iOS data source delegation - delegates

I've been working through the Stanford CS193p course for iOS 5.0 development (available on iTunes U) and have run into a problem whilst attempting Assignment 3 (pdf).
I am trying to implement a graphing calculator on top of a previous calculator model I have developed. In my storyboard I have added a "graph" button to my calculator which segues to a new view controller. Inside this is a view called 'GraphView'. I need to delegate the data source for this view. I can set it inside my GraphViewController like so:
self.graphView.dataSource = self;
I can also set that in Interface Builder. What I would like to do is set it to my CalculatorViewController, which first sent the segue message, but there is no mention of GraphViewController or GraphView in it's code, so I'm not sure how to accomplish this. Interface Builder would not let me drag the data source out of it's own view's frame either.
Short version: I want to delegate my data source from my Graph View to my CalculatorViewController. See the storyboard here: Storyboard.
Any help would be very greatly appreciated.

You can do this in the prepareForSegue function. You can find a similar example to how this is done in PsychologistViewController.m.

Related

NSToolbar in Xcode 7 using Storyboards (NSWindowController -> NSSplitViewController)

Hi I've seen this question asked a few times already but with no definite answer yet so I created it for xcode 7 and swift2 (which may have changed things a bit anyway).
I created a project using Xcode 7 and Cocoa OSX Story boards + swift2, so my project started with a NSWindowController that Connects to a NSViewController (as expected!). I added a NSToolbar to my window controller and added a NSButton to the toolbar. I changed my NSViewController to be one of the new NSSplitViewController that links to three NSViewControllers and displays their views horizontally - with vertical dividers - (similar to the layout you see in the photo app or pages in Yosemite +). My final goal will be that the button in My toolbar shows and hides the first split.
It is my understanding is, and I would expect that to achieve this I should create an action in the NSSplitViewController that changes the auto layout constrains more or less in the way they are working it out here: How to do collapse and expand view in mac application?.
And then somehow link this action to the NSButton that is in the Toolbar... which happens to be in the NSWindowController (far up and isolated in the hierarchy)...
I have already gone through other questions about NSToolbar and storyboards and failed to accomplish my goal:
The YouTube video: Cocoa Programming L17 - NSToolbar which is the closest I found to solve the problem, but his method does not work for storyboards, only creating your own xib file.
In this question: How to use NSToolBar in Xcode 6 and Storyboard? One person proposes to make the link using the first reponder and expecting everything to hook up at run-time (which looks a bit dodgy and not the way apple would implement it I think...). A second person suggested to create a view controller variable in the NSWindowController and manipulate its properties from there... but again, a bit dodgy too.
One latest comment I saw in that question which seems the best way to tackle the problem (but still not as good as I guess it could be) is to add a NSObjectController to the dock of each scene and when the scene loads, set the values of the objects to the other secene's controller. Is this really the best way to go ahead? If so, how could I achieve this one?
Apple did mention (again) in WWDC15 that they created storyboards for osx and the split-view controller that owns view-controllers so that you can move your logic and work to the specific view-controller, so I would be expecting to do everything from inside my split-view controller as this is the target that needs to change.
Does anyone know how to achieve this from the view controller itself? I really haven't been able to find a way to connect my ToolBarItem to it.
OK, I've created this question quite a few days ago and no answer so far so I've answer with what I recently did to overcome the problem.
After I created my Xcode project I did this:
Created a subclass MySplitViewController for the NSSplitViewController
Added an IBOutlet for each NSSplitViewItem. For example:
#IBOutlet weak var mySplitViewItem: NSSplitViewItem!
Created a subclass WindowController for the NSWindowController
Added an IBAction in the WindowController class that links to the NSToolbarItem (my button)
Added a property that gets the Window Controller's content as MySplitViewController
var mySplitViewController: MySplitViewController {
return self.window?.contentViewController as! MySplitViewController
}
Now I can access the split view controller's property from the Window Controller in the action I created:
mySplitViewController. mySplitViewItem.collapsed = true
I created some sample code that does this (but using a view controller and changing the text for a label here, just in case someone wants to see a working project with this behaviour. And a blog post about it too :)
One person proposes to make the link using the first reponder and expecting everything to hook up at run-time (which looks a bit dodgy and not the way apple would implement it I think...).
I think this first responder method is actually the proper way.
As an example:
Add something similar to the following, in whichever view controller makes sense.
#IBAction func doSomething(_ sender: AnyObject?) {
print("Do something.")
}
This will magically show up in the first responder:
In your storyboard, right-click the orange "first responder" icon above your window controller, and you should see doSomething in the very long list. You just need to connect that up to your toolbar button.
In the following screen capture, you can see my "Toggle Sidebar" button is connected to the toggleSidebar action in my first responder.
I didn't even have to write this method — it's provided by NSSplitViewController:
#IBAction open func toggleSidebar(_ sender: Any?)
So, I was working this same issue and finding no solution as you experienced. I read your post and was trying to figure how I would implement your solution when it occurred to me to use a notification. In about 30 seconds, I had a perfectly fine working solution:
In your windowController add an IBAction to post a notification like so
-(IBAction)toggleMasterViewClicked:(id)sender
{
[[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] postNotificationName:#"TestNotification" object:nil];
}
Hook up that action to your NSToolbarItem, then in the viewController add self as an observer for that notification like so
[[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self selector:#selector(toggleMasterView:) name:#"TestNotification" object:nil];
In your case, selector would be updateMyLabelText
I don't really see any downside here. No reference to other objects needed, no dependancies. Works flawlessly for me
While connectiong IBActions works by using either the First Responder or by adding an "Object" to the scene, then changing its class to the window's view controller class, this doesn't help with IBOutlets and delegates that you'd like to point to the view controller.
Here's a work-around for that:
Add the Toolbar to the View Controller, not to its Window. That way, you can make all the IBOutlet connections in the View Controller Scene easily. I've done that for years and found no issues with it, even when using Tabs.
You'll have to assign the window's toolbar in code, then. E.g. like this:
#interface ViewController ()
#property (weak) IBOutlet NSToolbar *toolbar; // connect this in your storyboard to the Toolbar that you moved to the View Controller Scene
#end
- (void)viewWillAppear {
[super viewWillAppear];
self.view.window.toolbar = self.toolbar;
}

