I have a non-document based macOS AppKit app. It has one window instantiated automatically by the storyboard. I have sub-classed NSWindowController and added a override func newWindowForTab(_ sender: Any?) to enable the + button on the tab-bar. My main view controller lets the user rename the tab title and the window title is set to the same. This is kind of like how Xcode tab renaming works.
Additionally I have sub-classed NSWindow and added a restorableStateKeyPaths to ensure tab and window titles are automatically restored on app restart.
This all works great.
But only for the first tab. The main window is loaded and it has the tab and window titles set automatically.
The other tabs (windows) are not restored.
Any hints on what I miss to make all tabs restored?
My NSWindowController:
class MyWindowController: NSWindowController {
var subview: MyWindowController?
#IBAction override func newWindowForTab(_ sender: Any?) {
let story = self.storyboard
let windowVC = story?.instantiateInitialController() as! Self
window?.addTabbedWindow(windowVC.window!, ordered: .above)
subview = windowVC
windowVC.window?.orderFront(self.window)
windowVC.window?.makeKey()
}
}
My NSWindow:
class MyWindow: NSWindow {
override class var restorableStateKeyPaths: [String] {
return [ "self.tab.title", "self.title" ]
}
}
First you need to make sure that state restoration is enabled for your user, you can do this by going to Preferences->General and unchecking "Close windows when quitting an app".
Then you should use a restoration class in order to restore all open windows.
Basically if an NSWindow doesn't have a restoration class it won't be preserved across launches, that includes your storyboard loaded window. In this case what is happening is Cocoa is ignoring all window preservation because you haven't defined a restoration class for any of your windows so it resorts to its default behavior which is loading the initial storyboard controller.
Implementing restoration class is easy, just create a restoration class that inherits from NSObject and conforms to NSWindowRestoration, then implement its only required type method restoreWindow(identifier:state:completionHandler) like so:
class MyAppWindowRestoration: NSObject, NSWindowRestoration {
static func restoreWindow(withIdentifier identifier: NSUserInterfaceItemIdentifier,
state: NSCoder,
completionHandler: #escaping (NSWindow?, Error?) -> Void) {
// 1.- Retrieve and show the window
// Retrieve a new instance of the only window
let window = (NSStoryboard.main?.instantiateInitialController() as? NSWindowController)?.window
// Call the completion handler with the window and no errors
completionHandler(window, nil)
}
}
Then just assign this class as the window restoration class on every window you want restored, you can do this everywhere after the window has loaded:
window.restorationClass = MyAppWindowRestoration.self
Unfortunately Apple's documentation on state restoration completely sucks so if you have any more questions let me know ;)
Related
I'd like to save the state of Check Box, quit application, then launch macOS app again to see restored state of my Check Box. But there's no restored state in UI of my app.
What am I doing wrong?
import Cocoa
class ViewController: NSViewController {
#IBOutlet weak var tick: NSButton!
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
}
override func encodeRestorableState(with coder: NSCoder) {
super.encodeRestorableState(with: coder)
coder.encode(tick.state, forKey: "")
}
override func restoreState(with coder: NSCoder) {
super.restoreState(with: coder)
if let state = coder.decodeObject(forKey: "") as? NSControl.StateValue {
tick.state = state
}
}
}
To the best of my knowledge, this is the absolute minimum you need to implement custom UI state restoration of a window and/or its contents.
In this example, I have a window with a checkbox and that checkbox's state represents some custom view state that I want to restore when the app is relaunched.
The project contains a single window with a single checkbox button. The button's value is bound to the myState property of the window's content view controller. So, technically, the fact that this is a checkbox control is irrelevant; we're actually going to preserve and restore the myState property (the UI takes care of itself).
To make this work, the window's restorable property is set to true (in the window object inspector) and the window is assigned an identifier ("PersistentWindow"). NSWindow is subclassed (PersistentWindow) and the subclass implements the restorableStateKeyPaths property. This property lists the custom properties to be preserved/restored.
Note: if you can define your UI state restoration in terms of a list of key-value compliant property paths, that is (by far) the simplest solution. If not, you must implement encodeRestorableState / restoreState and are responsible for calling invalidateRestorableState.
