NSSplitView and autolayout - cocoa

How should I use auto layout constrains inside NSSplitView subview?
My NSSplitView subview has 3 subview: topPane, tableContainer and bottomPane and I set the constrains like this:
NSDictionary* views = NSDictionaryOfVariableBindings(topPane, tableContainer, bottomPane);
for (NSView* view in [views allValues]) {
[view setTranslatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints:NO];
}
[myView addConstraints:[NSLayoutConstraint constraintsWithVisualFormat:#"V:|[topPane(34)][tableContainer][bottomPane(24)]|"
options:0
metrics:nil
views:views]];
[mySplitView addSubview:myView];
And got this in console:
Unable to simultaneously satisfy constraints:
(
"<NSLayoutConstraint:0x7fd6c4b1f770 V:[NSScrollView:0x7fd6c4b234c0]-(0)-[CPane:0x7fd6c4b2fd10]>",
"<NSLayoutConstraint:0x7fd6c4b30910 V:[CPane:0x7fd6c4b2f870(34)]>",
"<NSLayoutConstraint:0x7fd6c4b30770 V:|-(0)-[CPane:0x7fd6c4b2f870] (Names: '|':NSView:0x7fd6c4b22e50 )>",
"<NSLayoutConstraint:0x7fd6c4b212f0 V:[CPane:0x7fd6c4b2fd10]-(0)-| (Names: '|':NSView:0x7fd6c4b22e50 )>",
"<NSLayoutConstraint:0x7fd6c4b2f910 V:[CPane:0x7fd6c4b2f870]-(0)-[NSScrollView:0x7fd6c4b234c0]>",
"<NSLayoutConstraint:0x7fd6c4b21290 V:[CPane:0x7fd6c4b2fd10(24)]>",
"<NSAutoresizingMaskLayoutConstraint:0x7fd6c3630430 h=--& v=--& V:[NSView:0x7fd6c4b22e50(0)]>"
)
Will attempt to recover by breaking constraint
<NSLayoutConstraint:0x7fd6c4b1f770 V:[NSScrollView:0x7fd6c4b234c0]-(0)-[CPane:0x7fd6c4b2fd10]>
I think <NSAutoresizingMaskLayoutConstraint:0x7fd6c3630430 h=--& v=--& V:[NSView:0x7fd6c4b22e50(0)]> causes this, but I can't reset autoresizing mask, because NSSplitView sets it.
What is best way to use auto layout inside split view? And is there any way to handle min/max size of split view subview with auto layout without NSSplitViewDelegate?

I found out that this error appears if I have toolbar in my window and control split view by any of this delegate methods:
splitView:constrainMinCoordinate:ofSubviewAt:
splitView:constrainMaxCoordinate:ofSubviewAt:
splitView:shouldAdjustSizeOfSubview:
Solution was found in attaching toolbar to window in windowDidLoad.

NSSplitView has been a strange thing since the beginning and it would not surprise me if it'll be gone soon. After trying to get NSSplitView working with AutoLayout for a month now and sinking from one despair attack to another, I finally gave up.
My solution is to not use NSSplitView with AutoLayout at all. So either NSSplitView without Autolayout or Autolayout without NSSplitView: this isn't as complicated as it sounds: just lay out your subviews next to each other and add NSLayoutConstraints as IBOutlets. The constants of these constraints can then be set and changed from the controller in code. With that approach you can set the origin (negative offset to slide it out of the window), the width and the relations to other subviews - plus it's really easy to animate constraints with the view's animator (ever tried to animate a NSSplitView?)
The only thing missing is the mouse drag on the dividers, but this can be implemented with a couple of lines, tracking mouseEvents in your custom "SplitView".
There's an autolayout "splitview" example from Apple (unfortunately only vertical) and I've seen at least one new project on github lately. Though for me, I thought it'd be easier to start over with my custom solution for my app's specific needs, rather than trying to create something very universal (thus making it too complex to handle).
Edit: I now completed my custom splitView that loads its subviews from separate nibs. No constraint issues, no autolayout warnings. Compared to the whole month of trying to get it work with NSSplitView, I have now a working custom splitView based on constraints, easily animatable, created in only one evening. I definitely recommend taking this route!

For anyone who stumbles onto this in the future and is looking for a jump-start into constraint-based NSSplitView replacements, I wrote a small project here that attempts to recreate a portion of NSSplitView's features using Auto Layout:
https://github.com/jwilling/JWSplitView
It's somewhat buggy, but it could be a useful reference to anyone wanting to go this route.

