I want to open an overlay window (pop up window) when a user selects a cell in my NSTableView similar to selecting an event in iCal. Selecting the event in iCal shows a Window to edit the event, but does so by smoothly animating the window open and adding an arrow pointing to the even in the underlying calendar. Does anyone know what is being used here? Is this a bunch of hidden/custom APIs or is this available for public use?
The editor pane appears to be a custom borderless, transparent window with a custom view (the view defines the shape and therefore the shadow it casts). Learn more here. You might even use MAAttachedWindow.
Regarding animation, it's as simple as asking the window's animator to animate the frame and the alpha value (grouping them together). You'll probably want to set everything up directly in its "start position" first (ie, while the window is off-screen, set its alpha to zero, and its frame to some smaller version so it "zooms in" a la iCal), then put it on screen and start the grouped animation:
[NSAnimationContext beginGrouping];
[[window animator] setFrame:someNewSlightlyLargerFrame];
[[window animator] setAlphaValue:1.0];
[NSAnimationContext endGrouping];
Once the grouping is ended, the animation will begin (asynchronously) and your code execution will continue. Something to think about is getting everything "staged" first (including making sure the subviews of your window are already updated beforehand, so they don't change in the middle of your animation ... unless you want them to).
So the two separate techniques you need to understand are a custom window and basic Cocoa animation.
If you're using OSX 10.7 and above, NSPopover will do the job you're looking for.
Are you talking about selecting even from a list at the bottom of iCal app?
Not sure what exactly you are referring to but there is an api for animating transformations within a timespan.
Looking at other Apple's applications, Apple's developers utilize the same api available to anyone else (mostly I guess). There is lots of stuff that can be customized and Apple customizes whatever is required until it looks right from design point of view ...
Related
I would like to have a NSMenu with several NSMenuItems in it. Those items shall behave just like "normal" NSMenuItems, with one exception: I would like to be able to draw the contents (i.e. the "foreground") of each item on my own.
That is:
I would like the operating system to draw the blue highlight when I hover with the mouse, draw the checkmark or dash (to signify "selected"/"part of multi-selection"). Moreover, I would like "normal", i.e. menu-built-in mouse/keyboard behaviour.
I would like to draw the "contents" myself: Ideally, I would imagine that I would have to implement/override one single method drawMenuItem:withCGContext:inRectangle:withTextColor, which basically obtains the item, the CGContext to draw into, the NSRect of the item, and the text color that would be used by Mac OS if it drew the item itself.
I know (suspect very stronlgy) that my wish is probably too much, but I would be perfectly fine with something adequate (e.g. I could imagine fetching the NSRect from the NSMenuItem myself, obtaining the color using something like [NSColor selectedMenuItemTextColor], and the context using something like [NSContext currentContext]).
Of course I considered Apple's instruction on this. However, doing this prevents the menu from drawing the blue highlight background and the check mark. Moreover, as far as I could see, I would have to implement e.g. mouseUp myself.
To sum it up: Is there a way to get a (almost) fully functional menu, where I only customize the contents where usually the menu item title goes (possibly even without custom views)?
The answer is: No.
Since you are replacing the entire view of the menu item you are responsible for the drawing and to handle the events.
Simple question, starting out with macOS stuff – I’d like to create a small radial menu around my cursor, top-most, above whatever application is currently active, whenever a specific mouse button is pressed.
I have the specific mouse button over all application down, but I’m wondering where I need to draw that NSView, i.e. “topmost”. I guess on iOS this would be at the UIWindow level, but would NSWindow be the wrong approach here?
this is purely an opinion-based question, but basically if you want to present any custom content on the desktop, that should use NSWindow, and you can customise the window's content for your wish.
NOTE: you can find more information about the NSWindow class in Apple's Class Reference Docs.
I have a cocoa application that has a dozen scrollViews. I love the elasticity, especially in some cases where I'd actually put some kind of "Easter egg" (kinda like the apple logo in the books app. you scroll down, you see an apple logo.)
My problem is, that I need to limit the amount of exposed content beyond the actual content area. When I scroll with the magic mouse, especially, the elasticity causes the whole scroll content to disappear! Until you release the scroll, it moves back in.
Now, I would like to limit the elasticity to a specific margin. how?
NSScrollView manages a view which has a "canvas" bigger than what is/can be display at any one time. So if you want a different behaviour:
Check (void)setHorizontalScrollElasticity: but that doesn't quite do what you want. (you want to allow a fixed amount of elasticity)
Subclass NSScrollView to implement the behaviour you want.
Create your own class from scratch (well... Anything inheriting from NSResponder since you want to handle events).
For example, I once wrote a world-map program but needed the map to loop forever on the horizontal axis. I just manually managed the scrolling with a subclassed NSView. (don't have access to code currently)
Something to ponder about: I understand your reasons but just wanted to mention it. The behaviour should be expected by the user. If it looks like a button, it should act like out. Currently, scrollviews have the elasticity so that when they scroll via momentum (user is no longer touching), it doesn't stop suddenly once it reaches the end... which would be jarring for users.
Example
If subclassing NSScrollview, I would try overriding - (void)scrollWheel:(NSEvent *) and detect what are the bounds of the contentView and cap it at a certain value. Something around the lines of:
- (void)scrollWheel:(NSEvent *)event
{
[super scrollWheel:event];
if (self.contentView.bounds.origin.y > SomeConstant)
/* cap the value */
}
I have been trying to create a simple swipe transition. However buttons seem immune to any CAAnimation that crops.
I am trying to get it so that a bar moves across the screen and as it goes over the button it removes the part it has just gone over.
I have tried bounds.width, size.x and many other key-value paths to achieve the affect but I haven't got what I wanted. It just relocates the text which always remains entirely visible
I have also tried changing the UIButton to a UIImage but the text does not seem to print on a UIImage.
I tried using masks too but I have heard they should be used as infrequently as possible as they consume the phones resources. I didn't really get very far with this either anyway as I hadn't used them much before.
I also tried placing it in a container view and then change the dimensions of that but again all of the text remained entirely visible.
I know I could have a view hide the button but I am trying to reveal the view behind as the bar swipes.
Does anyone have any suggestions of how to achieve a swipe transition on a UIButton?
Help would be much appreciated.
Thanks
I think what you're looking for really is a mask. See the tutorial here:
http://iosdevelopertips.com/cocoa/how-to-mask-an-image.html
What I'd do in your situation is create a custom UIButton class, and add a mask as in the tutorial, then animate the position of the mask. Slide the mask of, nothing shows. Slide it on, part shows until the whole thing is visible.
Edit: I haven't really heard anything about hogging resources, especially since it appears to be simple core graphics.
I am making an image picker that will display an n by n grid of selectable button when the picker is popped up. This grid of buttons will be contained within an NSWindow but I would like for the window to be close automatically if the user clicks off the screen. Is there a flag that can be set so that when the window looses focus it will be closed automatically?
There are two notifications that you may be interested in: NSWindowDidResignKeyNotification and NSWindowDidResignMainNotification. You can simply register for the one you're interested in in awakeFromNib (or windowDidLoad if you have a custom controller) and then close or hide the window as appropriate when you receive the notifications.
I won't delve too much into whether or not this is a good idea from UI standpoint. But, it might be a better idea to have either an overlay view or a panel for the functionality you describe.
You might check out NSPanel. It's an NSWindow subclass that will hide itself when the app is in the background, and that behavior sounds very similar to what you are looking for.