Dynamically changing a NSWindow's contentViewController - macos

I have an NSWindowController and an NSViewController, both configured in a storyboard.
When I set the contentViewController in Interface Builder, everything works as expected.
When I set the contentViewController programmatically in windowDidLoad everything works as expected.
Now I'm trying to update the content view controller in response to a toolbar button click (below).
#IBAction func toolbarButtonClicked(_ sender: Any) {
contentViewController = storyboard?.instantiateController(withIdentifier: "VC") as! NSViewController?
}
This assignment causes viewWillAppear to be called on the view controller, but at that point the content view doesn't have a window assigned.
Why is this? Is it possible to dynamically change a window's contentViewController like this?

It looks like:
When the content view is configured in storyboard or windowDidLoad, the view already has a window by the time viewWillAppear gets called, i.e. when the window itself appears.
When the content view is set after the window has appeared, viewWillAppear gets called to indicate that the content view will be added to the window; the view has no window until viewWillLayout is called.
I was using the window to access the current document, so my solution was to access the document before updating the content and use that to configure the content view controller.

Related

How do I set the initial first responder per view in a cocoa app that switches between different views?

My Cocoa App uses one ViewController. I do not use the InterfaceBuilder On app launch a view will be created and the user can do stuff. When clicking a specific button the VC (as the view's delegate) receives a message and then replaces the view with another.
In this new view I want a specific UI element to be the first responder. So far I have not been successful.
The new view has a reference to the desired element (a subview), so the VC can pass it to the window's makeFirstResponder(:_) method.
I tried to do that in the following places:
at the end of the view's init
in the view controller's viewWillAppear()
in the VCs viewDidAppear()
in the latter two I tried:
if let myView = self.view as? MyView {
... here I try to set the UI element as firstResponder ...
}
But in any case I get the following Message:
[General] ERROR: Setting <NSTableView: 0x7f8c1f840600> as the first responder for window <NSWindow: 0x7f8c1ef0efc0>, but it is in a different window ((null))! This would eventually crash when the view is freed. The first responder will be set to nil.
So it appears that at the time I try to set the firstResponder the new view has not yet been attached to the window.
What I also tried is to override the MyView's becomeFirstResponder()method, assuming that when the view is finally presented in the window it will receive that command, but unfortunately this method does not get called.
Is there an easy way to specify an entry point for the responder chain / key view loop per view?

Cocoa - Present NSViewController programmatically LIKE "Show option" in storyboard (Without being a Modal)

I am trying to present an NSViewController and there are 3 API's available.
presentAsModalWindow()
presentAsSheet()
present(....) for popover
But I want to simply present without the ViewController to become modal.
I found that in storyboard there is an option "Show". If you connect with any action then it will present the view controller and it will not be modal. But in code, I am not able to find a similar option.
NOTE: I want it should present exactly like how it did with presentAsModal without NewController being a Modal.
I found the solution. We need to create a new window and embedd in new Window controller.
let vc = MyViewController()
let myWindow = NSWindow(contentViewController: vc)
myWindow.makeKeyAndOrderFront(self)
let windowVC = NSWindowController(window: myWindow)
windowVC.showWindow(self)

Change appearance of a popover created using a popover segue in OS X

I'm trying to use storyboards to build a simple app for Yosemite. Creating a popover segue is easy - the segue is created from a button click to an NSViewController in my storyboard, and the Style is set to Popover. This works great, but the trouble is, I'd like to change the appearance of this popover. It seems to be defaulting to a Vibrant Dark appearance, but I'd like it to be Vibrant Light or Aqua. I assume what is happening here is that behind the scenes, an NSPopover is being created to contain the view controller that I am displaying with my segue, but I can't figure out how to get access to this NSPopover object - the storyboard only gives me access to the view controller that I am displaying, and there isn't any NSPopover object available to use in interface builder.
All I want to do is change the appearance of this popover I'm creating in my storyboard...Any suggestions? Thanks!
Override viewWillAppear in your view controller and update the appearance of the view's window:
override func viewWillAppear() {
self.view.window?.appearance = NSAppearance(named: NSAppearanceNameVibrantDark)
}
your appearance can be any of the standard appearances

How to use NSToolBar in Xcode 6 and Storyboard?

