How is a subview of an NSView dynamically positioned? - cocoa

I am attempting to change the coordinates of an NSButton that is contained within a parent NSView and something is clearly not working, because the button position does not change. Both elements are defined in a nib file and the parent view has animation applied to it using CoreAnimation.
I have tried the following.
button.frame.origin.x = 500
and...
var frame:CGRect = button.frame
frame.origin.x = 500
button.frame = frame
Even with the animations disabled, I can not seem to dynamically position the subview. Is there some feature that prevents children views from being positioned programmatically?
Please note that I am using Swift with XCode 6.3.1.

I'm guessing you're using AutoLayout constraints, given you're using the latest tools.
If so, setting a subview's frame directly won't work the way you're expecting (if it does anything at all, it'll cause strange drawing glitches / flashing when mixed with animation). You have to create outlets for your layout constraints and modify them.
If you're not using AutoLayout, I suggest having a look at your button outlet to make sure it's actually connected (ie, you're not talking to nil). Even if the outlet is connected, make sure it's not nil at runtime - you may be trying to talk to the button before the nib is loaded and the outlet / action connections are restored.

Related

NSTableView in NSScrollView doesn't autoscroll when dragging

I'm currently implementing drag and drop rearranging in a table view in my OS X app. While normal scrolling works fine, autoscroll while dragging it totally broken.
If I grab a cell and start dragging, autoscroll just tells the table to scroll to the top. If I manually scroll using the trackpad during dragging the table continually pops to the top. If I drag one of the top cells, the table will not autoscroll down when dragging near the bottom.
I subclassed NSScrollView and overrode the scrollClipView method. I see that it's being called by some internal autoscroll method with the coordinates of (0, 0).
Since I can't see what that internal method is doing, and Goggle and SO are turning up nothing, I'm a bit stuck.
Has anyone run into this issue before? From past experiences, I have the feeling it's something AutoLayout related, but I have no idea what. Or maybe it's something completely unrelated.
Any ideas on how to further troubleshoot?
I ran into the same issue. In my case, the problem was that I set the height of the NSTableCellView to 10,000 in Interface Builder so that the horizontal separators wouldn’t be displayed for empty rows below the actual rows.
However, the actual height of my NSTableCellViews loaded at run time was 43px.
So as soon as I started dragging a cell to re-order it, the NSScrollView was trying to scroll 10,000 pixels at a time instead of 43 at a time.
This seems like a bug, because my NSOutlineView subclass does implement the following method to dynamically set the height of each row.
func outlineView(_ outlineView: NSOutlineView, heightOfRowByItem item: Any) -> CGFloat
Apparently that method is ignored by the autoscroll mechanism during drag and drop operations, and only the value set in Interface Builder is used.
So I just changed the height of the dummy NSTableCellView to 43px in Interface Builder, and I’ll just live with the horizontal separators being displayed for empty rows.

Can I disable autolayout for a specific subview at runtime?

