I have a view with several subviews (NSButton, NSTextField, NSPopUpButton) and a NSImageView with a spinner icon which should be displayed on top of the other views while data is retrieved from the web.
To display the NSImageView on top I have set
imageViewSpinner.wantsLayer = true
imageViewSpinner.layer?.backgroundColor = NSColor.windowBackgroundColor.cgColor
The problem is, that the focus borders and PopUpButtons are still accessible/shining through the NSImageView (see attached video).
To solve this, I could iterate over all the other subviews and set them to "isHidden" or "disabled" but I wonder, if there is a cleaner solution to this problem, for example defining the NSImageView as topmost layer without things getting through?
You could put all of the other views inside of one container view and hide that.
You can also use a tab-less tab view to programmatically switch between view sub-hierarchies. (That basically achieves the same thing. It's better when there are more than 2 views to manage.)
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"
I have a puzzling problem. Working on a cocoa app in mac os x 10.7.
My app main window contains a split view. In a certain use context in one of the subviews of the split view is loaded a custom view with some labels (nstextfield) and a split view (instantiating a view controller that loads a nib and getting view from that controller). Frame of the custom view is set to split view subview bounds and everything works fine.
Problem is that one of the subviews of the second split view should be loaded (same method: view controller-nib-view-frame/bounds) with a custom view containing a table view and a button, but in this case nothing shows. Everything is done the same way but last custom view is not visible. Any idea?
Thanks
(edit)
this is the code I use to instantiate controller for the view to be added, get the view, and add it as subview to a subview of the split view
- (void)loadSubview {
self.subviewToAddController = [[viewController alloc] initWithNibName:nil bundle:nil];
//nib name is coded in the controller class definition
[[self.subviewToAddController view] setFrame:[self.splitViewContainerSubView bounds]];
//container subView is an outlet
[self.splitViewContainerSubView addSubview:[self.subviewToAddController view]];
}
However I don't think the problem is in this code because if I ask the container subview for its own subviews I can see the new subview is present in the list. It just doesn't show. If I add it as a subview of the split view (a test a just made) or as subview of the subview of the most external split view it is correctly showed too (sorry for the confused explanation, I would need a diagram but in this moment I can't make it)
To elaborate more my doubt (I didn't want to misled so I didn't mention before) can't it be a problem of coordinates, so view is correctly loaded and added as subview but is not visible because hidden by something or showed out of visible area?
(update)
Sorry it took so long to post an update.
After more testing I found out the problem is related to autolayout. No idea what the exact problem is and how to solve it. I ended up turning it off for the nibs the were in troubles and use the old way to set interface objects position and size/resize. Not the best way but for now I can go on.
My best guess is that you didn't set the autoresizing masks of the view properly.
I still have a lot to learn with cocoa so I may have missed something obvious here. I have a custom view I would like to display in an nssplitview which replaces the current subview there.
I have a MessageView.xib file, and a MessageView .h/.m which subclasses NSView. I created a custom view instance for my main window (the one which contains the nssplitview) through Xcode 4's built in gui builder. I created an outlet to this instance of MessageView in my window's controller.
In my controller for the window when I want to swap out the subview for the splitview it runs this
[splitView replaceSubview:[[splitView subviews] objectAtIndex:1] with:viewMessage];
viewMessage is the outlet to the MessageView.
When this code is run the display of that subview changes to be blank. I'm not sure if there is something wrong with my custom view or there is some size issue. Is there something I need to do to fit the view into the split screen view or is my custom view just not displaying correctly? I have had a difficult time finding a tutorial on creating custom subviews with Xcode 4 so I'm not sure if something could be wrong with that. The custom view just has a label and a textfield in it.
Generally, you shouldn't need to replace NSSplitView's subviews with your own. Rather, you add your own custom view(s) as child views of the default subviews on each side of the divider. You can do this in code with addSubview:, but it's probably easier to just use Interface Builder in Xcode. Drag a "Custom View" into the splitview, then in the Identity Inspector, under Custom class, change the class to the name of your custom NSView subclass:
I think (off the top of my head, not tested), if you really do need to replace the default NSSplitView subviews with your own class, you can probably do it in Interface Builder using this same method, but selecting the default subview itself and changing its class in the inspector. This doesn't work for all AppKit classes, but it may work for NSSplitView.
Is it possible to change the frame of UITableViewController's UITableView frame inside Interface Builder? I want to make my table, which I instantiate in IB, a little bit narrower.
When you have create your tableViewController in IB, if you then go to the section on the right of the screen where all the options are set size to "freeform" then drag it to whatever you like. When you init it it will then get this frame. Unless it is within a container controller.
The best way to do what you are after is to create a viewController and add a table view to its view. Make the table view narrower that the main controller view and wire it up to an IBOutlet on your controller. If you then make your controller implement the and methods you will be able to use your table view exactly as you want to.
Hope this is of help to you, if this is unclear or you would like any extra help, let me know :)
You can change it in IB but unless you customize your view controller somehow, it will set it be full screen (module enclosing controllers like nav, tab bar, split view, etc.) That's just the way view controllers work.
From the Apple docs:
When a view controller is displayed on screen, its root view is
typically resized to fit the available space, which can vary depending
on the window’s current orientation and the presence of other
interface elements such as the status bar.
You can create another UIView to hold your table view and then have more control over the table view sizing, But then you won't be a table view controller and will have to implement some of the things that table view controller provides you, e.g., deselectRowAtIndexPath on viewDidAppear.