I've been trying to build on a Cocoa app that uses Swift and Storyboard in Xcode 6, but how can I use NSToolbar there?
In Xcode 5 and xib, you can add NSToolbar from within Object Library to any .xib files and then click on the added toolbar to expand it and drag and drop a connection from any items there to a AppDelegate.h file. In this way you can create a IBAction or IBOutlet connection. I confirmed that this can also be done if you use Swift and non-storyboard in Xcode 6. However, it looks like this is not the case in Xcode 6 and Storyboard environment.
I first created a project that uses Storyboard in Xcode 6, but then, I wasn't able to add a NSToolbar from within Object Library to a View Controller in Storyboard. So I added it to Window Controller's Window object in Storyboard. However, in this way I cannot create those connections from any items in the expanded toolbar to either AppDelegate.swift or ViewController.swift.
So my question is:
Is it feasible to create a storyboard app that uses NSToolbar?
If it is feasible, is the addition of NSToolbar to the Window Controller the proper way to use NSToolBar in Storyboard?
Finally, how can I create #IBOutlet and #IBAction connections there?
UPDATE
I found that the accepted answer by #GeorgeVillasboas only works for #IBAction. I am still looking for how to create an #IBOutlet connection...
I had this very same problem.
The solution works for both Objective-C and Swift projects.
Working with Storyboards on OSX, it creates an instance of NSWindow and segues to another NSViewController as its Window Content Segue, as you described.
On your ViewController, create a standard IBAction to receive the action when the toolbar is clicked. To wire it up with the NSToolbar, just control-drag (or leftClick-drag) from your NSToolbarItem to the FirstResponder object, as shown on the picture below.
This will open a HUGE list of available connections. Your IBAction will be on that list.
Just selected it and you're good to go.
Hope this helps!
Here's an answer that doesn't rely on run-time hook-ups - #cdalvaro's answer gets most of the way there for some applications, but isn't full, and it requires the ViewController to know about the artificial NSWindowController, which doesn't feel right.
Like #cdalvaro, the first step is to build your own subclass of NSWindowController, and to set the Storyboard WC to that class. You can then create all of your connections to and from the NSToolbar (both #IBOutlets & #IBActions) in the new WindowController. So far so good.
The last step, which I haven't seen anywhere else, is how to refer to the ViewController in the WindowController - you can't create an #IBOutlet to it - for the same reasons that we got here in the first place - you can't create references across scenes in the Storyboard. However, the WindowController must have a reference to the ViewController, and it does... self.window!.contentViewController! as! ViewController
Here's a complete WindowController with a checkbox that sets values in the ViewController, without the ViewController having to know anything...
class MyWindowController: NSWindowController {
var viewController: ViewController {
get {
return self.window!.contentViewController! as! ViewController
}
}
#IBOutlet weak var aSwitch: NSButton!
#IBAction func toolbarActionA(sender: AnyObject) {
println("toolbarActionA")
self.viewController.a = !self.viewController.a
self.aSwitch.state = self.viewController.a ? NSOnState : NSOffState
}
}
This helped me for the IBOutlet solution you are looking for:
https://stackoverflow.com/a/27555237/3398062
Update (explanation)
I discovered this thread because I was trying to create a Circular Progress Indicator inside the toolbar and I didn't know how to animate it from the ViewController since the IBOutlet was declared inside a custom WindowController.
Finally, I found the post that I have added above which describes how to access to IBOutlets from other classes.
In essence what I have done is the following:
Create a custom NSWindowController subclass (CustomWindowController) for the Window Controller so I can add the IBOutlet for the ProgressIndicator:
Code Example:
#interface CustomWindowController : NSWindowController
#property (weak) IBOutlet NSProgressIndicator *progressIndicator;
#end
Then in the ViewController class, in the method I want to use to update the state of the Progress Indicator, I create and object of the custom Window Controller.
Code Example:
CustomWindowController *customWindowController = self.view.window.windowController;`
Finally, to change the state of the Progress Indicator there is only to call the method from the created custom object.
Code Example:
[customWindowController.progressIndicator startAnimation:sender];
or
[customWindowController.progressIndicator stopAnimation:sender];
This video helped me how to create a toolbar without writing a single line of code: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSQocHG3IjA
You can add the 'Window Controller' item from the Object Library (if you don't have one), connect to a View Controller (where you want your toolbar to display) and follow the video! For custom Toolbar buttons add 'Image Button' item to the Toolbar just by dragging from the Object Library. Then you can pick an image for a button, set the size and so on...
Here is a general solution for the outlets and actions. it allows you to preform all the the same functions as an iboutlet would for a tool bar item and also allows you to set the button to a function instead of creating an ibaction. hope it helps :P
override func viewDidLayout() {
var x = self.view.window?.toolbar?.items[1].label
println(x)
if(self.view.window?.toolbar?.items[0].label! != "Check")
{
toobarediting()
}
println("didlay")
}
func toobarediting() {
self.view.window?.toolbar?.insertItemWithItemIdentifier("Check", atIndex: 0)
}
func toolbarcheck(functiontoset: Selector) {
var y = self.view.window?.toolbar?.items[0] as NSToolbarItem
y.action = functiontoset
if(functiontoset != nil)
{
y.enabled = true
}
}
Here is a link to my question attempting to get a cleaner answer
http://www.stackoverflow.com/questions/27371439/use-nstoolbar-outlet-xcode-6-and-storyboard/27374449
but it looks like from the answers i have gotten so far this is the best option.
The same problem of IBOutlets also applies to KVO. One of the features of the NSSplitViewController is the canCollapse property for each split view item which supports KVO, but this is unusable in IB just like IBOutlets.
The only workaround I can see is to add a NSObjectController to each scene and when the scene loads, set the object controller's object to the object in the other scene (already loaded) that you want to reference.