Here's the custom window class:
class PersistentWindow: NSWindow {
// Custom subclass of window the perserves/restores UI state
// The simple way to preserve and restore state information is to just declare the key-value paths
// of the properties you want preserved/restored; Cocoa does the rest
override class var restorableStateKeyPaths: [String] {
return [ "self.contentViewController.myState" ]
}
// Alternatively, if you have complex UI state, you can implement these methods
// override func encodeRestorableState(with coder: NSCoder) {
// // optional method to encode special/complex view state here
// }
//
// override func restoreState(with coder: NSCoder) {
// // companion method to decode special/complex view state
// }
}
And here's the (relevant portion) of the content view controller
class ViewController: NSViewController {
#objc var myState : Bool = false
blah, blah, blah
}
(I built this as a Cocoa app project, which I could upload if someone tells me where I could upload it to.)
Actually you don't have to go through restorableStateKeyPaths / KVO / KVC if you don't want to.
I was stuck in the same state as you with the encodeRestorableState() & restoreState() methods not being called but found out what was missing.
In System Preferences > General, make sure "Close windows when quitting an app" is unchecked.
Make sure that the NSWindow containing your view has "Restorable" behavior enabled in IB.
Make sure that your NSViewController has a "Restoration ID" set.
Your NSViewController won't be encoded unless you call invalidateRestorableState(). You need to call this each time there's a state in your NSViewController that changes and that you want to have saved.
When no state changes in the NSViewController after having restored it, its state would not be encoded again when closing the app. Which would cause the custom states to not be restored when relaunching the app. The simplest way I found is to also call invalidateRestorableState() in viewDidLoad(), so that state is always saved.
After doing all that, I didn't even have to additionally implement NSApplicationDelegate or NSWindowRestoration protocol methods. So the state restoration of the NSViewController is pretty self-contained. Only external property is restorable NSWindow.
After losing a couple of hours of my life to this problem I finally got it working. Some of the information in the other answers was helpful, some was missing, some was not necessary.
Here is my minimal example based on a new Xcode 13 project:
in AppDelegate add (this is missing in the other examples):
func applicationSupportsSecureRestorableState(_ app: NSApplication) -> Bool { return true }
in ViewController add:
#objc var myState : Bool = false
override class var restorableStateKeyPaths: [String] {
return [ "myState" ]
}
set up some UI and bind it to myState to see what is going on
make sure System Preferences > General > "Close windows when quitting an app" is unchecked
Things that I did not need to do:
create a custom window subclass
set a custom restoration id
it worked fine just with Xcode start/stop
My main window controller has a toolbar item that triggers the presentation of a modal sheet. The sheet is supposed to display the progress of a lengthy, asynchronous process (e.g., sync local data with a server).
However, I can not get the (indeterminate) progress indicator to animate.
This is the action that triggers the modal sheet:
var syncProgressWindowController: SyncProgressWindowController!
// ...
#IBAction func syncWithServer(_ sender: AnyObject) {
// (Actual HTTP code not implemented)
syncProgressWindowController = SyncProgressWindowController()
syncProgressWindowController.loadWindow()
guard let modalWindow = syncProgressWindowController.window else {
return
}
self.window?.beginSheet(modalWindow, completionHandler: { (response) in
// THIS GETS EXECUTED.
// However, the code below has no effect:
self.syncProgressWindowController.progressIndicator.startAnimation(self)
// self.syncProgressWindowController.progressIndicator is
// NOT nil, despite windowDidLoad() not being called
// (see below)
})
}
The modal sheet window controller (class SyncProgressWindowController above) is defined like this:
#IBOutlet weak var progressIndicator: NSProgressIndicator!
convenience init() {
self.init(windowNibName: "SyncProgressWindow")
}
override func windowDidLoad() {
super.windowDidLoad()
// Breakpoints here don't work, logs don't print to the console.
// Not called? But outlet _is_ set (see above).
}
The xib file (SyncProgressWindow.xib) has:
File's Owner Identity/Class set to "SyncProgressWindowController"
Window has New Referencing Outlet to File's Owner's window
Window has delegate outlet wired to "File's Owner" (just in case - but delegate methods don't seem to get called either).
Window has "Visible at Launch" unchecked (and is therefore displayed modally with no problems).
Progress has New Referencing Outlet wired to File's Owner's progressIndicator.
However:
SyncProgressWindowController's windowDidLoad() does not get called (Execution does not stop at breakpoints there and logs aren't printed).
Despite that, the property/outlet progressIndicator is set somehow, because the app does not crash when I attempt to animate it, with code like this:
self.syncProgressWindowController.progressIndicator.startAnimation(self)
What am I missing?
completionHandler will be fired when you close sheet by endSheet(_:returnCode:) So you start indicator before sheet will be closed.
I'm not good in xib files, but when i disabled row with loadWindow, windowDidLoad was called. I'm not sure it's right way.
