How to hookup a MainWindow.xib to an empty project - objective-c

Beginning with XCode 4.2, when you create an empty project using XCode 4.2, a MainWindow.xib is no longer created and hooked up for you. I've found an article that describes how to do this and I've done it and it works, but if this process has taught me anything, it has shown me that I have no idea how main(), AppDelegate and the MainWindow.xib exist together.
http://www.trappers.tk/site/2011/06/16/mainwindow-xib/
Why is MainWindow.xib class updated to UIApplication?
Why is an object placed on the xib, and then AppDelegate class is selected for the class?
Why is the delegate outlet of the File Owner connected the AppDelegate object?
Why is the the window outlet of the AppDelegate to the Window?
why does - (BOOL) application:didFinishLaunchingWithOptions: need to be commented out.
I've researched around but, I'm still not 100% sure how everything is loaded up once the application starts, and why this is setup is needed just to have a MainWindow. I have a feeling though that I should probably get all these concepts down to continue to advance in iOS development.

Why is MainWindow.xib class updated to UIApplication?
At the lowest level, nib files are loaded with the method -[UINib instantiateWithOwner:options:]. The File's Owner in a nib file is a placeholder. In Xcode, it isn't a specific object yet. It will resolve to an actual object when the nib file is loaded. Its purpose is to relate, via outlets and actions, objects inside of the nib with the object that loaded the nib. The object passed as the "instantiateWithOwner:" parameter of that UINib method is what the File's Owner placeholder in Interface Builder will resolve to.
UIApplication loads the nib file specified in the info.plist and passes 'self' for the owner parameter when loading the nib file.
By setting the class name, you're just hinting to the tools so that they can suggest the set of actions and outlets you're allowed to establish.
Why is an object placed on the xib, and then AppDelegate class is selected for the class?
When you place the generic object in the xib and change its class to 'AppDelegate' you're telling Xcode to instantiate an instance of 'AppDelegate' when the file is loaded.
Why is the delegate outlet of the File Owner connected the AppDelegate object?
UIApplication has a 'delegate' that it delegates responsibility to and notifies when interesting events occur. When you make this connection, you're setting the delegate property of the application to be the instance that you specified above. From that point on, this instance will receive the delegate messages from UIApplication, like -application:didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:.
Why is the the window outlet of the AppDelegate to the Window?
Outlets are a way to refer to objects inside of a xib. They cause properties or instance variables to be set to refer to the object pointed to by the outlet. When you make this outlet, you're making it so that the app delegate instance you created above has a way to refer to the window that's also created when the xib is loaded.
why does - (BOOL) application:didFinishLaunchingWithOptions: need to be commented out.
It represents the code-focused way to do some of the same things that are happening in the xib, and if they were both present, they would be overwriting each other.

The object placed on the XIB file is the AppDelegate because it delegates all connections in the Interface Builder, meaning if you write a method that when a button is clicked it displays text, that method would be connected to either the App Delegate or the File's Owner, preferably the delegate. The File's Owner, since it is the UIApplication, connects to the delegate because it assigns that certain object to be the App Delegate. Sorry that I couldn't answer the rest of your questions, they didn't really make sense.
Hope this helps

