Is there a way to implement a popup menu from NSToolBarItem? - cocoa

Question

I am trying to implement a pop-up menu (something that can be seen when in Chrome I press right mouse button when the cursor is over the left arrow).
I have a class derived from NSToolBarItem and I have another class derived from NSToolBar. In the toolbar I call setAllowsUserCustomization. So my right click anywhere on the toolbar brings up the customization menu for the toolbar.
Thank you for any pointer you can give.

Answer 1

You don't need to subclass NSToolbarItem. Just give one toolbar item its own view (in code or in IB). In that view, you can use a standard control like NSPopUpButton, or a custom view with whatever event handling logic you like.

Answer 2

If you want your NSToolbarItem custom views to receive mouseDown events, you can follow this pattern: use a custom NSWindow subclass (or swizzle the -[NSWindow hitTest:] method) and forward events to your views yourself.
// MyWindow.h
#interface MyWindow : NSWindow
#end
#interface NSView (MyWindow)
- (BOOL)interceptsToolbarRightMouseDownEvents;
#end
// MyWindow.m
#implementation NSView (MyWindow)
- (BOOL)interceptsToolbarRightMouseDownEvents { // overload in your custom toolbar item view return YES
return NO;
}
#end
#interface NSToolbarView : NSView /* this class is hidden in AppKit */ #end
#implementation MyWindow
- (void)sendEvent:(NSEvent*)event {
if (event.type == NSRightMouseDown) {
NSView* frameView = [self.contentView superview];
NSView* view = [frameView hitTest:[frameView convertPoint:event.locationInWindow fromView:nil]];
if ([view isKindOfClass:NSToolbarView.class])
for (NSView* subview in view.subviews) {
NSView* view = [subview hitTest:[subview convertPoint:event.locationInWindow fromView:nil]];
if (view.interceptsToolbarRightMouseDownEvents)
return [view rightMouseDown:event];
}
}
[super sendEvent:event];
}
#end