I have a view that needs to have its frame manipulated programmatically - it's a kind of document view that wraps to its content which is then scrolled and zoomed around a superview by manipulating the frame origin. Autolayout fights with this at runtime.
Disabling autolayout completely seems a bit harsh because it could reasonably be used to handle layout for the other views. It seems like what I might want is some kind of "null constraint".
I had the same problem. But I have resolved it.
Yes, you can disable auto layout at runtime for a specific UIView, instead of disabling it for the whole xib or storyboard which is set by default in Xcode 4.3 and later.
Set translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints to YES, before you set the frame of your subview:
self.exampleView.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = YES;
self.exampleView.frame = CGRectMake(20, 20, 50, 50);
I had a similar issue where Autolayout was overriding some of my frame-setting at run time (I had a dynamic view that in some cases pushed a new view controller...pushing and then pressing Back would reset the initial view).
I got around this by putting my manipulation code in viewDidLayoutSubviews of my View Controller. This seems to get called after whatever constraint mojo gets called, but before viewDidAppear, so the user is none the wiser.
Perhaps just setting translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints to YES (and not adding additional constraints affecting that view) will let you set the frame without fighting the auto layout system.
In iOS 8 you can set an NSLayoutConstraint to be active or not. So if I'm using interface builder, I add all my constraints to an OutletCollection and then activate or deactivate using:
NSLayoutConstraint.deactivateConstraints(self.landscapeConstraintsPad)
NSLayoutConstraint.activateConstraints(self.portraitConstraintsPad)
The particular application I'm using it for here is having different constraints in portrait and landscape mode and I activate/deactivate based on the rotation of the device. It means I can create some complex layout changes all in interface builder for both orientations, and still use auto layout without the verbose auto layout code.
Or you can activate / deactivate using removeConstraints and addConstraints.
I don't know if this will help anyone else, but I wrote a category to make this convenient because I find myself doing this a lot.
UIView+DisableAutolayoutTemporarily.h
#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>
#interface UIView (DisableAutolayoutTemporarily)
// the view as a parameter is a convenience so we don't have to always
// guard against strong-reference cycles
- (void)resizeWithBlock:(void (^)(UIView *view))block;
#end
UIView+DisableAutolayoutTemporarily.m
#import "UIView+DisableAutoResizeTemporarily.h"
#implementation UIView (DisableAutoResizeTemporarily)
- (void)resizeWithBlock:(void (^)(UIView * view))block
{
UIView *superview = self.superview;
[self removeFromSuperview];
[self setTranslatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints:YES];
__weak UIView *weakSelf = self;
block(weakSelf);
[superview addSubview:self];
}
#end
I use it like this:
[cell.argumentLabel resizeWithBlock:^(UIView *view) {
[view setFrame:frame];
}];
Hope it helps.
You can set the translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints type Boolean, Value Yes in the User Defined Runtime Attributes of the UIView you want in the xib/storyboard.
In my view I had a Label and a Text. The label had pan gesture. The label moves around fine during drag. But when I use the text box keyboard, the label resets its position to the original location defined in auto layout. The issue got resolved when I added the following in swift for the label. I added this in viewWillAppear but it can be added pretty much anywhere you have access to the target field.
self.captionUILabel.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = true
Open project in 4.5
Select storyboard
Open the file inspector
Under Interface Builder Document uncheck 'Use Autolayout'
You can split across multiple storyboards if you want to use autolayout for some views.
For me it worked to create the subview programmatically, in my case the auto layout was messing with a view that I needed to rotate around its center but once I created this view programmatically it worked.
I've encountered a similar scenario, where I joined a project that was initiated with auto-layout, but I needed to make dynamic adjustments to several views. Here is what has worked for me:
Do NOT have views or components laid out in interface builder.
Add your views purely programmatically starting with alloc/init and setting their frames appropriately.
Done.
This happened to me in a project without storyboards or xib files. All 100% code. I had an ad banner at the bottom and wanted the view bounds to stop at the ad banner. The view would resize itself automatically after loading. I tried every resolution on this page but none of them worked.
I ended up just creating a sub view with the shortened height and placed that in into the main view of the controller. Then all my content went inside the sub view. That solved the problem very easily without doing anything that felt like it was going against the grain.
I am thinking if you want a view that is not the normal size that fills the window then you should use a sub view for that.
Instead of disabling autolayout, I would just calculate the new constraint with the frame you are replacing. That appears to me to be the appropriate way. If you are adjusting components that rely on constraints, adjust them accordingly.
For example, if you have a vertical constraint of 0 between two views (myView and otherView), and you have a pan gesture or something that adjusts the height of myView then you can recalculate the constraint with the adjusted values.
self.verticalConstraint.constant = newMyViewYOriginValue - (self.otherView.frame.origin.y + self.otherView.frame.size.height);
[self.myView needsUpdateConstraints];
For those of you who are using auto layout, please check out my solution here. You should be making #IBOutlet's of the constraints you want to adjust and then change their constants.
if it's xib file:
select the .xib file
select the "File's Owner"
show the Utilities
click on: "File Inspector"
Under "Interface Builder Document" disable: "Use Autolayout"

iOS - passing information between subviews within a single view controller

In my drawing app I have a switch called "Snap to grid" -- When its state is changed I need drawing in my canvas view to honor that change. At present, the switch is a subview of a UIView so that the text label and the switch can travel together during a device orientation change.
I'm trying to decide what is the best way of communicating the state change. My thought train has been comparing this to using jQuery selector, like a $("#switch") -- in essence, when the view controller has instantiated the subviews (and subviews of those subviews), how do you get a pointer to the specific subview you're looking for?
I should add that my views are created in the Interface Builder portion of Xcode, so they are loaded from a .nib file rather than me creating them (which obviously would give me a chance to hold on to a pointer to the subviews I need).

