OK, so this is my situation :
I've got a View (an NSBox actually) with variable bounds (I'm changing them programmatically)
Within the NSBox we've got another view (an NSTextField).
What I want to do is to be able to position the subview, relatively to the superview, programmatically.
E.g. :
Center
Top Left
Top Right
Bottom Left
Bottom Right
Is there any Cocoa-friendly way this could be achieved?
Any ideas?
You will need to calculate the frame of the subview relative to the NSBox and then use subview.frame = rect;. There is no shortcut way around this I'm afraid.
You might have a look at NSLayoutConstraint (apple docs) -- and see my answer here for an example of using this class. It would be pretty easy to make a convenience method for setting the constraints to "top-right" or "center" or whatever.
Related
For a MacOS app, I have a Window, containing an NSView; into that view, I want to add a subview with a constant size and height.
When loading the subview programmatically by [myView addSubview:mySubview], I want the NSView *myView that is hosting the subview to change in size so it accomodates the subview, and the window to change in size accordingly; so that the edges of the NSView inside that Window keep the same distance to their surroundings in the Window as before. How do I achieve that most efficiently and which properties do I have to specify in IB to make that work? Do I have to adjust the size of myView and of the Window programmatically by hand or can I achieve this in a more beautiful way?
There are multiple ways to achieve this.
A simple one is to set autoresizingMask the value(s) you want.
The mask you can see in Interface Builder are represented by predefined numbers (NSAutoresizingMaskOptions) that you will combine with bit operation
view.autoresizingMask = NSViewMaxXMargin | NSViewMaxYMargin;
which is simmilar to Autoresizing like in this screenshot of IB
The checkmark on Layout Translates Mask Into Constraints has to be made, either in IB or programmatically so they are used as constraints.
view.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = YES;
The relative positioning to its enclosing superview is defined when the view is instanced with -initWithFrame: with the given frame or with the values set in IB when it creates an instance and inits the UI element via -initWithCoder: .
Be aware this does not stop the autolayout mechanism of IB to warn you that your desired coordinates, sizes and constraints are maybe clashing with constraints.
As suggested by #Willeke, I needed to understand and apply Autolayout. To make it work in IB, I set the autoresizingMask of my subview to stick to all for sides and automatically adjust width and height. Even though it can be done completely in IB, I think programmatically this would be
subview.autoresizingMask = NSViewWidthSizable | NSViewHeightSizeable;
As pointed out by #Ol Sen in his answer, Translates Mask Into Constraints also has to be activated.
To arrange the elements inside that subview that is added programmatically as described in the opening post, I rely on nested stackviews and resize them instead of resizing the parent.
The only problem left is to correctly adjust the frame of the subview to match the parent view before adding it. If this step is left out, the contraints the autoresizing mask of the subview is translated into when adding it will result in the correct resizing behaviour, but wrong margins. The essential code looks like this:
MySubViewController *subViewController = [[MySubViewController alloc] init];
subViewController.view.frame = superView.bounds; // Correct the margins
[superView addSubview:subViewController.view];
I have two NSPopovers, both of which are set up exactly the same (just linking a custom NSView from IB). Both pop up just fine, but one appears to offset the content by about 20px.
This NSPopover is (properly) not padding the content...
but this one adds about 20px from the ride side.
Here are the two views laid out in IB
As you can see, the search bar should be pinned to the right side like it is the left, but for some reason it is not. At first I thought it was a contraints issue, but after messing around with them for a while I can confirm it is not.
Any clue whats up?
EDIT: Decided to subclass the view and fill its rect, got some very strange results! The view appears to be offset. I have no clue why this is...
From here, this caught my eye (emphasis mine):
The principle circumstance in which you should not call
setTranslatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints: is when you are not the
person who specifies a view’s relation to its container. For example,
an NSTableRowView instance is placed by NSTableView. It might do this
by allowing the autoresizing mask to be translated into constraints,
or it might not. This is a private implementation detail. Other views
on which you should not call
setTranslatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints: include an
NSTableCellView, a subview of NSSplitView, an NSTabViewItem’s view, or
the content view of an NSPopover, NSWindow, or NSBox. For those
familiar with classic Cocoa layout: If you would not call
setAutoresizingMask: on a view in classic style, you should not call
setTranslatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints: under autolayout.