Related

AppDelegate instantiated last on launch

I'm very comfortable with writing iOS apps, but OS X unexpectedly seems somewhat alien.
Here's the question upfront (read on for context):
When my application launches using the .xib set in the Main Interface field under the deployment info of my apps target, why does the AppDelegate get instantiated after the ViewControllers?
Context (no pun intended):
The reason I ask is because I'm using Core Data (spare me any heckling for this decision), and typically you keep a pointer to the MOC (Managed Object Context) in AppDelegate. One of my controllers is trying to get this MOC instance variable but the AppDelegate instance isn't around yet and therefore my app doesn't present data just after launch.
The AppDelegate and the two ViewControllers are in the .xib. The VCs are hooked to views inside a split view. They're trying to use the MOC in viewDidLoad to make queries. They are accessing the AppDelegate like this:
let delegate = NSApplication.sharedApplication().delegate as AppDelegate
let moc = delegate.managedObjectContext
This will crash as the .delegate property of the sharedApplication() returns nil.
I tried making an NSWindowController from the .xib in applicationDidFinishLaunching and removing the .xib from the Main Interface field, but then applicationDidFinishLaunching doesn't get called at all.
I've ensured that all the connections in IB for from the Application and the Files Owner (NSApplcation) delegate IBOutlets to the AppDelegate have been made.
UPDATE - 31/03/15
Stephen Darlington's answer below offers a good solution for my/this case. And as I understand it's actually better to setup the MOC in the way he's suggested.
If a correct answer arrives that explains why the AppDelegate is being instantiated at some later time in the launch process, I'll mark it correct instead of Stephen's. Thanks Stephen!
The "easy" solution would be to have managedObjectContext create a MOC if one doesn't exist (i.e., change it from a property to a method). That way which ever code gets there first the stack will be available.
(I'll spare the lectures about both creating the Core Data stack in the app delegate and accessing the app delegate like that!)
Here's another option without having to subclass NSApplication:
Don't put your view controllers in the .xib that you set as the Main Interface, just have the Main Menu (menu bar), AppDelegate and Font Manager in there.
Then make your view controllers in other .xibs.
Then in the applicationDidFinishLaunching method init your view controllers from their .xib files.
I also faced this issue with setting up Parse. To get around it, I simply subclassed NSApplication and set it as the Principle class in the Info.plist. In your NSApplication subclass, override the init methods and initialise Parse or anything else you need to, there.

Change of AppDelegate class on OSX

I have a cocoa project on OSX. For that, I had to change the class of the Appdelegate.
I did this in two steps: First I implemented the new appdelegate class (I didn't implement the NSApplicationDelegate protocol yet) and checked if it worked and compiled. In the new class I already implemented the applicationDidFinishLaunching method. Everything was still fine!
After that I changed the protocol implementation. I removed the prorocol from the old Appdelegate and inserted it in the new one. Even after this step everything seemed to be fine! The application compiled and worked as it should. But as I was somewhat sceptical, I inserted log statements in the new and the old class.
After inserting this, I had to see, that the application still used the old appdelegate!
Obviously, there is something where the name of the old appdelegate is still known! But where is that? Or do I have to do something else to reach my goal? Does anyone know what I have to do?
There are two things that have to happen: 1) an instance of your new class has to be instantiated. 2) That instance needs to be assigned to the delegate property of the application object (instance of NSApplication or a subclass).
In a typical Mac app, both of those things are done in the MainMenu NIB. That NIB contains a freeze-dried instance of the appropriate class. If you were to build the NIB from scratch, you would drag an "Object" (blue cube) from the Object library to the NIB document. By default, that would represent an instance of NSObject. You would then select it and bring up the Identity inspector where you would change its class to your new app delegate class. Since you're not building the NIB from scratch, there's already an Object in the NIB. You can select it and change its class.
The other step, assigning it to the delegate property of the application object, is done by connecting the delegate outlet of the placeholder for the application object in the NIB to the object. Again, since you're not building the NIB from scratch, that's already done.
So, in summary, you just need to change the class of the app delegate object in the MainMenu NIB.
Update: Here's a screen shot of what you have to change:

Could not connect the action : to target of class NSApplication

I come from a Cocoa touch background and there's one point I'm stuck on, I'm trying to create a ViewController from scratch and connect objects in my xib to actions in my new ViewController. I changed the file's owner to my ViewController and added outlets, and the compiler seems to be happy with what I've done.
But when I run my application, the connections seem to fail with: 'Could not connect the action start: to target of class NSApplication,' but where is this NSApplication reference hiding? To the best of my knowledge my ViewController has a class of NSViewController.
ViewController : NSViewController
I changed the file's owner to my ViewController and added outlets, and the compiler seems to be happy with what I've done.
Sure, the compiler won't care -- this is a run-time error. It sounds like you're working in your MainMenu.xib file. That file is loaded by the application object. Even though you changed the type of File's Owner in the .xib, the object that's loading the .xib is still the application.
You'll probably want to create a separate .xib file for your view controller to load. You change the type of File's Owner in that file to you view controller class! hook things up to File's Owner, and it should work fine since your view controller really will be the object that's loading the file.

bind the managedObjectContext outlet for a controller using Interface Builder?