How to handle close event of the window using swift, for example, to ask "Are you sure you want to close the form?"
The form will be closed in the case "yes" and not closed in the case "no". Showing message box is not a problem for me.
viewWillDisappear() works for minimizing also, but I need only close event.
Thanks.
Like said above, you should make the ViewController an NSWindowDelegate, but you should handle windowWillClose, not windowShouldClose. windowShouldClose is to determine if the window is able to close or not, not an event that the window is actually closing.
I also found that you need to set up the delegate in viewDidAppear, not viewDidLoad. For me self.view.window wasn't defined yet in viewDidLoad.
override func viewDidAppear() {
self.view.window?.delegate = self
}
I was having the same query too, solved it using the method explained in detail here: Quit Cocoa App when Window Close using XCode Swift 3
It needs three steps:
Conform toNSWindowDelegate in your ViewController class
Override viewDidAppear method
Add windowShouldClose method
The added code should look like this:
class ViewController: NSViewController, NSWindowDelegate {
// ... rest of the code goes here
override func viewDidAppear() {
self.view.window?.delegate = self
}
func windowShouldClose(_ sender: Any) {
NSApplication.shared().terminate(self)
}
}
You can use the NSWindowDelegate protocol in your ViewController class. (See the documentation here)
To make your class conform to the protocol:
class ViewController: NSObject, NSWindowDelegate
To detect when the window's close button has been clicked, use windowShouldClose:
From the doc:
Tells the delegate that the user has attempted to close a window [...]
In this method, you can use NSAlert to prompt the user on whether or not they really want to close the window.
EDIT (in response to #Mr Beardsley's comment)
To make your ViewController the delegate, use:
window.delegate = self
Where self is the ViewController and window is the window you're using. You can put this in viewDidLoad:.
Just add this function to AppDelegate ...
func applicationShouldTerminateAfterLastWindowClosed (_ theApplication: NSApplication) -> Bool {
return true
}
My question is essential this question, but the answer doesn't seem to work with Swift/Storyboards.
Cocoa: programmatically show the main window after closing it with X
Basically, I have a more or less default application with a menu, a window, and a ViewController. If the user closes the window while the application is running, how do I reopen it?
I have created an action in the app delegate the connects to the "Open" Menu Item. Within this function, I would like to ensure that the window is visible. So if the user has closed it, it should reappear. But I cannot figure out how to access the closed window. Storyboard does not seem to allow me to create an outlet for my Window in my app delegate.
This is quite simple to archive, even it is not an elegant solution. Add a new property to your app delegate for your main window controller. In the following example, I call the controller MainWindowController.
#NSApplicationMain
class AppDelegate: NSObject, NSApplicationDelegate {
var mainWindowController: MainWindowController? = nil
func applicationShouldHandleReopen(sender: NSApplication, hasVisibleWindows flag: Bool) -> Bool {
mainWindowController?.window?.makeKeyAndOrderFront(self)
return false
}
}
In the initialisation of the main window controller I register the controller in the app delegate:
class MainWindowController: NSWindowController {
override func windowDidLoad() {
super.windowDidLoad()
// ...initialisation...
// Register the controller in the app delegate
let appDelegate = NSApp.delegate as! AppDelegate
appDelegate.mainWindowController = self
}
}
That is all, works perfectly for me.
I've tried to build on a Cocoa app which uses storyboard and Swift in Xcode 6. However, when I tried to alter the title of window from within NSViewController, the following code doesn't work.
self.title = "changed label"
When I wrote the above code in viewDidLoad() function, the resultant app's title still remains window.
Also, the following code causes an error, since View Controller doesn't have such property as window.
self.window.title = "changed label"
So how can I change the title of window programmatically in Cocoa app which is built on storyboard?
There are 2 problems with your code:
viewDidLoad is called before the view is added to the window
NSViewController does not have a window property
To fix the first one, you could override viewDidAppear(). This method is called after the view has fully transitioned onto the screen. At that point it is already added to a window.
To get a reference to the window title, you can access a view controller's window via its view: self.view.window.title
Just add the following to your view controller subclass, and the window title should change:
override func viewDidAppear() {
super.viewDidAppear()
self.view.window?.title = "changed label"
}
This worked for me, currentDict is NSDictionary passed from previous viewController
var currentDict:NSDictionary?
override func viewDidAppear(animated: Bool) {
super.viewDidAppear(animated)
if let myString:String = currentDict?["title"] as? String {
self.title = myString
}
}