Practically all of NSStatusItem has been deprecated for 10.10 and the behavior of the underlying NSStatusBarButton seems to be confusing.
Currently I am working on a menu bar application. When the user clicks the menu bar icon for the app, a method in my application delegate is called via target-action which displays an NSPopover (or closes it if it's already visible) with some information.
Normally, if you've associated, say, an NSMenu with an NSStatusItem when the user clicks on the menu bar icon that icon remains highlighted blue until the menu is closed. Similarly clicking the system volume icon pops down a slider and highlights its icon blue until the view containing the slider disappears.
However, since I'm the one opening the NSPopover, the system instead highlights the icon blue on mouse down, then returns it to normal on mouse up after my method has been called. Meaning there's nothing I can seem to do on that loop to maintain the highlight. I want the icon to continue being highlighted on mouse up and only return to normal when I tell it to (ie. when I close my popover.)
I have no idea how to do this. I've tried using
[self.statusItem.button setHighlighted: YES];
//or [self.statusItem.button highlight: YES];
when I receive the mouse up event in my app delegate and open the popover. The problem is the system still has it, apparently, highlighted this frame/loop from the earlier mouse down and immediately after I set it to highlighted, it sets it to unhighlighted due to the mouse up. I can get around this by encapsulating this in a method and running the method using a timer or delayed selector a split second later. This allows me to keep the icon highlighted but introduces a flicker; the icon is highlighted automatically as the mouse goes down, as the mouse goes up it unhighlights it for a frame, then my method re-highlights it.
I also figured perhaps I could use the deprecated setHighlightMode: and set it to NO to prevent the icon from being highlighted automatically on click, then using setHighlighted: / highlighted: to set it manually but that doesn't work either. Similarly, I thought maybe this would work as well:
NSButtonCell* cell = (NSButtonCell*)self.statusItem.button.cell;
cell.highlightsBy = NSNoCellMask;
But regardless clicking it automatically highlights the icon and dehighlights it on mouse up right after my method is called.
Basically:
The undesirable automatic highlighting behavior of NSStatusBarButton interferes with manually setting the highlight state, unless I delay manually setting it which introduces a short flicker.
The only thing that seems to successfully disable this automatic behavior is the deprecated setHighlightMode:, but this seems to prevent all highlighting, manual or not.
The only work around seems to be to add a subview to the NSButtonCell, add an event listener for mouse up and then set the highlight state of the superview as per here:
NSStatusBarButton keep highlighted
but I would think there'd be a simpler way to just... disable the automatic highlighting altogether.
tl;dr: Is there a way for me to easily obtain full control over when and when not my menu bar icon is highlighted, so that I can have it highlight naturally while my NSPopover is displayed?
I ended up solving this by not setting the NSStatusItem's action selector property. Instead I used NSEvent's addLocalMonitorForEventsMatchingMask:handler:. In the handler block I check if the event.locationInWindow is within my status item's .bounds. If so I send the message the .action would have manually and then return nil to prevent the event from being passed on. If it's not within the status icon's bounds I return event so it gets passed on normally. In my click handling method I use [self.statusItem.button highlight: YES/NO] when my popover is displayed/closed.
TL;DR:
In applicationDidFinishLaunching:
__block AppDelegate* appDelegate = self;
[NSEvent addLocalMonitorForEventsMatchingMask: NSEventMaskFromType(NSLeftMouseDown) handler:^NSEvent* (NSEvent* event){
if (NSPointInRect(event.locationInWindow, appDelegate.statusItem.button.bounds)){
[appDelegate clickedMenuBarIcon: event];
return nil;
}
return event;
}];
In clickedMenuBarIcon: I can then set the highlight state. Since I returned nil in my handler block it prevented the event from getting passed on so the automatic highlighting never occurs and I can do it manually.
If there's any bugs associated with this I'd appreciate any advice.
Related
I have a colorwell that when clicked fires to an IBAction method. There I check to see if the new color selected is different then the default color for an event and if it is, I show a sheet dialog to the user alerting them to this.
The problem I am having is that the color picker calls the action method every time a control such as the slider is moved. This causes the action method to be called n times instead of just once, and I have to respond to the dialog n times.
In IB there is a checkbox for continuous state. If I leave it unchecked it does't call the action method at all. Most slider controls allow you to choose between continuous state or a single state, but I am not seeing this option for a color well.
Any advise appreciated;
Simple Code:
-(IBAction)colorwellManager{
if([self shouldAlertUser] == YES){
[self dialog:#"Your are about to change the default color" #"Confirm Button"];
}
}
If a slider is moved on the color picker, this code executes many times.
I found I good explanation for whats happening here:
NSColorPanel blocking mouse up events (second answer)
The underlying class (NSColorPanel) needs to have it's setContinuous set to NO programmatically in addition to unchecking the colorwell's continuous state checkbox in IB. This allows the color well to call the action method only once per action.
I'm using a NSPanel with HUD style to display some information.
There's a button inside the HUD panel, when the user clicks the button, I'll open a new window by calling:
[anotherWindowController showWindow:self];
[anotherWindowController.window makeKeyAndOrderFront];
And I want the panel disappear when the window shows, so I set the delegate of the main window, and in the windowDidResignMain callback, I called [hudPanel orderOut:nil].
The HUD panel did disappear (I can see it), but right after it closed, it reopens.
I've checked all possible orderFront: code, and none of them get called. So my hands are really tied. Is this a system level behaviour? Can anyone guide me through this?
EDIT:
I forgot to mention that, the button resides in a NSPopover. So, basically, there's a NSButton in the HUD panel. When user clicks the button, a NSPopover will show up, inside which, there's the button to bring up the new window.
