Reverse engineering an NSMenu for a Status Bar Item - cocoa

Question

I'm want to create a menu for a status bar item like the one seen in Tapbot's PastebotSync application:
Does anyone have any ideas how to achieve the custom area at the top of the menu which is flush with the top?
I've tried/thought of a few potential ways of doing it:
Standard NSMenuItem with a view - isn't flush with the top of the menu
Some hack-ish code to place an NSWindow over the area at the top of the menu - not great as it doesn't fade out nicely with the menu when it closes
Abandoning an NSMenu entirely and using an NSView instead - haven't tried this yet but I don't really want to have to make some fake buttons or something that act as NSMenuItems
Anyone have any better ideas or suggestions?
Thanks!

Answer 1

In case anyone comes looking, I posted a solution to this at Gap above NSMenuItem custom view
Here's the code:
#interface FullMenuItemView : NSView
#end
#implementation FullMenuItemView
- (void) drawRect:(NSRect)dirtyRect
{
NSRect fullBounds = [self bounds];
fullBounds.size.height += 4;
[[NSBezierPath bezierPathWithRect:fullBounds] setClip];
// Then do your drawing, for example...
[[NSColor blueColor] set];
NSRectFill( fullBounds );
}
#end
Use it like this:
CGFloat menuItemHeight = 32;
NSRect viewRect = NSMakeRect(0, 0, /* width autoresizes */ 1, menuItemHeight);
NSView *menuItemView = [[[FullMenuItemView alloc] initWithFrame:viewRect] autorelease];
menuItemView.autoresizingMask = NSViewWidthSizable;
yourMenuItem.view = menuItemView;

Answer 2

I had the same need in early versions of HoudahSpot 2. I did get it working with one limitation: my code leaves the menu with square corners at the bottom.
I have since abandonned this setup, as the BlitzSearch feature in HoudahSpot grew to need a complexer UI, I ran into other limitations with using NSViews in a NSMenu.
Anyway, here is the original code taking care of those extra 3 pixels:
- (void)awakeFromNib
{
HIViewRef contentView;
MenuRef menuRef = [statusMenu carbonMenuRef];
HIMenuGetContentView (menuRef, kThemeMenuTypePullDown, &contentView);
EventTypeSpec hsEventSpec[1] = {
{ kEventClassMenu, kEventMenuCreateFrameView }
};
HIViewInstallEventHandler(contentView,
NewEventHandlerUPP((EventHandlerProcPtr)hsMenuCreationEventHandler),
GetEventTypeCount(hsEventSpec),
hsEventSpec,
NULL,
NULL);
}
#pragma mark -
#pragma mark Carbon handlers
static OSStatus hsMenuContentEventHandler( EventHandlerCallRef caller, EventRef event, void* refcon )
{
OSStatus err;
check( GetEventClass( event ) == kEventClassControl );
check( GetEventKind( event ) == kEventControlGetFrameMetrics );
err = CallNextEventHandler( caller, event );
if ( err == noErr )
{
HIViewFrameMetrics metrics;
verify_noerr( GetEventParameter( event, kEventParamControlFrameMetrics, typeControlFrameMetrics, NULL,
sizeof( metrics ), NULL, &metrics ) );
metrics.top = 0;
verify_noerr( SetEventParameter( event, kEventParamControlFrameMetrics, typeControlFrameMetrics,
sizeof( metrics ), &metrics ) );
}
return err;
}
static OSStatus hsMenuCreationEventHandler( EventHandlerCallRef caller, EventRef event, void* refcon )
{
OSStatus err = eventNotHandledErr;
if ( GetEventKind( event ) == kEventMenuCreateFrameView)
{
err = CallNextEventHandler( caller, event );
if ( err == noErr )
{
static const EventTypeSpec kContentEvents[] =
{
{ kEventClassControl, kEventControlGetFrameMetrics }
};
HIViewRef frame;
HIViewRef content;
verify_noerr( GetEventParameter( event, kEventParamMenuFrameView, typeControlRef, NULL,
sizeof( frame ), NULL, &frame ) );
verify_noerr( HIViewFindByID( frame, kHIViewWindowContentID, &content ) );
HIViewInstallEventHandler( content, hsMenuContentEventHandler, GetEventTypeCount( kContentEvents ),
kContentEvents, 0, NULL );
}
}
return err;
}
Sorry, I forgot that bit:
- (MenuRef) carbonMenuRef
{
MenuRef carbonMenuRef = NULL;
if (carbonMenuRef == NULL) {
extern MenuRef _NSGetCarbonMenu(NSMenu *);
carbonMenuRef = _NSGetCarbonMenu(self);
if (carbonMenuRef == NULL) {
NSMenu *theMainMenu = [NSApp mainMenu];
NSMenuItem *theDummyMenuItem = [theMainMenu addItemWithTitle: #"sub" action: NULL keyEquivalent: #""];
if (theDummyMenuItem != nil) {
[theDummyMenuItem setSubmenu:self];
[theDummyMenuItem setSubmenu:nil];
[theMainMenu removeItem:theDummyMenuItem];
carbonMenuRef = _NSGetCarbonMenu(self);
}
}
}
if (carbonMenuRef == NULL) {
extern MenuRef _NSGetCarbonMenu2(NSMenu *);
carbonMenuRef = _NSGetCarbonMenu2(self);
}
return carbonMenuRef;
}