NSStackView / NSScrollView - bisected NSStackview subview? - objective-c

this is going to be hard to explain.
I am modifying the InfoBarStackView sample code from Apple.
The problem that I am encountering, is that it looks as if one of the subviews is being divided in two, by NSStackview and rendered separately.
In my sample, I am adding 4 subviews to my stack view, each exactly the same size (and same code). This is then placed into an NSScrollView. (The layout is vertical.)
When the application is run, I see the very first two subviews. When I scroll downward, the weirdness begins. The subsequent view is rendered, where the bottom portion is rendered, then the top is rendered. If the vertical size is 272 pixels, the bottom is rendered as 256 pixels and the top is the remainder (16). Scrolling down to the last view causes the same problem.
Attached are some screen grabs to illustrate:
I have a sample project for Xcode 8. I have posted the Xcode 8 project here, if someone would like to take a look. I can't seem to figure this one out.

Are you referring to the extra bounding boxes that intersect the "Label" and "Show" buttons?
If you use Xcode's View Debugger to look at the decomposition of the view hierarchy and the drawn contents of each view, you'll see that the extra bounding boxes are drawn by the GT_BorderedViews — that is, the bottom GT_BorderedViews are each drawing two bounding boxes.
GT_BorderedView's implementation of -drawRect: calculates and draws the bounding boxes based on the dirtyRect that is passed in. However, as the documentation states, the dirty rect is «a rectangle defining the portion of the view that requires redrawing», not necessarily the entire bounds of the view. Changing the implementation to calculate and draw the border based on [self bounds] instead of the dirty rect results in the expected appearance.

Taylor nailed it. I didn't realize that drawRect didn't render the whole view. Using [self bounds] rather than dirtyRect ensures the draw happens properly.

Related

OS X chat app with resizable bubbles

I'm building chat application for Mac OS, similar to iMessage. I wonder, how can I implement resizable text views in bubbles. I mean, when I resize chat window bubbles with text will resize to. Any ideas, links will be very useful. Thank you for help)
For text resizing, you use auto layout. If you have an NSScrollView containing MYBubbleViews containing NSTextViews, you can add NSLayoutConstraints using the leftAnchor and rightAnchor properties of the scroll view's content view and those of the bubble view, and add constraints between all edges of the text view and bubble view. Then pin the bubble views to the top/prev view.
Also make sure you set the NSTextView to wrap. The width of the intrinsic size of the text view will be set so that it fills the width and the intrinsic height will be set to fit the whole text.
I previously thought it was about drawing the bubbles, so I first gave this answer:
If you look at Messages.app, you'll see that they're not circular bubbles. They are basically composed of several shapes overlaid on each other. A rectangle with rounded corners, plus a bezier path of the tip.
So you should be able to take a NSTextView for the text, make it a subview of a custom view that draws a rounded rectangle and the tip in its drawRect method, and then use auto layout constraints to make your bubble view resize with the text view and the text view to the window width.
You could probably also have the bubble view host a CALayer with fill and rounded corners, plus one with an image for the tip (or aCAShapeLayer for the tip), but drawRect is the easier approach.

NSButton rendering issues when displayed over NSImageView

I have a NSButton sibling on top of a NSImageView.
Whenever I click the window, there are some rendering issues. It looks like this:
As you can see, the white edges are the problem.
Strangely, this problem even persists if I override drawRect:.
Nothing gets rendered at all, but whenever I click it, those white edges appear.
Also, when the background-image changes, the button gets redrawn and the edges disappear.
Any idea what might cause this?
EDIT
I found out that this actually happens with every single instance of NSView
and it actually clears part of the buffer (you can see the desktop wallpaper):
EDIT 2
I also just found out that this does not happen if I layer-back the windows content-view.
Well, this question was impossible for anyone to answer.
My window had a custom contentView, which was just drawing a view with rounded corners.
Instead of using self.bounds, I used dirtyRect to draw the background.
So when the contentView wanted to redraw the background of the controls that were updated, those rounded corners were cut out.

iOS: Drawing a Rectangle on an ImageView and Adjusting Borders

Attached 1 is a screenshot from an app called GeniusScan where you can photograph any document and an adjustable rectangular grid shows on the imageview. You can easily adjust the borders of the grid with your fingers to select the portion of the image that you want to scan. It will be then transformed into the correct prospective.
1- How can I draw and interact with the grid on the imageview?
2- How can I return the corner points of the grid to my view controller.
Update: I found a wonderful class called BJImageCropper which allows to use fingers to ajust the borders, but only for a box like rectangle. Can anyone suggest how it can be updated to support shapes like in the GeniusScan app?
Dude:
I created a demo that solves both questions:
1- How can I draw and interact with the grid on the imageview?
By Adding 4 views that will act as interactive control points by adding UIPanGestureRecognizer and then drawing the grid using CAShapeLayer on top of your view.
2- How can I return the corner points of the grid to my view controller.
You must keep references to the four control points of your grid.
Here's the link to my code.
This isn't actually drawing on top of UIImageView. It's actually an overlay (view) on top of the UIImageView. You need to keep track of 4 points (have 4 views as subview of the layer), track their positions, once moved, use drawRect: to draw lines based on the 4 points.
The way I've implemented it in my app is, I overlay the UIImageView with a transparent 'SelectionView' (a custom view that I wrote). The selectionView contains 4 custom subview of class 'Vertex'. The vertex talk back to the selectionView via protocol method every time user touches/moves it (it's actually not important which vertex moved, just that it moved):
- (void)vertexMoved:(Vertex *)vertex;
Then the selectionView knows that it needs to re-draw, so it calls setNeedsDisplay which calls internally calls drawRect (you should never call drawRect) where I do the actual drawing of the bounding rect. Basically, iterate through each vertex and draw a line using Quartz APIs and fill it with semi transparent/hollow color.
This is how I am doing it atleast, I am sure there are other ways.