Big thanks!
I had the problem. The following solved it:
[NSApp endSheet:yourPanel];
[yourPanel orderOut:self];
Use
[hudPanel performClose:nil]
(in Swift I have to use self instead of nil). I had a problem using orderOut with a popover and it was solved by using the above method.
Please add [hudPanel close] after [hudPanel orderOut:nil]
swift: hudPanel.close()
from the apple docs:
If the window is the key or main window, the window object immediately behind it is made key or main in its place. Calling orderOut(_:) causes the window to be removed from the screen, but does not cause it to be released. See the close() method for information on when a window is released.
Sometimes the window reappears during window controller inner logic, I think. I have an issue when long pressing keyboard button kills window, but shot keyDown event only hides it on the split second. After using close all goes smoothly.
I have a static NSTextField that overlays a large error message in my OS X app. I'm trying to get it to allow the user to click controls beneath it.
In IB I've unchecked "enabled" and I've checked "Refuses First Responder"
I've also done it in code because that wasn't working:
[largeErrorText setEnabled:NO];
[largeErrorText setRefusesFirstResponder:YES];
Still, it is getting in the way of interacting with the objects below it. Any ideas what else it might be?
The only way I have found to make an object transparent to the click is to subclass that object (in your case the NSTextField) and override the hitTest method returning nil. This way that NSTextField will not respond to the click so the NSView below will respond to the click.
- (NSView*)hitTest:(NSPoint)aPoint
{
return nil;
}
I assume you are describing a scenario like the following image shows:
The inner red rectangle is the frame outline of the NSTextField label, and you're saying that even though you've disabled the text field and set refuses first responder, your clicks do not go through to the NSButton?
This design scenario describes a condition called "Overlapping sibling views". I would generally try to avoid this if at all possible. If you can't, you can get the desired behavior by making sure that the NSTextField label is "behind" all of the other UI objects that you want to be able to interact with. You can do that by selecting the label and choosing Editor > Arrange > Send to Back. That will assure that the button is in front of the text field so that it can properly intercept mouse events.
I have a transparent NSWindow that follows the user's screen everywhere he goes (the NSWindowstays in front of every app, no matter what, even fullscreen apps).
In that NSWindow i have a mouseDown event that shows a popup. Let's say i'm on safari in fullscreen mode and i have my Window in front of it, i click on safari and i click again on my Window: nothing happens, the mouseDown doesn't occur. I have to click again so the mouseDown event is triggered.
How can i force my NSWindow to be always active so i don't have to click it 2x to trigger the mouseDown when i click on a background app and click in my window again?
Thank you!
I'm not sure if this is exactly what you want (it's not quite a window wide setting), but, from the documentation:
By default, a mouse-down event in a window that isn’t the key window
simply brings the window forward and makes it key; the event isn’t
sent to the NSView object over which the mouse click occurs. The
NSView can claim an initial mouse-down event, however, by overriding
acceptsFirstMouse: to return YES.
The argument of this method is the
mouse-down event that occurred in the non-key window, which the view
object can examine to determine whether it wants to receive the mouse
event and potentially become first responder. You want the default
behavior of this method in, for example, a control that affects the
selected object in a window.
However, in certain cases it’s
appropriate to override this behavior, such as for controls that
should receive mouseDown: messages even when the window is inactive.
Examples of controls that support this click-through behavior are the
title-bar buttons of a window.
Or you could try fiddling with
- (void)sendEvent:(NSEvent *)theEvent
and see if you can handle events in a custom way.
If you add a borderless NSButton instance to your window's view and set your image as the button's image (and as its alternate image, to make it more beautiful), it will work out of the box: Just connect the button's action method to your app delegate (or the object where you want to process the click action). A click on the image (i.e. the button) will then trigger the button's action method, no matter which window is active.
This worked for me, hope that will be helpful, This will keep your window always on Top of all applications
[self.window makeKeyAndOrderFront:nil];
[self.window setLevel:NSStatusWindowLevel];
I think what you really should do is use an NSPanel (a floating palette -- a special kind of NSWindow) that will do exactly what you want in a way that's consistent with the OS rather than trying to fight intended behavior.
Here's the NSPanel documentation:
https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/Cocoa/Reference/ApplicationKit/Classes/nspanel_Class/Reference/Reference.html
And here's some helpful and pithy information:
http://cocoadev.com/wiki/NSPanel
By default, an NSPanel will disappear when the application is inactive, but you can turn this off.
I apologize for not laying it out more fully ... pressed for time.
Edit:
Note that you can probably get your window to behave as desired simply:
"The NSView can claim an initial mouse-down event, however, by overriding acceptsFirstMouse: to return YES."
https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/Cocoa/Conceptual/EventOverview/HandlingMouseEvents/HandlingMouseEvents.html
You'll need to do this with any NSView subclass to skip the "activation click".
For some reson sometimes a NSTextField I'm using in Status Bar menu doesn't always allow me to input text. I click it and nothing happens as if it was disabled. Upon restarting program it works again. I don't do anything with it, it's just created in the interface builder.
That's because no NSWindow contains the NSTextField. The NSWindow sets the first responder when the window gets the main window. The NSStatusBar is global. It's never focused so your textfield only will be focused in the very beginning.
I'm not sure if there's a way to solve this problem in a nice way. You might try to set the first responder manually. You could also add a global event monitor
Example:
[NSEvent addGlobalMonitorForEventsMatchingMask:NSKeyDownMask handler:^(NSEvent* incoming) {
[textfield setStringValue:[incoming characters]];
}];
Note: This is a very bad way to fix this problem. I'd first try to set the NSTextField manually as a first responder if this is possible.