Question

Anywhere there is a UIButton in my app i would like it to have a specific background image. This background image will always be the same.

What i dont want to have to do is call a method on every button that i put into my UI.

Can i do this via a category or something similar?

Answer 1

You can’t change global appearance of your button via simple code (in current SDK).

---

BUT, You can subclass your UIButton. For example:

.h

@interface MyButton : UIButton

@end

---

.m

@implementation MyButton

// your customization code

@end

And if you want to insert an UIButton instance like:

UIButton *button = // init your button
// customize your button
[self.view addSubview:button];

you have to change UIButton to MyButton

Mybutton *button=  // init your button
[self.view addSubview:button];

Don’t forget about #import "MyButton.h" in your .m / .h file.

---

EDIT: Where should you make customizations:

@implementation UIButton (MyCategory)

+ (id)buttonWithFrame:(CGRect)frame {
    return [[[self alloc] initWithFrame:frame] autorelease];
}

- (id)initWithFrame:(CGRect)frame {
  if (self = [super initWithFrame:frame]) {
    // HERE YOU CAN DO SOME CUSTOMIZATION
  }
  return self;
}

Then, somewhere in your viewController:

UIButton *btn = [[UIButton alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(x, y, width, height)];

or:

UIButton *btn = [UIButton buttonWithFrame:CGRectMake(x, y, width, height)];