How to set rectangle border for custom type UIButton

Question

I am trying to set an image as the background of a custom UIButton. I was able to set a background image for the "rounded rect" UIButton in interface builder, but now the borders have vanished. Is there any way to retain the borders? Also, I would like to make the borders show up rectangular instead of rounded.

Answer 1

Check out the cornerRadius, borderWidth and borderColor properties of CALayer. These properties are new as of iPhone OS 3.0.

You probably want to subclass UIButton and then set these properties in the constructor. Your button has a layer property you can access to set these border properties.

Here's an example:

- (id)initWithFrame:(CGRect)frame {
if(self = [super initWithFrame:frame]) {

 [self.layer setBorderWidth:1.0];
 [self.layer setCornerRadius:5.0];
 [self.layer setBorderColor:[[UIColor colorWithWhite:0.3 alpha:0.7] CGColor]];
}

return self;

}

Answer 2

When you set a background image in a button, the button outlines go away. Include them in your image, if you need different sizes look at the UIImage

stretchableImageWithLeftCapWidth:topCapHeight:

method.