10.8 fixed that problem, see its release notes.
Here is my solution for 10.7 (a custom split view):
https://github.com/benuri/HASplitView.git

You do not want to disable translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints at all. You shouldn't mess with system views constraints. NSSplitView handles the sizing for the individual views itself and you are essentially trying to rip it's control away. Not to mention, you forgot to account for the splitter.
The correct way to set a minimum or maximum (or constant for that matter) width/height on a splitview is to set those things on the views individually. In particular, if you are doing this in code you will need to use 2 separate calls to constraintsWithVisualFormat, because otherwise the visual format language will create constraints between the views.
You can do all of this in IB just fine. You can even set the priority of each view in the split view, which will cause one or the other view to resize when the window does rather than distributing the resize equally.

As much as I hate to disagree, but Auco's answer should't be voted highest. It is not in any way helpful in solving the problem with an adequate amount of work. In my opinion the NSSplitView was only ever a problem to those who didn't read the documentation well enough.
The actual solution to the problem mentioned here is fairly simple: Auto Layout introduced the new "Holding Priorities API" on NSSplitView. And as the documentation says: Setting lower values to the holding priority of a subview will make him more likely to take width earlier. All of this can be set in IB and programmatically without any despair. The amount of work needed: 20 seconds approx.

I load all by a nib file and setTranslatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints:NO afterwards.
So maybe you should first add by [mySplitView addSubview:myView]; your views and disable afterwards the translation of the autosizing mask to constraints and after this you add your contraint to myView.
EDIT:
Ok it seems I missunderstand the myView.
You have to add the constraint to the subviews and not to the splitview.
[topPane addConstraints:[NSLayoutConstraint constraintsWithVisualFormat:#"V:[topPane(34)]" options:0 metrics:nil views:views]];
[bottomPane addConstraints:[NSLayoutConstraint constraintsWithVisualFormat:#"V:[bottomPane(24)]" options:0 metrics:nil views:views]];
You don't have to add edge constraints (the "|" in "V:|[topPane(34)]") because the subviews in NSSplitView are already autoresizing.
This lead to this e.g. for the topPane constraint:
NOTE: ignore the subview content, they are just placeholders

It took me some time to get my autolayout clean of warnings but I did get it handled in IB (several splitviews and subviews).
My layout looks like:
RootView
|--1st NSSplitView (3 vertical subviews)
|----UIView (left)
|----2nd NSSplitView (center & 2 horizontal subviews)
|---UIView (top)
|---3rd NSSplitView (bottom & 3 vertical subviews)
|---UIView (left)
|---UIView (center)
|---UIView (right)
|----UIView (right)
My problem was, that I had 19 Warnings in all my subviews but my layout looked fine and worked how it should be.
After a while I found the cause of my warnings: the constraints of the outer views in my first splitview.
Both views (left and right) had a width-constraint with "width >= 200" and the center view (2nd splitview) had no constraints (because its min-width and max-width where handled by its subviews).
The warnings showed me that autolayout wants to shrink my IB-UI-Layout because the calculated min-widths where smaller than my layout but I didn´t want to shrink it in IB.
I added a fixed constraint "width = 200" to both of the outer subviews of my first splitview and checked "remove at build time".
Now my layout is free of warnings and everything works how it should be.
My conclusion:
I think the problem with autolayout and splitviews is that autolayout can not handle the width-constraints of the subviews. The reason we want to use splitviews is, that we want dynamic width of the views and we want it in both directions, shrink and expans.
So there is no width <= xxx && width >= xxx . Autolayout can only handle one of it and we get warnings in IB. You can fix this problem with a temporary constraint in IB which will removed before runtime.
I hope it makes sense what I wrote but it worked fine in my project.
PS: I could not found any solution until today where I found this thread.. so I guess your posts inspired me :-)

I used this class as a workaround, it's not perfect (the subviews stutter a bit) but it unblocked me. I use this class as the custom class inside each split view pane.
#interface FBSplitPaneView : NSView
#end
#implementation FBSplitPaneView
- (void)setFrame:(NSRect)frame
{
for (NSView *subview in self.subviews) {
subview.frame = self.bounds;
}
[super setFrame:frame];
}
#end

Related

Can you use Storyboards to set auto-layout constraints on the contentView of a CollectionViewCell, as to take advantage of self-sizing cells in iOS 8?

