Autolayout NSScrollview does not grow contentView - objective-c

Question

I have a scrollview that I'm trying to setup with auto layout.
The actual content is in a container view, this container view a set of visible box views. They are added without any problem to the container view. Each one is given a couple of constraints
NSViewController prev;
for(NSViewController *lvc in vcs) {
//each view is padded by 5 from left
[containerView addConstraint:[NSLayoutConstraint constraintWithItem:lvc.view attribute:NSLayoutAttributeLeading relatedBy:NSLayoutRelationEqual toItem:prev.view attribute:NSLayoutAttributeTrailing multiplier:1 constant:5]];
//Constant height
[containerView addConstraint:[NSLayoutConstraint constraintWithItem:lvc.view attribute:NSLayoutAttributeHeight relatedBy:NSLayoutRelationEqual toItem:nil attribute:NSLayoutAttributeNotAnAttribute multiplier:0 constant:300]];
//Constant width
[containerView addConstraint:[NSLayoutConstraint constraintWithItem:lvc.view attribute:NSLayoutAttributeWidth relatedBy:NSLayoutRelationGreaterThanOrEqual toItem:nil attribute:NSLayoutAttributeNotAnAttribute multiplier:0 constant:300]];
prev = lvc;
}
[_scrollView setDocumentView:containerView];
[_scrollView addConstraint:[NSLayoutConstraint constraintWithItem:listContainerView attribute:NSLayoutAttributeWidth relatedBy:NSLayoutRelationGreaterThanOrEqual toItem:_scrollView attribute:NSLayoutAttributeWidth multiplier:1 constant:0]];
However the scroll view does not allow the container view to grow without growing the scrollview itself. The right edge of the containerView is attached to the right edge of the scroll view. If I grow the scroll view I can see there's more content from the list container view but only as big as the scroll view is.
The last row is my attempt to fix this by basically saying "let the container view grow larger than the scroll view". Isn't that the correct way of setting the constraint?

Answer 1

Add an NSStackView to your NIB and then select Editor > Embed In > Scroll View. Add constraints to the scroll view to keep it laid out relative to its superview and/or sibling views. Add constraints between the stack view and its superview (the clip view) to keep its top and leading edges the same as the clip view's. Add a constraint to keep the stack view's trailing edge greater than or equal to the clip view's trailing edge. Add a constraint to the keep the stack view's bottom edge greater than or equal to the clip view's bottom edge.
In your code, add the views of the view controllers in vcs as subviews of the stack view. The stack view's spacing will default to 8. In your code, you set spacing of 5. So, you can change the stack view's spacing to 5. (This can be done in the NIB.)