Changing NSCursor for NSView above an NSTextView - macos

Question

Found a similar question to mine(this),
but my issues seems to be a bit more associated with view hierarchy.
I have a NSTextView, then as sibling views, several other NSViews on top of it.
Similar to the question linked above, I setup a tracking area, and applied the cursor as such:
class CursorChangingView: NSView {
override func updateTrackingAreas() {
let trackingArea = NSTrackingArea(rect:
}
override func cursorUpdate(event: NSEvent) {
NSCursor.arrowCursor().set()
}
}
It does seem to work when hovering, but immediately goes back to the IBeam Cursor, which is the default cursor for NSTextViews under this CursorChangingView.
Is this the proper way of applying changing the cursor when hovering over a certain NSView, and is the NSTextView under it overriding my overrriding?

Answer 1

All you need is to subclass a custom view, override awakeFromNib method, add the custom tracking area for [.mouseMoved, .activeAlways] events: NSTrackingArea Info there. There is no need to override resetCursorRects and/or updateTrackingAreas. All you need is to override mouseMoved method and set the desired cursor there:
Note about discardCursorRects method:
From the docs
You need never invoke this method directly
Xcode 9 • Swift 4
import Cocoa
class CursorChangingView: NSView {
override func awakeFromNib() {
addTrackingArea(NSTrackingArea(rect: bounds, options: [.activeAlways, .mouseMoved], owner: self, userInfo: nil))
wantsLayer = true
layer?.backgroundColor = NSColor.cyan.cgColor
layer?.borderColor = NSColor.black.cgColor
layer?.borderWidth = 1
}
#objc override func mouseMoved(with theEvent: NSEvent) {
NSCursor.pointingHand.set()
}
}
Sample

Answer 2

Thanks #Leo Dabus for your answer,
but I managed to solve it, so I will post my answer too.
In my case, for some reason, mouseEntered and mouseEntered did not work at all.
So here is my code that finally got it to work:
class CursorChangingView: NSView {
let trackingArea: NSTrackingArea?
func setupTracking() {
if self.trackingArea == nil {
self.trackingArea = NSTrackingArea(rect: self.bounds, options: NSTrackingAreaOptions.ActiveAlways | NSTrackingAreaOptions.MouseMoved | NSTrackingAreaOptions.CursorUpdate | NSTrackingAreaOptions.MouseEnteredAndExited | NSTrackingAreaOptions.ActiveInActiveApp, owner: self, userInfo: nil)
self.addTrackingArea(self.trackingArea!)
}
}
override func updateTrackingAreas() {
self.trackingArea = NSTrackingArea(rect: self.bounds, options: NSTrackingAreaOptions.ActiveAlways | NSTrackingAreaOptions.CursorUpdate | NSTrackingAreaOptions.MouseEnteredAndExited | NSTrackingAreaOptions.ActiveInActiveApp, owner: self, userInfo: nil)
self.addTrackingArea(self.trackingArea!)
}
override func resetCursorRects() {
self.discardCursorRects()
self.addCursorRect(self.bounds, cursor: NSCursor.arrowCursor())
}
override func mouseMoved(theEvent: NSEvent) {
NSCursor.arrowCursor().set()
}
}
It might be a little excessive, but worked, so will share this as my own solution.

Answer 3

A few important notes:
Be careful calling super on your mouseMoved or similar events, or the cursor might just get reset by the base class implementation.
Only reset your tracking area when the parent view size changes; if you try to do this by overriding layout() it's going to be happening all the time which is not great
Here's an example class that you can just use as a base class in your storyboards.
Swift 4 code:
import Cocoa
final class MouseTrackingTextView: NSTextView {
// MARK: - Lifecycle
override func awakeFromNib() {
setupTrackingArea()
}
// MARK: - Resizing
// Call this in your controller's `viewDidLayout`
// so it only gets called when the view resizes
func superviewResized() {
resetTrackingArea()
}
// MARK: - Mouse Events
override func resetCursorRects() {
addCursorRect(bounds, cursor: cursorType)
}
override func mouseMoved(with event: NSEvent) {
cursorType.set()
}
// MARK: - Private Properties
private var currentTrackingArea: NSTrackingArea?
private var cursorType: NSCursor {
return isEditable ? .iBeam : .pointingHand
}
// MARK: - Private API
private func setupTrackingArea() {
let trackingArea = NSTrackingArea(rect: bounds,
options: [.activeAlways, .mouseMoved],
owner: self, userInfo: nil)
currentTrackingArea = trackingArea
addTrackingArea(trackingArea)
}
private func resetTrackingArea() {
if let trackingArea = currentTrackingArea {
removeTrackingArea(trackingArea)
}
setupTrackingArea()
}
}