Custom NSView with outlets - macos

Question

Am new to Mac apps, and am writing one simple app which has a common layout for different sections of the app. Its basically an image with one or two buttons(titles keep varying) in all sections.
So I thought of creating a CustomNSView with one Image Well and two rounded buttons in a new Nib file and in a separate class file (MyCustomView, which is a subclass of NSView) it would load this Nib in initWithframe method. So now when ever I drag drop a custom view and set its class to MyCustomView I get the Image and two buttons instantly without any additional code. But now how would I control these buttons(outlets/actionms) in other View Controllers ? The same view will be used every where so I cannot set files owner in nib to the view controller ?
Is it right in doing so ? Is there any way to create a custom view which would delegate all button actions to which ever view controller its included in ?

Answer 1

You can write your custom delegate. Though using that you can send messages from one object to another

Answer 2

Here's how I would do it. I wouldn't create a CustomNSView, I would create a CustomViewController (with its xib file included). On that CustomViewController, I would design the two buttons and setup CustomViewController.h like so.
#property (nonatomic, weak) id delegate; // Create a delegate to send call back actions
-(IBAction)buttonOneFromCustomVCClicked:(id)sender;
-(IBAction)buttonTwoFromCustomVCClicked:(id)sender;
CustomViewController.m like so.
-(void)buttonOneFromCustomVCClicked:(id)sender {
if ([self.delegate respondsToSelector:#selector(buttonOneFromCustomVCClicked:)]) {
[self.delegate buttonOneFromCustomVCClicked:sender];
}
}
-(void)buttonTwoFromCustomVCClicked:(id)sender {
if ([self.delegate respondsToSelector:#selector(buttonTwoFromCustomVCClicked:)]) {
[self.delegate buttonTwoFromCustomVCClicked:sender];
}
}
In interface builder of your customViewController, link up both button's SentAction event to the two methods (they should be displayed in file's owner).
Then in your otherClass in which you want to load the generic custom view, instantiate the generic view controller like so.
#import "customViewController.h"
- (void)applicationDidFinishLaunching:(NSNotification *)aNotification
{
customViewController *newCustomViewController = [[ViewController alloc] initWithNibName:#"customViewController" bundle:nil];
[newCustomViewController setDelegate:self];
self.backGroundView = [newCustomViewController view]; // Assuming **backGroundView** is an image view on your background that will display the newly instantiated view
}
-(void)buttonOneFromCustomVCClicked:(id)sender {
// Code for when button one is clicked
}
-(void)buttonTwoFromCustomVCClicked:(id)sender {
// Code for when button two is clicked
}