How to resize UI Table View of a UI Table View Controller programmatically?

I subclassed UITableViewController and called it FeaturedGamesViewController. Ok, I also have a navigation controller to which I added this FeaturedGamesViewController as the root. All pretty standard stuff that you do in the App Delegate.
Also note that there is no NIB file created for FeaturedGamesViewController. Just subclassing UITableViewController and calling initWithStyle sets the style of the table and sets the dataSource and delegate and size automatically. Data Source and Delegate are obviously set to FeaturedGamesViewController.
- (id)init
{
// Call the superclass's designated initializer
[super initWithStyle:UITableViewStyleGrouped];
}
OK, You see that I have set the table size to "Grouped". In Landscape view on my iPad it has about 20 pixels of space to the top, left and right (Sorry can't post screen shot because I am new here and the system won't let me until I have accumulated a certain number of points)
I DO NOT want that! This is Landscape so I expect it to fill up the all the space between the navigation bar and the tab bar below. What is worse is that I have faked a grid with a Custom UITableViewCell but the space to the left and right make it so that if you click on that space, the entire row is selected thus betraying the sense that this is a grid.
Now I figure I should resize the table view in viewDidLoad or something but I don't know how. I cannot do initWithFrame because of potential memory leaks (and possibly resetting dataSource and delegate and autoresizeMask properties that were already set) so there must be a setter or something to reset the origin of the tableview to just beneath the Navigation bar and filling up the entire screen with size 1024X748. How do you do dynamically reset the size of the table view?
Then I got really frustrated and I decided to do it via a Nib file, that way I can set the the orientation to landscape and set simulated Navigation and Tab bars and fill the rest of the space with the table view. This worked! If you are curious how to create a table view with a Nib after you have subclassed UITableViewController WITHOUT a nib, here is how:
http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/TableView_iPhone/CreateConfigureTableView/CreateConfigureTableView.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40007451-CH6-SW10
Go to the paragraph right before "Creating a Table View Programmatically".
OK, when I did that, my landscape view of the "grid" looks filled up the entire space between the navigation bar at the top and the tab bar at the bottom just like I wanted.
I was fiddling with this some more and I found out that in my "non nib" version (the problematic one), I had set the table style to "grouped". When I changed it to "plain", it worked!!! But here is the thing though: In the nib version, "grouped" or "plain" gives the correct layout with the table occupying the whole space. So what gives?
Sorry for the long question but I guess what I am asking is:
1) How do you programmatically reset the size of the table view without introducing potential memory leaks or affecting other properties already set for you (ex: dataSource, delegate, autoResizeMask - these are set for you just because you subclassed UITableViewController)?
2) How do you do that for any view in general?
3) Why does "plain" style fill the layout as desired whereas "grouped" style gives the weird layout. Note that it this is not a problem in the Nib version.
Thanks for your patience!
Answer for (2), and hence for (1):
A UIView's frame is in a local coordinate system of its superview. A common way to make a view fit its superview is
CGRect bounds = [[self superview] bounds];
[self setFrame:bounds];
You should do this inside layoutSubviews.