How should I wrap a custom NSView in an NSScrollView?

Cocoa's NSScrollView is horribly under-explained. I hope someone here knows what it's all about and can spare me a few seconds.
So I have a custom NSView. I implement -drawRect: for it to draw something, fill itself with colour, whatever. Then I have an NSScrollView wrapping it (set up through the interface Builder).
Now the inner, custom, view must have a size larger than that which fits in the outer scroll view—for it to scroll. That much I realise. I have incidentally configured it so that the scroll view adjusts to the surrounding window’s size, but that shouldn’t matter.
I override my inner view’s -frame method to return a frame sized at least 1000x1000.
- (NSRect)frame {
CGFloat w = 1000;
CGFloat h = 1000;
if (self.superview.bounds.size.width > w)
w = self.superview.bounds.size.width;
if (self.superview.bounds.size.height > h)
h = self.superview.bounds.size.height;
return NSMakeRect(0, 0, w, h);
}
Here’s the outcome, which I have trouble interpreting:
I can scroll when the scroll view encloses an area smaller than 1000x1000
BUT
The only area filled with colour (i.e. that my -drawRect: method has any effect on) is
as large as the scroll view’s bounds
located at (0,0. I use flipped, so that’s top left, and it ends up being outside the visible area after scrolling.
The visible area that lies outside this irrelevant rectangle is not painted at all.
I don’t know anything beyond this point. It seems like the rect for drawing is clipped to the scroll view’s position in the window, and size, or something—but it does not take the scrolled "location" into account.
It should be noted that I don't really expect anything else to happen. I feel I am missing a piece, but can't find which. Sorry for the wall of text, but I can’t explain better right now. I hope it is easier to answer than it is to ask.
Regards and hope,
Not Rick Astley
It's a very very very bad idea to overwrite -frame. There is so much that depends on the actual instance variable having a correct value. Instead try to set the frame to the one you want using setFrame:, that might fix all your problems if you're lucky...
I agree with Max's warning that you shouldn't override -frame. If you want to constrain the set frame, override its setter ( -setFrame: ) and the designated initializer ( -initWithFrame: ) and adjust the proposed frame as desired.
Regarding your overall problem, I wonder if your problem is conceptual. The argument for -drawRect: (the dirty rectangle you're asked to redraw) is useful if you're drawing something that you can redraw incrementally in parts (like a grid - any grid blocks intersecting dirtyRect can be redrawn and the rest can be ignored). If you're doing something that has to be completely redrawn, you should use [self bounds] and not the dirty rect passed at drawRect.
For example, if you have just a standard gradient background, it's difficult to tell from dirtyRect which part of the gradient to redraw and infinitely easier just to redraw the whole view with the gradient, ignoring dirtyRect altogether.
You're right in assuming that only the area of your view exposed by the scroll view's clip rect will normally be asked to redraw when scrolling. There're also interactions with the scroll view's -copiesOnScroll to consider.
I hope this helps.
Use of the NSScroller really relies on a solid understanding of the MVC paradigm. Apple's docs really focus on showing a photo and a set of text, but not much else. The use of NSScrollView is something that I've struggled with in the past.
First off, do not override frame. Use setFrame to tell the scrollView how large the working area is, and then just simply draw in the area the frame encompasses. As I understand it, a custom NSView and the encompassing NSScrollView takes care of the rest, such as what to draw where when. In other words, ignore the bounds of the rect passed into drawRect and instead draw within the bounds of the frame you sent to scrollView; don't worry about what is visible and what isn't because that is the job of the framework.
Here is where the MVC paradigm comes in: setFrame should be used when your Model is updated. So, if an object falls outside of the current bounds of the frame, then use setFrame to set the newly expanded bounds, and then draw within that area.

Resizing an NSView smaller than its subviews?

Couldn't find anything on the net about this and wondered if anyone on SO has a solution.
I have an NSView with several subviews that are centered by removing the left and right anchor points. When I resize my view, programatically or with the mouse, to a smaller width than the subviews: it pushes them off center. Has anyone come across this before and do you have a solution?
EDIT: I want to be able to resize my view to a zero width. The reason being, the view is actually part of a split view and I have hooked up a button to 'collapse' it. When it collapses all of the subviews are pushed off-center and aren't re-centered when the view is resized, effectively un-collapsing it.
I have solved my problem now and thought I would share incase anyone comes across this issue in the future.
No amount of playing with autosizing options or view layouts in Interface Builder seemed to stop my subviews from getting moved off center. I did manage to find this link here and from this page, the advice:
Springs and struts, as currently
implemented, are really no good for
anything but keeping either one or
both sides of a view "stuck" to the
nearest edge. Any sort of centering
behavior, division of gained/lost area
between multiple views, etc. has to be
done by hand.
Based on this I overrode my view's setFrame: method and manually laid out my subviews using their setFrame: method. This works great and gives me the results I'm looking for.
There is the same issue using NSSplitView, resizing here one Subview to be smaller than the Subview Subviews makes sense,e.g. having small charts in the upper subview, and an rss reader in the lower subview.
If you want to show only the rss reader in the lower subview, you can "hide" the upper subview, but after resizing the upper subview the NSImageView are not layed out the same as in the beginning. Check this nib/xCode Project and the following screenshot to see this behaviour.
Only workaroung is to override the resize function to stop getting smaller.