I'm trying to set up a fairly simple view that presents a table to the user. This table is connected to an Array Controller, which I want to use to retrieve records from Core Data. For some reason, I can't seem to connect the 'managedObjectContext' outlet to anything else in my app. When I created my project, there was a property generated in my app delegate which returns the MOC I need, but I can't hook it up in Interface Builder, even after prepending "IBOutlet" to the declaration. Image below showing the available connection on both ends:
http://yada.im/uploads/image/screenshot/1108/7efebc90ca7187a537da9ae003dd5f3e.png
I'm sure that I'm missing some simple step here but I can't tell what piece of glue code I'm supposed to write that will allow me to hook this up more easily. For reference, I've tried dragging a line from the controller's moc outlet to every single source I could think of, and changed the "File's Owner" class to that of my application. Stumped here!
Typically in the template provided by XCode the managedObjectContext comes along with AppDelegate.
You have to bind the managedObjectContext reference of the array controller to the managedObjectContext in AppDelegate.
For this you have to make an object of AppDelegate inside the xib i.e., if its not already present.(Drag an object placeholder from your object library and make its class as AppDelegate)
This makes AppDelegate visible for binding inside that xib.
Next step is actually binding the managedObjectContext. Select your array controller and go to bindings inspector. In the parameters section select App Delegate from the drop down and check on "Bind to".
Fill the "Model Key Path" field with self.managedObjectContext. Now you will find the connection in the connections inspector also.
UPDATE:
The process of creating a new AppDelegate object is to be done only if it is not already present in the main nib file (but the stub generated always has the AppDelegate object in the main nib file).
For a non main nib file, if we follow the above approach, a new AppDelegate object will be created which won't be the NSApplication's delegate. Even though this can be solved by connecting delegate outlet of the application object proxy provided in each nib, the AppDelegate object still won't be the same.
The result is two different managedObjectContext talking to the same store. Although this might appear to work properly when the changes are saved at each step, this is not what we want.
To get the right AppDelegate object, i.e. the one used in the main nib file:
-instead of creating a new AppDelegate object, bind the managedObjectContext of the array controller directly through the application to its delegate. In other words the object to bind to will be the application object and the key path used will be self.delegate.managedObjectContext.
The way to add objects of your entity depends on the specific logic you want to implement.
The generic and easy solution would be, binding the fields for input to the array controller like you might have done for the table and then hooking up the array controller methods to the buttons inside the sheet.
Another option is sub-classing NSArrayController and over-riding the super class methods like add: to write your code (for opening your slide sheet maybe) before calling the super class method, [super add:sender] . Don't forget to specify this sub-class of NSArrayController as the class of your array controller in the xib.

Files owner and nsapplication, appdelegate

In the apple docs it states that nsapplication is the file owner of the main nib. Is this just set up by the template or must the first nib to be loaded, be loaded in this way?
Also, I read through the rest of the posts about the file owner and something still confuses me. Can IBoutlets only point to objects, if the Iboutlet is a property of the nibs file owner, and the object is found within that nib? Why does the nib even need to know the class of it's owner In addition to the object? What is enabled or disable by knowing or not knowing this?
One more, where does the appdelegate fit into this picture? Can you even change the app delegate?
Thanks :-)
Xcode's application template sets up MainMenu.xib to be loaded with NSApp as its owner. This is done by the NSApplicationMain function. NSApplicationMain looks up the NSMainNibFile key in the app's Info.plist file. If it finds that key, it uses the corresponding value as the name of the nib file to load. Xcode's app template sets NSMainNibFile to MainMenu.
It doesn't have to be done that way. You can change or delete the NSMainNibFile entry in Info.plist. You could even not use NSApplicationMain. Instead you could initialize NSApp yourself (by calling [NSApplication sharedApplication]), and then create your user interface programmatically or by loading nibs, and then call [NSApp run].
The nib loader can only connect outlets to objects in the nib it's loading, or to File's Owner, First Responder, or Application. The outlet itself doesn't have to be on File's Owner; it can be on any object in the nib.
When you set the class of File's owner, Interface Builder scans your source code to find the declaration of that class. That's how it knows which outlets and actions File's Owner should have.
The app delegate is generally the top-level controller for the application. It is notified when a variety of application-level events occur. Look at the NSApplicationDelegate Protocol Reference.
In Xcode's app template, the application delegate is an object in MainMenu.xib (you can have non-user-interface objects in a nib), which is wired to File Owner's delegate outlet. You can modify the class however you want. You can even delete the object from the nib entirely. But any serious app will need an app delegate.