Change background color on hover on a NSMenuItem with custom NSView - objective-c

Question

Here is the thing:
I have created a custom NSMenuItem with a custom NSView in it.
Everything works fine except that I can't get the NSMenuItem to get highlighted (= change the background color on mouseover).
I'm trying to do it inside the drawRect method, as shown in other answers posted here.
What am I doing wrong?
The NSView subclass:
#interface customView : NSView
#end
#implementation customView
- (id)initWithFrame:(NSRect)frame
{
NSRect theRect = NSMakeRect(0, 0, 200, 30);
self = [super initWithFrame:theRect];
if (self) {
NSTrackingArea * trackingArea = [[NSTrackingArea alloc] initWithRect:theRect
options: (NSTrackingMouseEnteredAndExited | NSTrackingActiveInKeyWindow |NSTrackingActiveAlways)
owner:self userInfo:nil];
[self addTrackingArea:trackingArea];
}
return self;
}
#define menuItem ([self enclosingMenuItem])
- (void) drawRect: (NSRect) rect {
BOOL isHighlighted = [menuItem isHighlighted];
if (isHighlighted) {
//this nslog never happens
NSLog(#"it's highlighted");
}
- (void)mouseUp:(NSEvent*) event {
NSMenuItem* mitem = [self enclosingMenuItem];
NSMenu* m = [mitem menu];
[m cancelTracking];
NSLog(#"you clicked the %ld item",[m indexOfItem: mitem]);
}
#end
The NSMenuItem subclass:
(I add subviews on the custom view here so i can have access to the controls through the NSMenuItem instance)
#interface customItem : NSMenuItem{
}
-(void)setTheText:(NSString*)theString;
#property NSTextField *theLabel;
#end
#import "customItem.h"
#import "customView.h"
#implementation customItem
#synthesize theLabel;
-(id)init{
if (self){
customView *cv = [[customView alloc] init];
theLabel = [[NSTextField alloc] initWithFrame:NSMakeRect(10, 8, 130, 17)];
[theLabel setEditable:NO];
[theLabel setBordered:NO];
NSButton *myButton = [[NSButton alloc] initWithFrame:NSMakeRect(170, 7, 20, 20)];
NSButton *myButton1 = [[NSButton alloc] initWithFrame:NSMakeRect(150, 7, 20, 20)];
[myButton setBezelStyle:NSCircularBezelStyle];
[myButton1 setBezelStyle:NSCircularBezelStyle];
[myButton setTitle:#""];
[myButton1 setTitle:#""];
[cv addSubview:myButton];
[cv addSubview:myButton1];
[cv addSubview:theLabel];
[self setView:cv];
[theLabel setStringValue:#"A Value "];
}
return self;
}
-(void)setTheText:(NSString *)theString{
[theLabel setStringValue:theString];
}
#end
And this is the App Delegate :
#interface AppDelegate : NSObject <NSApplicationDelegate>{
NSStatusItem *statusItem;
IBOutlet NSMenu *theMenu;
}
#property (assign) IBOutlet NSWindow *window;
#end
#import "customItem.h"
#implementation AppDelegate
- (void)applicationDidFinishLaunching:(NSNotification *)aNotification
{
}
- (void)awakeFromNib{
statusItem = [[NSStatusBar systemStatusBar]
statusItemWithLength:NSSquareStatusItemLength];
NSBundle *bundle = [NSBundle mainBundle];
NSImage *statusImage = [[NSImage alloc] initWithContentsOfFile:[bundle pathForResource:#"barIcon" ofType:#"png"]];
NSImage *highlightImage = [[NSImage alloc] initWithContentsOfFile:[bundle pathForResource:#"barIcon_H" ofType:#"png"]];
[statusItem setImage:statusImage];
[statusItem setAlternateImage:highlightImage];
[statusItem setMenu:theMenu];
[theMenu removeAllItems];
customItem *mi = [[customItem alloc] init];
[theMenu addItem:mi];
customItem *mi2 = [[customItem alloc] init];
[theMenu addItem:mi2];
}
#end
This is what i get:

Answer 1

No need to add Booleans or anything else, you can do it from within your custom NSView which is attached to your NSMenuItem
- (void)drawRect:(NSRect)rect {
[super drawRect:rect];
//Handle the hightlight
if ([[self enclosingMenuItem] isHighlighted])
{
[self.lbl_title setTextColor:[NSColor whiteColor]];
[self.lbl_amount setTextColor:[NSColor colorWithDeviceRed:151.0f/255.0f green:164.0f/255.0f blue:179.0f/255.0f alpha:1.0f]];
[[NSColor selectedMenuItemColor] setFill];
}
else
{
[self.lbl_title setTextColor:[NSColor blackColor]];
[self.lbl_amount setTextColor:[NSColor whiteColor]];
[[self backgroundColor] setFill];
}
NSRectFill(rect);}

Answer 2

OK i think i got it.
I added a public bool variable in the NSView subclass.
Then i used
-(void)mouseEntered:(NSEvent *)theEvent
and
-(void)mouseExited:(NSEvent *)theEvent
to set the variable to YES or to NO. After setting the variable i used
[self setNeedsDisplay:YES]
to call
-(void) drawRect: (NSRect) rect
That's how i got it working :)

Answer 3

Here is the right way of changing the background colour (highlighting the item) without maintaining a local variable and force the view to draw again,
-(void)mouseEntered:(NSEvent *)event {
self.layer.backgroundColor = [[NSColor blueColor] colorWithAlphaComponent:0.3].CGColor;
[theLabel setTextColor:[NSColor whiteColor]];
}
-(void)mouseExited:(NSEvent *)event {
self.layer.backgroundColor = [NSColor clearColor].CGColor;
[theLabel setTextColor:[NSColor blackColor]];
}
Make sure you also set [self setWantsLayer:YES] before changing the layer background colour.