Animating UIButton background image - iphone

Question

Is there a way to animate a UIButton background image view with a set of images?
I've managed to do so with the imageView property, but couldn't find an equivalent background property.
10x

Answer 1

Here's what I did (inside a UIButton subclass):
Set the button images, like regular:
[self setBackgroundImage:[[UIImage imageNamed:#"button"] resizableImageWithCapInsets:UIEdgeInsetsMake(10.0, 10.0, 10.0, 10.0)] forState:UIControlStateNormal];
[self setBackgroundImage:[[UIImage imageNamed:#"button_pressed"] resizableImageWithCapInsets:UIEdgeInsetsMake(10.0, 10.0, 10.0, 10.0)] forState:UIControlStateHighlighted];
Override highlighted:
- (void)setHighlighted:(BOOL)highlighted {
[UIView transitionWithView:self duration:0.25 options:UIViewAnimationOptionTransitionCrossDissolve | UIViewAnimationOptionAllowAnimatedContent animations:^{
[super setHighlighted:highlighted];
} completion:nil];
}

Answer 2

To change a buttons backround image, or text for that matter - you need to change it for the particular UIControlState... i.e Highlighted, Selected, Disabled
Use
- (void)setBackgroundImage:(UIImage *)image forState:(UIControlState)state
I'm not sure if you can animate them, I've never tried. If you can't animate them, then you could put a UIImageView behind a transparent button and animate the images in that instead - just a thought.

Answer 3

You can animate an UIButton the way you animate an UIImageView like this...
-(void) addAnimationToButton:(UIButton*) button{
UIImageView* animationView = [button imageView];
NSArray* animations=[NSArray arrayWithObjects:
[UIImage imageNamed:#"sprite1.png"],
[UIImage imageNamed:#"sprite2.png"],
[UIImage imageNamed:#"sprite2.png"],
//and so on if you need more
nil];
CGFloat animationDuration = 2.0;
[animationView setAnimationImages:animations];
[animationView setAnimationDuration:animationDuration];
[animationView setAnimationRepeatCount:0]; //0 is infinite
}
And you use it like this:
[self addAnimationToButton:yourButton];
[[yourButton imageView] startAnimating]; //or stopAnimating

Answer 4

Yes it is possible. Use NSTimer ,
NSTimer *myTimer = [NSTimer scheduledTimerWithTimeInterval:5.00 target:self selector:#selector(changeImage) userInfo:nil repeats:YES];
then, method is as follows,
- (void)changeImage
{
static int counter = 0;
if([bannerArray count] == counter)
{
counter = 0;
}
[button setImage:[UIImage imageWithData:[NSData dataWithContentsOfURL:[NSURL URLWithString:bannerArray[counter]]]] forState:UIControlStateNormal];
counter++;
}
It worked for me. But adding animation like flip etc need to figure out. Hope this also one way to help your need.