Configuring the backBarButtonItem of a View Controller's Navigation Item in a Storyboard

It's easy enough to drag and drop bar button items onto a view controller's navigation bar in a storyboard in Interface Builder. In this way, you can set the leftBarButtonItem and rightBarButtonItem outlets of the view controller's navigation item. But there's also a backBarButtonItem outlet, and it's not obvious at all how to set it. How can I set a custom back bar button item using Interface Builder?
Select the view controller whose navigation items you want to change. The black bar displaying the identity of the view controller changes to an iconified tray of its referenced objects.
Drag and drop a bar button item from the object library onto the tray.
Right-click on the view controller's navigation item in the main object tray on the left-hand side. Wire up the newly added button as the navigation item's backBarButtonItem outlet.
Select the bar button and configure it in any way you choose with the Attributes Inspector.
As #wcochran noted above, when working with viewControllers pushed onto a navigationController's stack, the backBarButtonItem outlet is already wired and can't be changed. Furthermore, selecting the child VC's navigationItem and changing the Back Button text in IB doesn't do what you would expect.
Now you might think that replacing the child VC's backBarButtonItem would solve the problem, but it doesn't. Confusingly, if you want to set the title of the back button of a child VC, you have to set the back button title of its parent (!), like so:
- (void)viewWillAppear:(BOOL)animated // in the parent VC!
{
UIBarButtonItem *backButton = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithTitle:#"Back" style:UIBarButtonItemStylePlain target:nil action:nil];
self.navigationItem.backBarButtonItem = backButton;
}
This won't do anything on the parent VC. In fact, if the parent is the navigationController's RootViewController, there won't be a back button at all. But the child will inherit (or pick up) the back button you've created.
This only applies to the immediate child VC, so if you want to maintain the label down through the navigationController's stack you need to set it on each parent.
Thanks to #wiliz in #iphonedev for explaining this to me.
As #AdamBlock noted above, you have to set things right in the parent VC.
He shows how to do this programmatically. It is also possible to do this in interface builder.
Select the parent VC
Select the navigation Item
Open the Attributes inspector
Set the title for the Back Button.
In Interface Builder, you can change the Navigation Item back button's title.
Programmatically, you can set a custom back button in your view controller's viewDidLoad method. In this example we set the button's image to an image named "customImage.png":
- (void)viewDidLoad
{
[super viewDidLoad];
UIBarButtonItem *backButton = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithTitle:#"Custom" style:UIBarButtonItemStyleBordered target:self action:nil];
// Set custom image here
backButton.image = [UIImage imageNamed:#"customImage.png"];
self.navigationItem.backBarButtonItem = backButton;
}

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