Does it apply to you?
if you have an outlet to your content view, you should be able to force it into place with:
[contentView setFrame:[[contentView superview]bounds]];
or more modernly I guess...
contentView.frame = contentView.superview.bounds;
Proplem solved, but I still don't exactly know why it required solving. The NSPopovers content view (or at least mine) requires an origin point of X: 13, Y: 13. For some reason, only one of my views was getting this value.
To solve this, I subclassed NSView and overrode the setFrame method forcing its x and y to always be 13, 13
-(void)setFrame:(NSRect)frameRect {
[super setFrame:NSMakeRect(13, 13, frameRect.size.width, frameRect.size.height)];
}
So, this is my case :
One NSBox
Inside this, there is an NSTextField
What I want to do is :
Programmatically manage to position the textField in the box (e.g. top left, top right, center, etc).
I've tried doing it with NSTextField's bounds or frame, but I don't think I can make it...
Any ideas?
If I understood your question correctly, do you just want to make sure the NSTextField is always in the top left, center, or whatever, when the view is resized? If so, then you can use struts and springs for that. If you just want to move the text field, then changing the frame should work. Ex, if you have a text field called foo, you can set the whole frame:
[foo setFrame: CGRectMake(desiredX,desiredY,foo.bounds.size.width,foo.bounds.size.height)];
or just its origin (effectively repositioning it):
[foo setFrameOrigin: CGPointMake(desiredX, desiredY)];
For interest's sake, there is also a minilanguage for positioning in Cocoa called Visual Format Language. It lets you specify relationships such as:
|-50-[orchidBox]-50-|
Which means the child element should be indented 50px from it's superview on each side.
What I need may be pretty basic, but I'm definitely not sure as to how to proceed (I've done that before but none of my choices seem that Cocoa-friendly).
Ok, let's say we've got 2 NSViews - one next to the other:
The one on the left serves as a menu.
The one on the right will show a NSView (from a different XIB perhaps?) depending on the selection on the menu.
My questions :
How should I go about loading the different NSViews into the rightmost NSView?
How do I make sure that the subview (the one currently active) is properly resized when the window is resized?
rdelmar's solution should work, but another approach, which may be simpler, is to use an NSTabView to handle switching between the content views. You can hide NSTabView's tabs using the settings pane in interface builder, or by calling [self.tabView setTabViewType:NSNoTabsNoBorder]. I'd probably use a table view for the left side. When the user selects a row, you do something like:
-(void)tableViewSelectionDidChange:(NSNotification *)notification
{
[self.tabView selectTabViewItemAtIndex:[self.menuTableView selectedRow]];
}
The NSTabView can/will take care of properly resizing its content views as long as you've set up its and its content views' autoresizing masks (springs and struts) properly.
You should be able to create a custom view in IB that looks like your yellow view, and set its resizing behavior to expand in both directions with window resizing. Then, when you get your new view (by just referencing one you already have or loading a new xib), add it as a subview of the custom view, and set its frame to that of the custom view. I think that views resize their subviews by default, so it should resize correctly with the custom view.
Afternoon, I have a UIImageView that I progmatically add to the window. Infact I have multiple UIImageViews that do so and when I click on any specific UIImageView I want it to become 'top-dog' so to say and be drawn over all other objects on the screen. Basically like the priority drawing for MSWindows operating systems when it comes to their windows. I've scoured all the options built in for UIImageViews when it comes to layering but I cannot seem to find any! I know it exists because in UIBuilder there is a command for sending back/front toBack/toFront. How do I access these progmatically?
Edit*
Also I fear that you might have to access the order in which the subViews are pushed into the 'subView stack' and manually move these around to achieve the result that I want and if so, how would I go about doing this?
Edit2*
Perhapse these are the functions I'm looking for?
bringSubviewToFront
sendSubviewToBack
exchangeSubviewAtIndex
Does this allow for easy Index shuffling?
UIView class has bringSubviewToFront: and sendSubviewToBack: for changing subviews z-order (see "Managing the View Hierarchy" section in class reference for more).