I'm using Xcode 6 beta 5 at the moment, eager to try out the cool self-sizing collection view cells functionality introduced in iOS 8. It was introduced in the WWDC 2014 session 226: "What's New In Table Views and Collection Views". Links:
https://developer.apple.com/videos/wwdc/2014/
http://asciiwwdc.com/2014/sessions/226
http://blog.indragie.com/
All you gotta do, they said, is that you have to set auto-layout constraints on the contentView of your collection view cell or implement sizeThatFits:. The former sounds easier, so I definitely want to use auto-layout.
When got into Storyboard editor (or IB) though, it appears that you you cannot access the contentView property of a prototype collection view cell. Is this true?
I did set a few constraints between a label (direct subview of the prototype cell) — I pinned its four edges to the cell's bounds itself, hoping that the label's intrinsicSize would provide the needed width for the cell. No avail: I verified that none of these pinning constraints were applied onto the contentView:
- (void)awakeFromNib
NSLog(#"%s... contentView.constrants == %#", sel_getName(_cmd), self.contentView.constraints);
}
... prints out...
awakeFromNib... contentView.constrants == (
)
... no matter what constraints I set in Storyboard.
Am I missing something or must I do this auto-layout in code?

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"

NSView overlapping

My cocoa app has a "dashboard" style layout.
When the app starts, the main window contains 6 views which display graphs.
When I click on any part of the bottom most view, I have another NSView instance popping up
as an annotation. The problem I run into is that is the pop up NSView is large enough dimension wise,
the other views in the window overlap the pop up view. Currently, I do that with:
[[self superview] addSubview:annotationView ]; where 'superview' is the window.
Im not sure why this would be the case, I have tried removing the the pop up view from the "view stack"
and making it change positions but that didnt work.
[[[self window] contentView] insertView:popupView atIndex:0];
This will insert the view at the top level, if you still can't see it you will need to add a subview to the superview of the NSWindow's contentview.
If all the views are added as subviews of [self superview] then you must make sure that they do not overlap. Cocoa doesn’t guarantee correct behaviour in case there are overlapping sibling views.
If you want a popup view, consider using a child window instead. Since it’s a different window, the popup lies in a different view hierarchy, hence you won’t have the overlapping sibling views problem.
A good example of using child windows for additional information is Matt Gemmell’s MAAttachedWindow.

How to disable resizing of the subview of NSSplitView in Interface Builder?

I've created in Interface Builder a NSSplitView with two subviews. I want the left-side view to have fixed width. I've tried to define autosizing rules for both subviews but the left subview still changes width on window resizing (split view fills up a window). May be that caused by NSSplitView's Autoresizes Subviews property? (I can't uncheck it). What can I do?
The best way I found to do this in Interface Builder:
Drop the NSSplitView on the window
Select the Custom View you want fixed
Go up to the Xcode menu and select Editor > Pin > Width
Adjust the Constant in the Attributes Inspector to the size that you want the panel to be fixed at
Of course, you can also add this layout constraint through code as suggested above if you're feeling adventurous.
The behavior that you want required some code that you can do on the NSSplitView's delegate. However, you can have the same result using BWToolKit.
I think it should work with a NSLayoutConstraint, I work at the moment on at :).
EDIT:
Maybe to provide more details on my answer based on the comment hayden. You can define a constraint either by code or in the the IB.
In the IB select your left subview and click on the constraint buttons in the lower right corner defining a width constraints. If you select this new constraint now you can setup the the width an say it should be equal and set the size you like.
The seconed way is to create in code a NSLayoutConstraint object, i do it like this (this is just an example, and define not a fix width).
// define for the view: Constraint and AutoresizingMask option
NSView *view = self.view;
[view setTranslatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints:NO]; // disable AutoresizingMask
NSDictionary *views = NSDictionaryOfVariableBindings(view);
[view addConstraints:[NSLayoutConstraint constraintsWithVisualFormat:#"[view(>=140,<=220)]" options:0 metrics:nil views:views]];
In general you find documentation to this topic under the term Auto Layout. To use it you have to enable auto layout and this featuer replace the old autosizing functions. (therefore i disable autosizing mask in the code).
This feature is quit new and you can do complex stuff with it but i think I is worth to study.

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....

Resources