I have an NSButton (Push Button) with some temporary title text built in Interface Builder / Xcode. Elsewhere, the title text inside the button is changed programmatically to a string of unknown length (actually, many times to many different lengths).
I'd like the button to automatically be resized (with a fixed right position--so it grows out to the left) to fit whatever length of string is programmatically inserted as button text. But I can't figure it out. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance!
If you can't use Auto Layout as suggested by #jtbandes (it's only available in Lion), then you can call [button sizeToFit] after setting its string value, which will make the button resize to fit its string. You would then need to adjust its frame based on the new width.
You can't do this automatically, but it would be easy to do in a subclass of NSButton.
#implementation RKSizeToFitButton
- (void)setStringValue:(NSString*)aString
{
//get the current frame
NSRect frame = [self frame];
//button label
[super setStringValue:aString];
//resize to fit the new string
[self sizeToFit];
//calculate the difference between the two frame widths
NSSize newSize = self.frame.size;
CGFloat widthDelta = newSize.width - NSWidth(frame);
//set the frame origin
[self setFrameOrigin:NSMakePoint(NSMinX(self.frame) - widthDelta, NSMinY(self.frame))];
}
#end
This way you can just set your button's class to RKSizeToFitButton in Interface Builder and then calling setStringValue: on the button to change its label will "just work" with no additional code.
Sure! Just use Auto Layout! :)
Related
I've stumbled upon a behavior in NSTextView that does not seem intended, or that I at least do not understand the reasoning behind.
When you have a large body of text in an NSTextView and you resize the control/window, the wrapping of words only happens fluently and immediately while resizing when the text is scrolled near the top. If you scroll far down in the text, it does not, and it doesn't seem to "commit" the wrapping until you release and finish resizing.
Is there some internal limitation, or is this a bug?
The issue seems to be reproducible:
macOS 10.15.4, Xcode 11.4.1
Create a new macOS App project
Put an NSTextView on the default generated view controller (doesn't matter which of the 3: rich, plain or default) and constrain it so that it resizes with the window (top, bottom, leading, trailing)
Run the application and paste a large body of text into the text view (for example: http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/12281/pg12281.txt)
Scroll to the top of the NSTextView and observe how the text wraps while resizing the window
Scroll to the bottom and observe how it only wraps after resizing the window
Hoping there's any Cocoa detectives out there who can provide some enlightenment on this one.
EDIT:
As per the docs, it states that "the layout manager reserves the right to perform layout for larger ranges". I take it that this means it is indeed intended as a performance consideration.
Is there any way to determine what the limit is, though?
EDIT: You could try subclassing NSScrollView to render the text into multiple containers.
NSTextStorage *storage = [[NSTextStorage alloc] initWithString:string];
NSLayoutManager *manager = [[NSLayoutManager alloc] init];
[storage addLayoutManager:manager];
NSInteger i = 0;
while (YES) {
NSTextContainer *container = [[NSTextContainer alloc] initWithSize:CGSizeMake(width, height)];
[manager addTextContainer:container];
NSTextView *textView = [[NSTextView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(x, y, width, height) textContainer:container];
[self.contentView addSubview:textView];
i++;
NSRange range = [manager glyphRangeForTextContainer:container];
if ( range.length + range.location == string.length )
break;
}
Then, while resizing the window, you can call NSLayoutManager to ensure the layout only for visible containers.
How does one go about having auto-layout automatically wrap an NSTextField to multiple lines as the width of the NSTextField changes?
I have numerous NSTextFields displaying static text (i.e.: labels) in an inspector pane. As the inspector pane is resized by the user, I would like the right hand side labels to reflow to multiple lines if need be.
(The Finder's Get Info panel does this.)
But I haven't been able to figure out the proper combination of auto layout constraints to allow this behavior. In all case, the NSTextFields on the right refuse to wrap. (Unless I explicitly add a height constraint that would allow it to.)
The view hierarchy is such that each gray band is a view containing two NSTextFields, the property name on the left and the property value on the right. As the user resizes the inspector pane, I would like the property value label to auto-resize it's height as need-be.
Current situation:
What I would like to have happen:
(Note that this behavior is different than most Stack Overflow questions I came across regarding NSTextFields and auto layout. Those questions wanted the text field to grow while the user is typing. In this situation, the text is static and the NSTextField is configured to look like a label.)
Update 1.0
Taking #hamstergene's suggestion, I subclassed NSTextField and made a little sample application. For the most part, it now works, but there's now a small layout issue that I suspect is a result of the NSTextField's frame not being entirely in sync with what auto-layout expects it to be. In the screenshot below, the right-hand side labels are all vertically spaced with a top constraint. As the window is resized, the Where field is getting properly resized and wrapped. However, the Kind text field does not get pushed down until I resize the window "one more pixel".
Example: If I resize the window to just the right width that the Where textfield does it's first wrap, then I get the results in the middle image. If I resize the window one more pixel, then the Kind field's vertical location is properly set.
I suspect that's because auto-layout is doing it's pass and then the frames are getting explicitly set. I imagine auto-layout doesn't see that on that pass but does it it on the next pass, and updates the positions accordingly.
