How do I get NSTextFinder to show up - objective-c

Question

I have a mac cocoa app with a webview that contains some text. I would like to search through that text using the default find bar provided by NSTextFinder. As easy as this may seem reading through the NSTextFinder class reference, I cannot get the find bar to show up. What am I missing?
As a sidenote:
- Yes, I tried setting findBarContainer to a different view, same thing. I reverted back to the scroll view to eliminate complexity in debugging
- performTextFinderAction is called to perform the find operation
**App Delegate:**
- (void)applicationDidFinishLaunching:(NSNotification *)aNotification
{
self.textFinderController = [[NSTextFinder alloc] init];
self.webView = [[STEWebView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0, self.window.frame.size.width, 200)];
[[self.window contentView] addSubview:self.webView];
[self.textFinderController setClient:self.webView];
[self.textFinderController setFindBarContainer:self.webView.enclosingScrollView];
[[self.webView mainFrame] loadHTMLString:#"sample string" baseURL:NULL];
}
- (IBAction)performTextFinderAction:(id)sender {
[self.textFinderController performAction:[sender tag]];
}
**STEWebView**
#interface STEWebView : WebView <NSTextFinderClient>
#end
#implementation STEWebView
- (id)initWithFrame:(NSRect)frame
{
self = [super initWithFrame:frame];
if (self) {
}
return self;
}
- (void)drawRect:(NSRect)dirtyRect
{
// Drawing code here.
}
- (NSUInteger) stringLength {
return [[self stringByEvaluatingJavaScriptFromString:#"document.documentElement.textContent"] length];
}
- (NSString *)string {
return [self stringByEvaluatingJavaScriptFromString:#"document.documentElement.textContent"];
}

Answer 1

In my tests, WebView.enclosingScrollView was null.
// [self.textFinderController setFindBarContainer:self.webView.enclosingScrollView];
NSLog(#"%#", self.webView.enclosingScrollView);
Using the following category on NSView, it is possible to find the nested subview that extends NSScrollView, and set that as the container, allowing the NSTextFinder to display beautifully within a WebView
#interface NSView (ScrollView)
- (NSScrollView *) scrollView;
#end
#implementation NSView (ScrollView)
- (NSScrollView *) scrollView {
if ([self isKindOfClass:[NSScrollView class]]) {
return (NSScrollView *)self;
}
if ([self.subviews count] == 0) {
return nil;
}
for (NSView *subview in self.subviews) {
NSView *scrollView = [subview scrollView];
if (scrollView != nil) {
return (NSScrollView *)scrollView;
}
}
return nil;
}
#end
And in your applicationDidFinishLaunching:aNotification:
[self.textFinderController setFindBarContainer:[self scrollView]];

Answer 2

To get the Find Bar to appear (as opposed to the default Find Panel), you simply have to use the setUsesFindBar: method.
In your case, you'll want to do (in your applicationDidFinishLaunching:aNotification method):
[textFinderController setUsesFindBar:YES];
//Optionally, incremental searching is a nice feature
[textFinderController setIncrementalSearchingEnabled:YES];

Answer 3

Finally got this to show up.
First set your NSTextFinder instances' client to a class implementing the <NSTextFinderClient> protocol:
self.textFinder.client = self.textFinderController;
Next, make sure your NSTextFinder has a findBarContainer set to the webView category described by Michael Robinson, or get the scrollview within the webView yourself:
self.textFinder.findBarContainer = [self.webView scrollView];
Set the find bar position above the content (or wherever you wish):
[self.webView scrollView].findBarPosition = NSScrollViewFindBarPositionAboveContent;
Finally, tell it to show up:
[self.textFinder performAction:NSTextFinderActionShowFindInterface];
It should show up in your webView:
Also, not sure if it makes a difference, but I have the NSTextFinder in the XIB, with a referencing outlet:
#property (strong) IBOutlet NSTextFinder *textFinder;
You may also be able to get it by simply initing it like normal: self.textFinder = [[NSTextFinder alloc] init];