How do I do something after the next NSView -layout has occurred? - macos

In response to a user event, I want to:
add a new NSView to the window, and then
show an NSPanel positioned just below that view
I have each half of this done. I can add a new subview, and the container view's -updateConstraints identifies it and adds the correct layout constraints, so that the next time layout is performed, it's positioned correctly in the window. Also, I have a NSWindowController subclass that puts the panel on the screen.
Unfortunately, there's an ordering problem. My panel's controller just looks at the new NSView's frame property for deciding where to put it, but during this iteration of the main event loop, the -layout method hasn't been called yet, so it's still positioned at (0,0).
(If I separate these two pieces of functionality, and require two separate user events for "add view" and "create panel", then the panel is correctly positioned below the view.)
Is there a way to attach an NSPanel to an NSView, as if with a layout constraint? Or is there a way to say "do this (window controller stuff), but only after the next -layout call"?

Just call -layoutSubtreeIfNeeded on your NSView’s superview as soon as you add it and its constraints, so it will lay out immediately, then add the panel.
Or use an NSPopOver, although those draw a certain way and you might not want that.

Related

How to call NSScrollView autoscroll-method programmatically

I have simple chat application with text messages view-based NSTableView as you can see at the picture below.
Each message contains NSTextView instance having height to fit all the text.
All I need is to start NSScrollView (which NSTableView-instance is enclosed by) autoscrolling while the user selecting text dragging mouse far enough. Unfortunately, autoscrolling doesn't appear. In case of dragging somewhere outside of the text views all succeed.
I tried to call autoscroll:-method directly by simply push NSEvent-instance from NSTextView-subclass "mouse dragged"-event (like in example from this article):
- (void)mouseDragged:(NSEvent *)event
{
[self.scrollView autoscroll:event];
}
As I've overrode all the mouse events and implemented all the text selecting, this method often invokes. But the autoscrolling doesn't seem to work.
UPDATE
I figured out that before calling -autoscroll:-method there must be -mouseDown: of the same object. But it breaks my text selecting mechanism. The point even not in being first responder, there must be nothing but the mouseDown:-method.
Normally, a text view is within a scroll view of its own. Even if that's big enough to show all of the text without scrolling, it's still there. A call of -autoscroll: on anything within that scroll view (possibly including that scroll view itself?) will just try to scroll that scroll view, not the scroll view that contains the table view.
Try calling -autoscroll: on a view higher up in the hierarchy. Either self.scrollView.superview, the table cell view, or the table view.
Note, though, that the table view's scroll view will keep scrolling even after the cell view containing the text view is fully on-screen. In fact, it may keep scrolling it so far that it's off the screen in the other direction. Basically, it doesn't know that you're trying to select within the text view so it doesn't know to stop when the selection extends all the way to the edge of the text view.
Another approach might be to try to use a "bare" text view with no enclosing scroll view. I don't think IB will let you do that, so you'd have to do it programmatically. Bare text views don't play well with auto layout, though.

Custom NSCursor is being reset when subviews are added to a view in the window

I'm using NSTrackingArea to define 2 areas in a NSView subclass. Then I'm using mouseEntered/mouseExited to change the cursor to a custom one.
So all works fine when the mouse enters the top tracking area and the custom cursor gets set as expected. All still good when I mouseDown and drag on the top tracking area. But I have another part of the UI that updates when the mouse is dragged and it adds subviews to a view elsewhere on the same window.
As soon as the first subview is added elsewhere, my custom cursor disappears and it reverts back to the arrow cursor. I thought I might be able to force the cursor back to the custom one using cursorUpdate for my view but for some reason it never gets called, even when set as an option in the NSTrackingArea.
Am a bit stumped with this one...
I solved it by overriding cursorUpdate in the window's custom contentView. An empty cursorUpdate method stopped the update from getting passed up the chain and the custom cursor now remains as I've set it.

Understanding first responder behavior

From the app delegate, I make a window and set it's contentView to be a view programmatically generated from a plist specification. I then bring the window to front. The window has a toolbar, and when the buttons on the toolbar are pressed, it is supposed to display a different contentView.
I have found that the first content view appears with its topmost text field subview already selected as first responder, but changing the view from the toolbar (it sets contentView on the window) to a different view will not select any of that view's text fields as first responder.
I want to have consistency, so ideally either it would never auto-select a control as first responder or it would always auto-select a control as first responder, but I don't really understand what process is making the control first responder in the first place.
Could somebody please explain what is causing that, so I can either prevent it or try to emulate it when switching views?
hussain Shabbir's answer is on the right track, but misses a few things.
First, setting the window's initial first responder, and then making the same view its first responder, is redundant. The point of the first is to cause the second.
Second, you need to set the window's initial first responder before making the window visible:
Sets a given view as the one that’s made first responder (also called the key view) the first time the window is placed onscreen.
If the window is already visible when you set its initial first responder, nothing will happen.
You need to set the initial first responder before you make the window visible for the first time.
The best place to do that is not in code at all—it's in the nib.
You would then not have either of those lines of code.
Better yet:
The window has a toolbar, and when the buttons on the toolbar are pressed, it is supposed to display a different contentView.
Have you considered using NSTabView? It handles this automatically (every tab view item has its own initial first responder outlet).
If you want when you click on different views your textfield should be become first responder, Then the two lines of code below should work:-
Here on the basis of your condition use these below lines:-
[[self window] setInitialFirstResponder:(NSView *)YourTextFieldName];
[[self window] makeFirstResponder:(NSView *)YourTextFieldName];