Assuming that's the issue, how do I inform auto-layout of these changes I'm doing in setFrameSize so that it can run the layout again. (And, most importantly, not get caught in recursive state of layout-setFrameSize-layout-etc...)
Solution
I've come up with a solution that appears to work exactly how I was hoping. Instead of subclassing NSTextField, I just override layout in the superview of the NSTextField in question. Within layout, I set the preferredMaxLayoutWidth on the text field and then trigger a layout pass. That appears to be enough to get it mostly working, but it leaves the annoying issue of the layout being briefly "wrong". (See note above).
The solution to that appears to be to call setNeedsDisplay and then everything Just Works.
- (void)layout {
NSTextField *textField = ...;
NSRect oldTextFieldFrame = textField.frame;
[textField setPreferredMaxLayoutWidth:NSWidth(self.bounds) - NSMinX(textField.frame) - 12.0];
[super layout];
NSRect newTextFieldFrame = textField.frame;
if (oldTextFieldFrame.size.height != newTextFieldFrame.size.height) {
[self setNeedsDisplay:YES];
}
}
The simplest way to get this working, assuming you're using an NSViewController-based solution is this:
- (void)viewDidLayout {
[super viewDidLayout];
self.aTextField.preferredMaxLayoutWidth = self.aTextField.frame.size.width;
[self.view layoutSubtreeIfNeeded];
}
This simply lets the constraint system solve for the width (height will be unsolvable on this run so will be what ever you initially set it to), then you apply that width as the max layout width and do another constraint based layout pass.
No subclassing, no mucking with a view's layout methods, no notifications. If you aren't using NSViewController you can tweak this solution so that it works in most cases (subclassing textfield, in a custom view, etc.).
Most of this came from the swell http://www.objc.io/issue-3/advanced-auto-layout-toolbox.html (look at the Intrinsic Content Size of Multi-Line Text section).
If inspector pane width will never change, just check "First Runtime Layout Width" in IB (note it's 10.8+ feature).
But allowing inspector to have variable width at the same time is not possible to achieve with constraints alone. There is a weak point somewhere in AutoLayout regarding this.
I was able to achieve reliable behaviour by subclassing the text field like this:
- (NSSize) intrinsicContentSize;
{
const CGFloat magic = -4;
NSSize rv;
if ([[self cell] wraps] && self.frame.size.height > 1)
rv = [[self cell] cellSizeForBounds:NSMakeRect(0, 0, self.bounds.size.width + magic, 20000)];
else
rv = [super intrinsicContentSize];
return rv;
}
- (void) layout;
{
[super layout];
[self invalidateWordWrappedContentSizeIfNeeded];
}
- (void) setFrameSize:(NSSize)newSize;
{
[super setFrameSize:newSize];
[self invalidateWordWrappedContentSizeIfNeeded];
}
- (void) invalidateWordWrappedContentSizeIfNeeded;
{
NSSize a = m_previousIntrinsicContentSize;
NSSize b = self.intrinsicContentSize;
if (!NSEqualSizes(a, b))
{
[self invalidateIntrinsicContentSize];
}
m_previousIntrinsicContentSize = b;
}
In either case, the constraints must be set the obvious way (you have probably already tried it): high vertical hugging priority, low horizontal, pin all four edges to superview and/or sibling views.
Set in the size inspector tab in section Text Field Preferred Width to "First Runtime layout Width"
This works for me and is a bit more elegant. Additionally i've made a little sample project on Github
public class DynamicTextField: NSTextField {
public override var intrinsicContentSize: NSSize {
if cell!.wraps {
let fictionalBounds = NSRect(x: bounds.minX, y: bounds.minY, width: bounds.width, height: CGFloat.greatestFiniteMagnitude)
return cell!.cellSize(forBounds: fictionalBounds)
} else {
return super.intrinsicContentSize
}
}
public override func textDidChange(_ notification: Notification) {
super.textDidChange(notification)
if cell!.wraps {
validatingEditing()
invalidateIntrinsicContentSize()
}
}
}
At the moment the behaviour of my app allows me to called this extra function I wrote that hacks resizes the window to fittingSize.
- (void)fitToMinimumSize
{
NSRect frame = [self frame];
frame.size = [[self contentView] fittingSize];
int originalHeight = [self frame].size.height;
int diff = originalHeight - frame.size.height;
frame.origin.y += diff;
[self setFrame:frame display:YES];
}
But can I automate this behaviour through some built in auto layout code so that the window is always the size of the minimum of it's contentView instead of this almighty hack?
Edit: I've found out I can check [[self contentView] fittingSize], but how can I observe this incase it changes, or should I be triggering it myself?
Normally, everything should already be 'automatic' if your layout is fully and unambiguously determined by NSConstraint's set on your window's content view and its children.
In your case I'd try installing a height and a width constraints on the content view with sufficiently small dimensions (maybe even zero), but with priority lower than the 'content compression resistance priority' set on your subviews. To have everything working properly, you may have to play with constraint priorities and/or install additional constraints on the content view's children.
This should work without any other code, as long as your subviews are constrained to resist collapsing to zero. I'd also think that in this case the window should not be user-resizeable.
