UIView border with fade or blur effect

Question

I\'m looking for method to add gradually fading or maybe blured border (I don\'t exactly know how to name this effect) to arbitrary UIView. I don\'t need animated effect, I

Answer 1

I've found a solution - I've useed CALayer's property mask:

 CALayer *viewLayer = [back layer];
 CALayer* maskCompoudLayer = [CALayer layer];

 maskLayer.bounds = viewLayer.bounds;

 [maskLayer setPosition:CGPointMake(160, CGRectGetHeight(maskCompoudLayer.frame)/2.0)];     

 CGColorSpaceRef colorSpace = CGColorSpaceCreateDeviceRGB();
 CGContextRef context = CGBitmapContextCreate (NULL, 320, 480, 8, 0, colorSpace, kCGImageAlphaPremultipliedLast);     

 CGFloat colors[] = {
      0.5, 0.5, 0.5, 0.0, //BLACK
      0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0, //BLACK
 };     

 CGGradientRef gradient = CGGradientCreateWithColorComponents(colorSpace, colors, NULL, sizeof(colors)/(sizeof(colors[0])*4));     
 CGColorSpaceRelease(colorSpace);     

 NSUInteger gradientH = 20;
 NSUInteger gradientHPos = 0;

 CGContextSetFillColorWithColor(context, [UIColor colorWithRed:0.0 green:0.0 blue:0.0 alpha:1.0].CGColor);
 CGContextFillRect(context, CGRectMake(0, gradientHPos + gradientH, CGRectGetWidth(maskLayer.frame), CGRectGetHeight(maskLayer.frame)));     

 CGContextSetFillColorWithColor(context, [UIColor colorWithRed:0.5 green:0.5 blue:0.5 alpha:0.0].CGColor);
 CGContextFillRect(context, CGRectMake(0, 0, 320, gradientHPos));

 CGContextDrawLinearGradient(context, gradient, CGPointMake(160, gradientHPos), CGPointMake(160, gradientHPos + gradientH), 0);     
 CGGradientRelease(gradient);     

 CGImageRef contextImage = CGBitmapContextCreateImage(context);
 CGContextRelease(context);     

 [maskLayer setContents:(id)contextImage];

 CGImageRelease (contextImage);

 viewLayer.masksToBounds = YES;
 viewLayer.mask = maskCompoudLayer;

Using this code I have UITableView with fading border