NSOutlineView Source List without a NIB - cocoa

Question

I am trying to figure out how to do a source list 100% in code. I've been hacking away at SideBar demo and various SO questions/answers and have gotten close, but not quite there. I've copied my code below, this seems to work in that it does build a view, with 3 empty cells I can select. What I can't quite figure out is how to get my text to show up in those cells. I will ultimately replace that with my own view, but I'd settle for the stock rendering to work for now..
In my controller:
#implementation SourceListController {
NSScrollView *_scrollView;
NSOutlineView *_sourceList;
SourceListDataSource *_sourceListDataSource;
}
- (void)loadView {
_scrollView = [[NSScrollView alloc] init];
_sourceList = [[NSOutlineView alloc] init];
_sourceListDataSource = [[SourceListDataSource alloc] init];
[_sourceList setSelectionHighlightStyle:NSTableViewSelectionHighlightStyleSourceList];
NSTableColumn *c = [[NSTableColumn alloc] initWithIdentifier: #"Column"];
[c setEditable: NO];
[c setMinWidth: 150.0];
[_sourceList addTableColumn: c];
[_sourceList setOutlineTableColumn:c];
[_sourceList setDelegate:_sourceListDataSource];
[_sourceList setDataSource:_sourceListDataSource];
[_scrollView setDocumentView:_sourceList];
[_scrollView setHasVerticalScroller:YES];
[_sourceList reloadData];
NSLog(_sourceList.dataSource == _sourceListDataSource ? #"YES" : #"NO");
self.view = _scrollView;
}
And in my data source/delegate:
#implementation SourceListDataSource {
}
- (NSInteger)outlineView:(NSOutlineView *)outlineView numberOfChildrenOfItem:(id)item {
return item == nil ? 3 : 0;
}
- (id)outlineView:(NSOutlineView *)outlineView child:(NSInteger)index ofItem:(id)item {
return [NSObject new];
}
- (BOOL)outlineView:(NSOutlineView *)outlineView isItemExpandable:(id)item {
return item == nil;
}
- (NSView *)outlineView:(NSOutlineView *)outlineView viewForTableColumn:(NSTableColumn *)tableColumn item:(id)item {
NSLog(#"Here %f", tableColumn.width);
NSTableCellView *result = [[NSTableCellView alloc] init];
NSTextField *textField = [[NSTextField alloc] init];
[textField setStringValue:#"Test"];
[result addSubview:textField];
return result;
}
UPDATE: Further digging tells me viewForTableColumn doesn't even get called.. I am stumped as to why..
UPDATE 2: Figured out that it was the missing column and outlineTableColumn leading to not calling the delegate method. I fixed that and updated the code, but still no text shows up.

Answer 1

Your delegate method needs changes, it won't work that way, and also doesn't make use of the new caching methods for views. Mostly, use the NSTableCellView.textFieldproperty instead of adding your own NSTextFieldwithout frame and frame constraints. So, the code that should work looks like this:
- (NSView *)outlineView:(NSOutlineView *)outlineView viewForTableColumn:(NSTableColumn *)tableColumn item:(id)item {
NSTableCellView *result = [outline makeViewWithIdentifier:#"MyView" owner:self];
if (result == nil) {
// Create the new NSTextField with a frame of the {0,0} with the width of the table.
// Note that the height of the frame is not really relevant, because the row height will modify the height.
CGRect myRect = CGRectMake(0,0,outlineView.framesize.width,0);
result = [[NSTableCellView alloc] initWithFrame:myRect];
// The identifier of the view instance is set to MyView.
// This allows the cell to be reused.
result.identifier = #"MyView";
}
result.textField.stringValue = #"Test";
return result;
}
All the above typed in SO.