Set Background Gradient on Button in Swift

Question

I have no idea how to set the background gradient on a button (without making the background gradient an image). This is so different from Android.

Here\'s a class I

Answer 1

Here below you can find the solution for Swift3 (and Swift4 too) and a little bit extended (orientation helper):

typealias GradientPoints = (startPoint: CGPoint, endPoint: CGPoint)

enum GradientOrientation {
    case topRightBottomLeft
    case topLeftBottomRight
    case horizontal
    case vertical

    var startPoint : CGPoint {
        return points.startPoint
    }

    var endPoint : CGPoint {
        return points.endPoint
    }

    var points : GradientPoints {
        switch self {
        case .topRightBottomLeft:
            return (CGPoint(x: 0.0,y: 1.0), CGPoint(x: 1.0,y: 0.0))
        case .topLeftBottomRight:
            return (CGPoint(x: 0.0,y: 0.0), CGPoint(x: 1,y: 1))
        case .horizontal:
            return (CGPoint(x: 0.0,y: 0.5), CGPoint(x: 1.0,y: 0.5))
        case .vertical:
            return (CGPoint(x: 0.0,y: 0.0), CGPoint(x: 0.0,y: 1.0))
        }
    }
}

extension UIView {

    func applyGradient(with colours: [UIColor], locations: [NSNumber]? = nil) {
        let gradient = CAGradientLayer()
        gradient.frame = self.bounds
        gradient.colors = colours.map { $0.cgColor }
        gradient.locations = locations
        self.layer.insertSublayer(gradient, at: 0)
    }

    func applyGradient(with colours: [UIColor], gradient orientation: GradientOrientation) {
        let gradient = CAGradientLayer()
        gradient.frame = self.bounds
        gradient.colors = colours.map { $0.cgColor }
        gradient.startPoint = orientation.startPoint
        gradient.endPoint = orientation.endPoint
        self.layer.insertSublayer(gradient, at: 0)
    }
}