I have a Cocoa window, whose content view contains an NSScrollView that, in turns, contains a fixed-size NSView.
Upon launching the program, the scroll bars displayed initially are too small, as if the content size was much larger than it actually is:
When I start playing with, e.g., the vertical scroll bar, and bring it back to the original position at the top, it gets resized to its expected size (which corresponds to the ratio of scroll view and content view sizes):
(Notice the horizontal bar, which still has incorrect size. If I then play with it, and bring it back to its leftmost position, it gets resized to the correct size.)
I also encountered the same problem, I have searched everywhere but it seems no one else experiences this problem. Fortunately I found a hack which solves the problem.
What I did notice was that when the window is resized or maximized the scrollbars resize to the expected size (autoresizing has to be enabled). This is because when the window resizes so does the scrollview and the length of the scroll bars gets recalculated and is calculated correctly. Possibly due to some bug the scroll bar lengths are not calculated correctly on initialization. Anyway to fix the problem, in your application delegate create an outlet to your window. Override the "applicationDidFinishLaunching" method and inside it call the method "frame" on the window outlet, which returns the current NSRect of the window. Using the returned value add one to the size.width and size.height. The call the method setFrame with display set to YES. This will resize the window and force the size of the scrollbars to be recalculated.
Here is the code for applicationDidFinishLaunching Below
(void)applicationDidFinishLaunching:(NSNotification *)aNotification
{
// Get the current rect
NSRect windowRect = [_window frame];`
// add one to the width and height to resize window
windowRect.size.width += 1;
windowRect.size.height += 1;
// resize window with display:YES to redraw window subviews
[_window setFrame:windowSize display:YES];
}
I encountered this issue when modifying an NSTextView textContainer size to toggle line wrapping. Resizing the enclosing view does cause the correct scroll view height to be used, however its a brutal solution.
NSScrollView supports -reflectScrolledClipView. Calling this directly in my case had no effect except when delayed on the runloop:
[textScrollView performSelector:#selector(reflectScrolledClipView:) withObject:textScrollView.contentView afterDelay:0];
The scroller position is correct but there is a scroller redraw. So it looks as if part of the view geometry is calculated when drawing. A better solution is therefore:
NSDisableScreenUpdates();
[textScrollView display];
[textScrollView reflectScrolledClipView:textScrollView.contentView];
[textScrollView display];
NSEnableScreenUpdates();
Building on the answer from jstuxx above, if you don't want the window to visibly resize, try:
NSRect windowRect = [[[self view] window] frame];
windowRect.size.width += 1;
windowRect.size.height += 1;
[[[self view] window] setFrame:windowRect display:YES];
windowRect.size.width -= 1;
windowRect.size.height -= 1;
[[[self view] window] setFrame:windowRect display:YES];
I had to put this code after where I was programmatically adding the scroll view to my interface.
I am doing manual layouting for my Cocoa application and at some point I need to figure out what the inner size of a NSView subclass is. (E.g. What is the height available for my child view inside of a NSBox?)
One of the reasons is that I am using a coordinate system with origin at the top-left and need to perform coordinate transformations.
I could not figure out a way to get this size so far and would be glad if somebody can give me a hint.
Another very interesting property I would like to know is the minimum size of a view.
-bounds is the one you're looking for in most views. NSBox is a bit of a special case, however, since you want to look at the bounds of the box's content view, not the bounds of the box view itself (the box view includes the title, edges, etc.). Also, the bounds rect is always the real size of the box, while the frame rect can be modified relative to the bounds to apply transformations to the view's contents (such as squashing a 200x200 image into a 200x100 frame).
So, for most views you just use [parentView bounds], and for NSBox you'll use [[theBox contentView] bounds], and you'll use [[theBox contentView] addSubview: myView] rather than [parentView addSubview: myView] to add your content.
Unfortunately, there is no standard way to do this for all NSView subclasses. In your specific example, the position and size of a child view within an NSBox can be computed as follows:
NSRect availableRect = [someNSBox bounds];
NSSize boxMargins = [someBox contentViewMargins];
availableRect = NSInsetRect(availableRect, boxMargins.width, boxMargins.height);
If you find yourself using this often, you could create a category on NSBox as follows:
// MyNSBoxCategories.h
#interface NSBox (MyCategories)
- (NSRect)contentFrame;
#end
// MyNSBoxCategories.m
#implementation NSBox (MyCategories)
- (NSRect)contentFrame
{
NSRect frameRect = [self bounds];
NSSize margins = [self contentViewMargins];
return NSInsetRect(frameRect, margins.width, margins.height);
}
#end
And you would use it like so:
#import "MyNSBoxCategories.h"
//...
NSRect frameRect = [someNSBox contentFrame];
[myContentView setFrame:frameRect];
[someNSBox addSubview:myContentView];
The bounds property of NSView returns an NSRect with the origin (usually (0,0)) and the size of an NSView. See this Apple Developer documentation page.
I'm not sure (I never had to go too deep in that stuff), but isn't it [NSView bounds]?
http://www.cocoadev.com/index.pl?DifferenceBetweenFrameAndBounds