UIBarButtonItem with stretched not tiled UIImage in iOS5 - iphone

Question

I am using the appearance API to customise the look of my UIBarButtonItems.
I currently need to make my buttons look like this:
In iOS5 you have this method which is what I am using:
UIImage *button = [[UIImage imageNamed:#"btn"]
resizableImageWithCapInsets:UIEdgeInsetsMake(3, 3, 3, 3)];
[[UIBarButtonItem appearance] setBackgroundImage:button forState:UIControlStateNormal
barMetrics:UIBarMetricsDefault];
But this tiles the non capped portion of the image instead of stretching which gives me this:
iOS 6 has a new method
resizableImageWithCapInsets:resizingMode:
Which lets you specify a 'stretch' resize mode but it is not available for iOS5.
How do I make the button stretch rather than tile the centre of the image for iOS5?

Answer 1

Turns out this is not possible in iOS5, buttons should always use a horizontal style gradient if they are styled since the image will always be tiled. I ended up changing the gradient direction.

Answer 2

You can use the old and deprecated stretchableImageWithLeftCapWidth:topCapHeight: method for iOS5 if you need stretching:
UIImage* (^makeStretchableImage)(UIImage*, CGSize) = nil;
if ([UIImage instancesRespondToSelector:#selector(resizableImageWithCapInsets:resizingMode:)])
{
// If resizableImageWithCapInsets:resizingMode: is available, use it
makeStretchableImage = ^(UIImage* image, CGSize inset) {
return [image resizableImageWithCapInsets:UIEdgeInsetsMake(inset.height, inset.width, inset.height, inset.width) resizingMode:UIImageResizingModeStretch];
};
}
else
{
// Else, we are on an older iOS release, use the deprecated iOS5 method instead
makeStretchableImage = ^(UIImage* image, CGSize inset) {
return [image stretchableImageWithLeftCapWidth:inset.width topCapHeight:inset.height];
};
}
UIImage* stretchableImage1 = makeStretchableImage(originalImage1, CGSizeMake(5,2));
UIImage* stretchableImage2 = makeStretchableImage(originalImage2, CGSizeMake(15,4));
UIImage* stretchableImage3 = makeStretchableImage(originalImage3, CGSizeMake(8,5));