NSTextField over NSOpenGLView

I have made a window with an NSOpenGLView that I am rendering openGL content into.
I want to add some buttons and text fields to the view: I can add NSTextFields and NSButtons using interface builder (or code) but they do not appear.
NSOpenGLView is documented as not being able to have sub views, so I then made my own CustomGLView by deriving directly from NSView and implementing the code to create and use a NSOpenGLContext in it. But the subviews are still not appearing :- the OpenGL context paints over them.
On Windows this problem does not exist:- Windows used to host OpenGL MUST have the WS_CLIPCHILDREN and WS_CHIPSIBLINGS styles set ensuring that any peer, or sub children (views) will not be obscured by the OpenGL surface.
How do I get subviews to display over a NSView thats drawing using OpenGL ?
You have 2 choices:
Create a window just for the text field. Add as a child window of the one hosting the OpenGL view. Major downside is you have to manage positioning it correctly if the Open GL view is moved.
Set up your view hierarchy like so:
Layer-backed view
Layer-hosting view whose layer contains an OpenGL layer
Text field
Simply call -setWantsLayer:YES on the subviews of the NSOpenGLView.
NSOpenGLView cannot have subviews according to the documentation. Even if you subclass the NSOpenGLView, that will change nothing.
What you can do is to create a NSView that will hold both the NSOpenGLView and the NSTextField. You then overlap them in the right order to make one draw atop the other.
I'm not heavily into OpenGL yet, but it's my understanding that you can accomplish the visual effect of subviews with Quartz Extreme using layer-backed views; however, those may be problematic. Since subviews are not supported directly, any solution is liable to be a hack.
Indeed, the solution in that link actually hacks a second window to appear over your OpenGL display, the second window displaying the Cocoa views you desire.
The following code (from the above link) is something I've not tested (again not being an OpenGL guy by nature -- yet), but appears like a fairly clever approach:
// This is the GL Window and view you already have
glWindow = [[GLWindow alloc] initWithContentRect:windowRect];
glView = [[[GLView alloc] initWithFrame:NSMakeRect(0, 0, windowRect.size.width, windowRect.size.height)] autorelease];
[glView translateOriginToPoint:NSMakePoint(glView.bounds.size.width/2, glView.bounds.size.height/2)];
[glWindow setContentView:glView];
// And here's your transparent UI window
uiWindow = [[TransparentWindow alloc] initWithContentRect:windowRect];
uiView = [[[NSView alloc] initWithFrame:NSMakeRect(0, 0, windowRect.size.width, windowRect.size.height)] autorelease];
[uiView translateOriginToPoint:NSMakePoint(uiView.bounds.size.width/2, uiView.bounds.size.height/2)];
uiView.wantsLayer = YES;
[uiWindow setContentView:uiView];
[glWindow addChildWindow:uiWindow ordered:NSWindowAbove];
Again, I've not tested this, but it looks like it will get you the visual effect you desire.
The text can be rendered into a texture -- I just used this for a project, did a lot of looking for sample code, and ultimately found Apple's GLString demo code, which was an absolute trove of how-to:
http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#samplecode/CocoaGL/Listings/GLString_m.html
I haven't tried adding buttons, but you can, of course, draw your own and comparing the positions of click events with those of your buttons...
This was my solution:
1) Create a parent NSView (let's call it parentView).
2) Add an NSOpenGLView Child to parentView.
3) Add an additional NSView Child to parentView (make sure this is after the OpenGLView within the hierarchy). You can add additional TextFields, etc. to this view.
4) In the ViewController for the parent make sure you call [parentView setWantsLayer: TRUE]; I did this within -(void) viewWillAppear
1) The NSOpenGLView can have a subview. It can have plenty even.
2) The reason some views, controls and other elements are being bullied by NSOpenGLView is due to the loading process when the Application launches. I.e If you add a slider or textfield above and into the content view of the window where the NSOpenGLView also resides, upon Application-Launch that textfield will most likely wind up beneath the NSOpenGLView.
This is an Apple Bug. And they know about it.
You can solve it quite easily even without adding a subview to NSOpenGLView...
In Interface Builder drag i.e. a CustomView into the canvas (Not the view). And set it the way you want it with sliders, text and what not. Then create an outlet (Call it i.e topView) in your view controller. Then somewhere in your code... Perhaps (applicationDidFinishLaunching) add this line...
[_window.contentView addSubview:_topView];
(Do your positioning & layout)
This will do the exact same thing as if you had dragged it into the contentView yourself inside IB. Only it will draw the darn thing in the correct Z position.
You loose IB's constraints this way and have to it manually
One could also just subclass and CAOpenGLLayer and use that as a backing layer inside of a regular NSView. There too it is drawn correctly...
Here is Apple's way of wanting to do that. CALayers are a Godsend ;)
Enter following String ** NSOpenGLLayer** in search and hit enter to get to where it is...
NSOpenGLLayer
Hope this helps....

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