How to "stick" a UIScrollView subview to top/bottom when scrolling?

You see this in iPhone apps like Gilt. The user scrolls a view, and a subview apparently "sticks" to one edges as the rest of the scrollView slides underneath. That is, there is a text box (or whatever) in the scrollView, that as the scrollView hits the top of the view, then "sticks" there as the rest of the view continues to slide.
So, there are several issues. First, one can determine via "scrollViewDidScroll:" (during normal scrolling) when the view of interest is passing (or re-appearing). There is a fair amount of granularity here - the differences between delegate calls can be a hundred of points or more. That said, when you see the view approach the top of the scrollView, you turn on a second copy of the view statically displayed under the scrollView top. I have not coded this, but it seems like it will lack a real "stick" look - the view will first disappear then reappear.
Second, if one does a setContentOffset:animated, one does not get the delegate messages (Gilt does not do this). So, how do you get the callbacks in this case? Do you use KVO on "scroll.layer.presentationLayer.bounds" ?
Well, I found one way to do this. When the user scrolls by flicking and dragging, the UIScrollView gives its delegate a "scrollViewDidScroll:" message. You can look then to see if the scroller has moved the content to where you need to take some action.
When "sticking" the view, remove it from the scrollView, and then add it to the scrollView's superview (with an origin of 0,0). When unsticking, do the converse.
If you use the UIScrollView setContentOffset:animated:, it gets trickier. What I did was to subclass UIScrollView, use a flag to specify it was setContentOffset moving the offset, then start a fast running timer to monitor contentOffset.
I put the method that handles the math and sticking/unsticking the child view into this subclass. It looks pretty good.
Gilt uses a table view to accomplish this. Specifically, in the table view's delegate, these two methods:
– tableView:viewForHeaderInSection:
and – tableView:heightForHeaderInSection:

NSTextView overlay causes oddities with first responder status

I have an NSTextView in an NSScrollView, and I am programmatically inserting an NSView subclass as a subview of the NSTextView. This NSView acts as an overlay, superimposing graphical information about the text beneath it.
I thought it was working quite well until I noticed that the text view does not respond to right clicks. Other operations (editing, selection) seem to work just fine.
Also, if the first responder is changed to a sibling of the scroll view (an outline view, for example) the text view does not regain first responder status from clicking on it. The selection will change in response to clicking, but the selection highlight is gray instead of blue (indicating that the text view is not the first responder).
If I offset the frame of the overlay subview, the text view behaves 100% normally in the area not overlapped by the overlay, but the overlapped area behaves incorrectly, as outlined above.
Steps To Replicate This Behavior on Mac OS X 10.6.4:
Create a plain old non-document-based Cocoa app.
Add an `NSTextView' IBOutlet to the app delegate .h.
Add an NSTextView to the window in MainMenu.xib. Connect the textView outlet.
Type in a bit of code:
In applicationDidFinishLaunching:
NSView *overlay = [[NSView alloc] initWithFrame:textView.bounds];
[textView addSubview:overlay];
[overlay release];
Run the app, observe that right click in the text area does not work as it should, yet you can still otherwise interact with the text view.
Next, add an NSOutlineView to the window in the xib. Observe that once focus leaves the text area (if you click on the outline view) with the overlay in place, you cannot set the focus back to the text view (it will not become first responder again).
Is there some way I can enable the NSTextView to receive all of its events, even though my NSView overlay does not accept first responder or mouse events? I suspect this might be related to the field editor – perhaps it is ignoring events it thinks are destined to the overlay view?
You probably need to make your overlay an instance of a custom view class that forwards all events and accessibility messages to the text view. You may also need to convert any view-relative coordinates to the text view's coordinate system.
I don't have a lot of experience with it, but another possibility would be to use a Core Animation layer as an overlay.
A clean way to handle this is by making your overlay view a custom subclass of NSView, and then overriding the hitTest: method to always return nil. This will prevent the overlay view from participating in the responder chain. Instead, events will get sent automatically to it's superview or views higher up the view hierarchy. You might also want to override acceptsFirstResponder to return NO to be safe (in case it's accidentally set programatically).

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