Drag and Drop with NSStatusItem - cocoa

Question

I'm trying to write an application that allows the user to drag files from the Finder and drop them onto an NSStatusItem. So far, I've created a custom view that implements the drag and drop interface. When I add this view as a subview of an NSWindow it all works correctly -- the mouse cursor gives appropriate feedback, and when dropped my code gets executed.
However, when I use the same view as an NSStatusItem's view it doesn't behave correctly. The mouse cursor gives appropriate feedback indicating that the file can be dropped, but when I drop the file my drop code never gets executed.
Is there something special I need to do to enable drag and drop with an NSStatusItem?

Answer 1

I finally got around to testing this and it works perfectly, so there's definitely something wrong with your code.
Here's a custom view that allows dragging:
#implementation DragStatusView
- (id)initWithFrame:(NSRect)frame
{
self = [super initWithFrame:frame];
if (self) {
//register for drags
[self registerForDraggedTypes:[NSArray arrayWithObjects: NSFilenamesPboardType, nil]];
}
return self;
}
- (void)drawRect:(NSRect)dirtyRect
{
//the status item will just be a yellow rectangle
[[NSColor yellowColor] set];
NSRectFill([self bounds]);
}
//we want to copy the files
- (NSDragOperation)draggingEntered:(id<NSDraggingInfo>)sender
{
return NSDragOperationCopy;
}
//perform the drag and log the files that are dropped
- (BOOL)performDragOperation:(id <NSDraggingInfo>)sender
{
NSPasteboard *pboard;
NSDragOperation sourceDragMask;
sourceDragMask = [sender draggingSourceOperationMask];
pboard = [sender draggingPasteboard];
if ( [[pboard types] containsObject:NSFilenamesPboardType] ) {
NSArray *files = [pboard propertyListForType:NSFilenamesPboardType];
NSLog(#"Files: %#",files);
}
return YES;
}
#end
Here's how you'd create the status item:
NSStatusItem* item = [[[NSStatusBar systemStatusBar] statusItemWithLength:NSSquareStatusItemLength] retain];
DragStatusView* dragView = [[DragStatusView alloc] initWithFrame:NSMakeRect(0, 0, 24, 24)];
[item setView:dragView];
[dragView release];

Answer 2

Since Yosemite, the method for setting a view on NSStatusItem is deprecated but fortunately there is a much nicer way using the new NSStatusItemButton property on NSStatusItem:
- (void)applicationDidFinishLaunching: (NSNotification *)notification {
NSImage *icon = [NSImage imageNamed:#"iconName"];
//This is the only way to be compatible to all ~30 menu styles (e.g. dark mode) available in Yosemite
[normalImage setTemplate:YES];
statusItem.button.image = normalImage;
// register with an array of types you'd like to accept
[statusItem.button.window registerForDraggedTypes:#[NSFilenamesPboardType]];
statusItem.button.window.delegate = self;
}
- (NSDragOperation)draggingEntered:(id<NSDraggingInfo>)sender {
return NSDragOperationCopy;
}
- (BOOL)performDragOperation:(id<NSDraggingInfo>)sender {
//drag handling logic
}
Please be aware that the button property is only available starting in 10.10 and you might have to keep your old solution if you support 10.9 Mavericks or below.