How does one display a new view controller in the same Mac window?

I'm fairly new to Mac development and am slightly confused by the new "storyboard" feature in Xcode 6. What I'm trying to do is segue from one view controller to another in the same window. As of right now, all the different NSViewControllerSegues present the view controller in a new window, be it a modal or just another window. What I'd like to do is just segue within the same window, much in the same way one would on iOS (though an animated transition is not crucial). How would this be achieved?
If you provide a custom segue (subclass of NSStoryboardSegue) you can get the result you are after. There are a few gotchas with this approach though:
the custom segue will use presentViewController:animator so you will need to provide an animator object
because the presented view is not backed by a separate Window object, you may need to provide it with a custom NSView just to catch out mouse events that you don't want to propagate to the underlying NSViewController's view
there's also a Swift-only glitch regarding the custom segue's identifier property you need to watch out for.
As there doesn't seem to be much documentation about this I have made a small demo project with custom segue examples in Swift and Objective-C.
I also have provided some more detail in answer to this question.
(Reviving this as it comes up as first relevant result on Google and I had the same problem but decided against a custom segue)
While custom segues work (at least, the code given in foundry's answer worked under Swift 3; it needs updating for Swift 4), the sheer amount of work involved in writing a custom animator suggests to me that their main use case is custom animations.
The simple solution to changing the content of a window is to create an NSWindowController for your window, and to set its contentViewController to the desired viewController. This is particularly useful if you are following the typical pattern of storyboards and instantiate a new ViewController instance every time you switch.
However.
The NSStoryboard documentation says, quite clearly in macOS, containment (rather than transition) is the more common notion for storyboards which led me to look again at the available tools.
You could use a container view for this task, which adds a NWViewController layer instead of the NSWindowController outlined above. The solution I've gone with is to use an NSTabViewController. In the attributes inspector, set the style to 'unspecified', then select the TabView and set its style to 'tabless'.
To change tabs programatically, you set the selectedTabViewItemIndexof your TabViewController.
This solution reuses the same instance of the ViewControllers for the tab content, so that any data entered in text fields is preserved when the user switches to the other 'tab'.
Simple way with no segues involved to replace the current view controller in the same window:
if let myViewController = self.storyboard?.instantiateController(withIdentifier: "MyViewController") as? MyViewController {
self.view.window?.contentViewController = myViewController
}

Swift class to interact with Interface Builder via IBOutlet

Good evening all,
I'm slowly working through my first OS X app. I have been having a hard time getting my Swift class to interact with an NSPopUpButton. Just to make sure I was doing it right, I created a new project and successfully erased all entries and entered text into the NSPopUpButton via AppDelegate. However, as soon as I try to move the same functionality to my own class, I can't even get the IBOutlet connection across to the new class.
Is a particular subclass type required of a new class to work properly with interface builder?
Here is a screenshot of the class I have created, as well as AppDelegate where I am trying to call the function belonging to this class.
Finally, here is the IB element in question, should I be able to select my own class under the 'Custom Class' inspector?
I am an iOS developer, but I would imagine the same principles would apply to your situation.
A ViewController class and an interface created in interface builder are two seperate things. While it may appear that they are connected via an iboutlet, they are actually independent and one can be instantiated without the other.
Currently, you are only creating an instance of your ViewController class in your App Delegate - and that's all. The system has no idea that your xib even exists! The outlets will only be connected once your app connects your xib to your ViewController class.
How do we do this? It's actually quite simple. Instead of instantiating our view controller like this:
let viewcontroller = ViewController()
We would connect our view controller to our xib in the instantiation:
let viewcontroller = ViewController(nibName: "MainWindow", bundle: NSBundle().mainBundle)
The nibName is telling the system the file name of your xib, and the NSBundle().mainBundle is telling the system where to look for the xib.
This will all only work if your xib has been assigned a custom class, like you mentioned. In your xib in interface builder, select the entire view controller. Then, in the custom class inspector type in the name of your ViewController class (in your case: ViewController - it should autocomplete). This will make sure your outlets are connected.
And you should be set up!! Let me know if you have any more problems come up.
Good luck!
EDIT:
This replaces the first part of my answer, however the part about hooking things up in Storyboard remains true. Upon reconsidering, I've believe I've realized that we are only creating the view controller, and not adding it to our view. Despite this, I believe we can take a short cut solution by adding one method to your view controller subclass (the one we set in the Storyboard). Start typing in viewDidLoad, and it should autocomplete. Type in super.viewDidLoad() at the beginning of the method. After that, type self.listUpdate(). This should work if the classes are hooked up correctly in Storyboard. This means you can delete the variables you created in the App Delegate.
Reference: You might also find Apple's documentation on creating a view controller handy (it's in Objective C online, but can be easily converted to Swift - it's the concept that counts): NSViewController Class Reference

