStrokeColor.CGColor;
    self.layer.borderWidth = kStrokeWidth;
}

@end

usage

- (void)viewDidLoad
{
        [myButton setButtonColorNormal:[UIColor redColor]];
}

Be sure to make the button type custom or drawRect may not be called.