Draw rounded linear gradient (or extended radial gradient) with CoreGraphics - objective-c

Question

I want to do some custom drawing with CoreGraphics. I need a linear gradient on my view, but the thing is that this view is a rounded rectangle so I want my gradient to be also rounded at angles. You can see what I want to achieve on the image below:
So is this possible to implement in CoreGraphics or some other programmatic and easy way?
Thank you.

Answer 1

I don't think there is an API for that, but you can get the same effect if you first draw a radial gradient, say, in an (N+1)x(N+1) size bitmap context, then convert the image from the context to a resizable image with left and right caps set to N.
Pseudocode:
UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions(CGSizeMake(N+1,N+1), NO, 0.0f);
CGContextRef context = UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext();
// <draw the gradient into 'context'>
UIImage* gradientBase = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext();
UIGraphicsEndImageContext();
UIImage* gradientImage = [gradientBase resizableImageWithCapInsets:UIEdgeInsetsMake(0,N,0,N)];
In case you want the image to scale vertically as well, you just have to set the caps to UIEdgeInsetsMake(N,N,N,N).

Answer 2

I just want to add more sample code for this technique, as some things weren't obvious for. Maybe it will be useful for somebody:
So, let's say, we have our custom view class and in it's drawRect: method we put this:
// Defining the rect in which to draw
CGRect drawRect=self.bounds;
Float32 gradientSize=drawRect.size.height; // The size of original radial gradient
CGPoint center=CGPointMake(0.5f*gradientSize,0.5f*gradientSize); // Center of gradient
// Creating the gradient
Float32 colors[4]={0.f,1.f,1.f,0.2f}; // From opaque white to transparent black
CGGradientRef gradient=CGGradientCreateWithColorComponents(CGColorSpaceCreateDeviceGray(), colors, nil, 2);
// Starting image and drawing gradient into it
UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions(CGSizeMake(gradientSize, gradientSize), NO, 1.f);
CGContextRef context=UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext();
CGContextDrawRadialGradient(context, gradient, center, 0.f, center, center.x, 0); // Drawing gradient
UIImage* gradientImage=UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext(); // Retrieving image from context
UIGraphicsEndImageContext(); // Ending process
gradientImage=[gradientImage resizableImageWithCapInsets:UIEdgeInsetsMake(0.f, center.x-1.f, 0.f, center.x-1.f)]; // Leaving 2 pixels wide area in center which will be tiled to fill whole area
// Drawing image into view frame
[gradientImage drawInRect:drawRect];
That's all. Also if you're not going to ever change the gradient while app is running, you would want to put everything except last line in awakeFromNib method and then in drawRect: just draw the gradientImage into view's frame. Also don't forget to retain the gradientImage in this case.