How to change the background color of a UIButton w

Question

At some point in my app I have a highlighted UIButton (for example when a user has his finger on the button) and I need to change the background color while the button is highlighted (so while the finger of the user is still on the button).

I tried the following:

_button.backgroundColor = [UIColor redColor];

But it is not working. The color remains the same. I tried the same piece of code when the button is not highlighted and it works fine. I also tried calling -setNeedsDisplay after changing the color, it didn't have any effect.

How to force the button to change the background color?

Answer 1

Override highlighted variable. Adding @IBInspectable makes you edit the highlighted backgroundColor in storyboard, which is nifty too.

class BackgroundHighlightedButton: UIButton {
    @IBInspectable var highlightedBackgroundColor :UIColor?
    @IBInspectable var nonHighlightedBackgroundColor :UIColor?
    override var highlighted :Bool {
        get {
            return super.highlighted
        }
        set {
            if newValue {
                self.backgroundColor = highlightedBackgroundColor
            }
            else {
                self.backgroundColor = nonHighlightedBackgroundColor
            }
            super.highlighted = newValue
        }
    }
}

Answer 2

UIButton extension with Swift 3+ syntax:

extension UIButton {
    func setBackgroundColor(color: UIColor, forState: UIControlState) {
        UIGraphicsBeginImageContext(CGSize(width: 1, height: 1))
        UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext()!.setFillColor(color.cgColor)
        UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext()!.fill(CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: 1, height: 1))
        let colorImage = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext()
        UIGraphicsEndImageContext()
        self.setBackgroundImage(colorImage, for: forState)
    }}

Use it like:

YourButton.setBackgroundColor(color: UIColor.white, forState: .highlighted)

Original Answer: https://stackoverflow.com/a/30604658/3659227

Answer 3

Try this if you have an image:

-(void)setBackgroundImage:(UIImage *)image forState:(UIControlState)state;

or see if showsTouchWhenHighlighted is enough for you.

Answer 4

UPDATE:

Use the UIButtonBackgroundColor Swift library.

OLD:

Use the helpers below to create a 1 px x 1 px image with a grayscale fill color:

UIImage *image = ACUTilingImageGray(248/255.0, 1);

or an RGB fill color:

UIImage *image = ACUTilingImageRGB(253/255.0, 123/255.0, 43/255.0, 1);

Then, use that image to set the button's background image:

[button setBackgroundImage:image forState:UIControlStateNormal];

Helpers

#pragma mark - Helpers

UIImage *ACUTilingImageGray(CGFloat gray, CGFloat alpha)
{
    return ACUTilingImage(alpha, ^(CGContextRef context) {
        CGContextSetGrayFillColor(context, gray, alpha);
    });
}

UIImage *ACUTilingImageRGB(CGFloat red, CGFloat green, CGFloat blue, CGFloat alpha)
{
    return ACUTilingImage(alpha, ^(CGContextRef context) {
        CGContextSetRGBFillColor(context, red, green, blue, alpha);
    });
}

UIImage *ACUTilingImage(CGFloat alpha, void (^setFillColor)(CGContextRef context))
{
    CGRect rect = CGRectMake(0, 0, 0.5, 0.5);
    UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions(rect.size, alpha == 1, 0);
    CGContextRef context = UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext();
    setFillColor(context);
    CGContextFillRect(context, rect);
    UIImage *image = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext();
    UIGraphicsEndImageContext();
    return image;
}

Note: ACU is the class prefix of my Cocoa Touch Static Library called Acani Utilities, where AC is for Acani, and U is for Utilities.

Answer 5

Below UIIImage extension will generates image object with specified color parameter.

extension UIImage {
    static func imageWithColor(tintColor: UIColor) -> UIImage {
        let rect = CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: 1, height: 1)
        UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions(rect.size, false, 0)
        tintColor.setFill()
        UIRectFill(rect)
        let image: UIImage = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext()!
        UIGraphicsEndImageContext()
        return image
       }
    }

An example usage for a button can be applied for the button object as :

setupButton.setBackgroundImage(UIImage.imageWithColor(tintColor: UIColor(displayP3Red: 232/255, green: 130/255, blue: 121/255, alpha: 1.0)), for: UIControlState.highlighted)

setupButton.setBackgroundImage(UIImage.imageWithColor(tintColor: UIColor(displayP3Red: 255/255, green: 194/255, blue: 190/255, alpha: 1.0)), for: UIControlState.normal)

Answer 6

I have open-sourced a UIButton subclass, STAButton, to fill in this gaping functionality hole. Available under the MIT license. Works for iOS 7+ (I have not tested with older iOS versions).