Swift, storyboards and core data...a missing persistentstorecoordinator?

I am working on a new Cocoa project using Swift, Core Data and storyboards, and have come across a problem that makes no sense to me. After some fairly extensive hunting around, including on this site, I have come to the conclusion that I must be missing something obvious, but cannot figure out what. Here is what I have done so far:
1.Create a new project, Cocoa Application, using Swift, Storyboards, and Core Data.
2. Create an entity in the .xcdatamodeld. Let’s call it Dataset.
3. Create a subclass of NSSplitViewController (for what i want to do in the rest of the program).
4. Set the window content of the main window to and instance of myVC. I checked, and it loads up and displays fine.
5. In the viewController.swift, get the managedObjectContext like so:
#IBOutlet var moc:NSManagedObjectContext!
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
// Do view setup here.
let appDelegate = NSApplication.sharedApplication().delegate as AppDelegate
moc = appDelegate.managedObjectContext
println("mainsplitviewcontroller moc:")
println(moc)
println("mainsplitviewcontroller psc:")
println(moc.persistentStoreCoordinator)
NSLog("Main split view loaded")
}
(yes, I have about dependency injection, but I want to solve this problem first).
In IB, put a managedObjectContext object in the View Controller instance.
In IB, connect the myVC outlet for the variable moc to the managedObjectContext.
In IB, create an array controller. Set it To Entity. Entity Name is Dataset. Turn on Prepares Content.
Either as an outlet or a binding, connect the array controller to the MOC. Using outlet, just dragging from managed object context in it's right-click popup to the icon for the MOC created in 6 above. For bindings, the old fashioned way, going to the bindings tab, and under Parameters, Bind to: (view controller), Model Key Path: moc. (moc is from 5 above)
Then, I build and run. and I get the error: "Cannot perform operation since managed object context has no persistent store coordinator."
This happens whichever way I try to do 9, above.
Now, the thing is, from my println statements, the objects referred to in both the app delegate and the viewcontroller are the same, both for the managed object context and for the persistent store controller, as below:
appdelegate moc:
appdelegate psc:
mainsplitviewcontroller moc:
mainsplitviewcontroller psc:
I wish I could show images, but I am new here and so cannot do that. Am I doing something clearly wrong? I thought I understood the process: make sure the VC can access the MOC, then put the MOC object into the VC's window in IB, make it an outlet, and connect it to an array controller. Why would the swift file for the view controller seem to show that the PSC is the same as the app delegate, but in IB, the array controller think the MOC has no PSC at all?
Thanks for reading!
I don't know if this is going to help, but I'm not surprised that your project shows that error. You have two managed object contexts - one created by your app delegate, and one created by the storyboard. Your interface code is connecting to that second MOC, which is not connected to your persistent store.

resetting the image in an NSView

I think this is a very simple question, but I’m new to programming so I may be going about it in a wrong-headed way.
I have a basic understanding of Objective-C writing terminal applications and am teaching myself how to use the Cocoa GUI.
I understand how to use IBOutlet and IBAction to connect a simple button to a method that will repeatedly send random numbers to a textfield.
I understand how to add a NSView file, connect it to a custom view in interface builder and draw a path through random points in the view when the application launches.
(I’ve been putting this code inside the - (void)drawRect:(NSRect)dirtyRect method that is declared when the file is created).
What I can’t seem to figure out is how to connect a button to an action that will then ‘refresh’ the view – in this case repopulate it with another set of random points connected with a path. Looking at the documentation, I think I should somehow be using
– (void) setNeedsDisplay(BOOL)flag
but nothing I have tried so far had worked. Please tell me, what am I missing here?
Something like this:
- (IBAction)refreshButtonAction:(id)sender
{
[theView setNeedsDisplay:YES];
}
Connect your button to that action. "theView" is a reference to your custom NSView.

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