NSTextField in NSTableCellView - macos

Question

I have a view based NSTableView with a custom NSTableCellView. This custom NSTableCellView has several labels (NSTextField). The whole UI of the NSTableCellView is built in IB.
The NSTableCellView can be in a normal state and in a selected state. In the normal state all text labels should be black, in the selected state they should be white.
How can I manage this?

Answer 1

Override setBackgroundStyle: on the NSTableCellView to know when the background changes which is what affects what text color you should use in your cell.
For instance:
- (void)setBackgroundStyle:(NSBackgroundStyle)style
{
[super setBackgroundStyle:style];
// If the cell's text color is black, this sets it to white
[((NSCell *)self.descriptionField.cell) setBackgroundStyle:style];
// Otherwise you need to change the color manually
switch (style) {
case NSBackgroundStyleLight:
[self.descriptionField setTextColor:[NSColor colorWithCalibratedWhite:0.4 alpha:1.0]];
break;
case NSBackgroundStyleDark:
default:
[self.descriptionField setTextColor:[NSColor colorWithCalibratedWhite:1.0 alpha:1.0]];
break;
}
}
In source list table views the cell view's background style is set to Light, as is its textField's backgroundStyle, however the textField also draws a shadow under its text and haven't yet found exactly what is controlling that / determining that should it happen.

Answer 2

Probably the easiest way to accomplish this would be to subclass NSTextField and to override the drawRect: method in your subclass. There you can determine whether the NSTableCellView instance containing your NSTextField instances is currently selected by using this code (which I use with a NSOutlineView, but it should also work with NSTableView):
BOOL selected = NO;
id tableView = [[[self superview] superview] superview];
if ([tableView isKindOfClass:[NSTableView class]]) {
NSInteger row = [tableView selectedRow];
if (row != -1) {
id cellView = [tableView viewAtColumn:0 row:row makeIfNecessary:YES];
if ([cellView isEqualTo:[self superview]]) selected = YES;
}
}
Then draw the view like this:
if (selected) {
// set your color here
// draw [self stringValue] here in [self bounds]
} else {
// call [super drawRect]
}

Answer 3

This works no matter what style the table view has:
- (void)setBackgroundStyle:(NSBackgroundStyle)backgroundStyle {
[super setBackgroundStyle:backgroundStyle];
NSTableView *tableView = self.enclosingScrollView.documentView;
BOOL tableViewIsFirstResponder = [tableView isEqual:[self.window firstResponder]];
NSColor *color = nil;
if(backgroundStyle == NSBackgroundStyleLight) {
color = tableViewIsFirstResponder ? [NSColor lightGrayColor] : [NSColor darkGrayColor];
} else {
color = [NSColor whiteColor];
}
myTextField.textColor = color;
}

Answer 4

Swift 4
override var backgroundStyle: NSView.BackgroundStyle {
get {
return super.backgroundStyle
}
set {
self.yourCustomLabel.textColor = NSColor(calibratedWhite: 0.0, alpha: 1.0)//black
}
}