How to populate a NSTableView? - objective-c

Question

I am currently populating an NSTableView through the controller (MVC design pattern) where I initialise one entry of a NSMutableArray in the controller's init method.
How would I:
Populate my NSMutableArray which is an array of Person objects
Should I populate the NSMutableArray in my mainViewDidLoad method of my base class instead? I have not found any examples or resources for this.
Model (Person.m)
#import "Person.h"
#implementation Person
#synthesize name;
#synthesize gender;
- (id)init
{
self = [super init];
if (self) {
name = #"Bob";
gender = #"Unknown";
}
return self;
}
- (void)dealloc
{
self.name = nil;
self.gender = nil;
[super dealloc];
}
#end
Controller (PersonController.m)
#import "PersonController.h"
#import "Person.h"
#implementation PersonController
- (id)init
{
self = [super init];
if (self) {
PersonList = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
// [personList addObject:[[Person alloc] init]];
//
// [personTable reloadData];
}
return self;
}
- (NSInteger)numberOfRowsInTableView:(NSTableView *)tableView {
return [personList count];
}
- (id)tableView:(NSTableView *)tableView objectValueForTableColumn:(NSTableColumn *)tableColumn row:(NSInteger)row {
Person *person = [personList objectAtIndex:row];
NSString *identifier = [tableColumn identifier];
return [person valueForKey:identifier];
}
- (void)dealloc
{
[super dealloc];
}
#end
Base file (Main.h):
#import "Main.h"
#implementation Main
- (void)mainViewDidLoad
{
}
#end

Answer 1

How would I:
Populate my NSMutableArray which is an array of Person objects
Step 1: Create Person objects.
Step 2: Add them to the array.
Your commented-out code does exactly this, although you should probably create the Person separately in case you want to configure it (e.g., set its name).
Should I populate the NSMutableArray in my mainViewDidLoad method of my base class instead?
It doesn't really matter how far in advance of the user seeing your model you create it, but conceptually, it kind of smells to me. It doesn't have anything to do with the view, so I say it belongs in init.
Of course, if the main view—and every view in it—has already loaded, you'll need to tell the table view to reload your data to get it to show any changes you made to the array. Conversely, if you create the model before loading the view, you don't need to reload initially, because the table view will have already asked you for your model once.

Answer 2

Offhand, your commented out code in PersonController looks right. I am assuming that the NSTableRow has the right identifier. The only issue is that your person object is blank, so there are no strings to display. I bet what was happening is that your row was trying to display nil in the first row, and displayed empty strings instead. Does creating your person object, setting the name and gender fields, and then putting it into the NSMutableArray and calling reloadData work (basically, what your commented code does, except now you are providing some actual data to display)?

Answer 3

Well, I am assuming that your controller has an IBOutlet NSTableView *personTable property, which is bound in the interface builder?
Also, in the controller's interface the protocol should be declared, but again, since the controller's implementation has the appropriate methods, I am assuming you have this set up correctly too.
Another detail, have the table columns' identifiers been set correctly in the interface builder? From this example, it is not clear to me how the column identifiers relate to the Person's properties (name and gender). Shouldn't the array personList hold dictionary objects, where a dictionary's object is the person, and the dictionary's key maps to the column identifier that you set in interface builder?
Yet another technicality, a property's name (PersonList) should not start with a capital letter. Just a typo I think, the compiler should at least protest when you try to get the personList, using a lower-case p.