So I have an NSTabView that I'm dynamically resizing and populating with NSView subclasses. I would like to design the pages in IB and then instantiate them and add them to the NSTabView. I got the programmatic adding of NSView subclasses down, but I'm not sure how to design them in IB and then instantiate them.
I think I got it. Let me know if this is not a good thing to do.
I made a new xib file, set its File's Owner to be an NSViewController and set its "view" to the custom view I designed in the xib.
Then you just need:
NSViewController *viewController = [[NSViewController alloc] initWithNibName:#"MyViewXib" bundle:nil];
NSView *myView = [viewController view];
#toastie had a really good answer. Mine is similar, but requires a bit more explanation.
Let's say you've already got a controller object and you don't want to instantiate a new controller object just to get at a view, and let's say that you're going to need multiple copies of this view (for example, you've designed a custom UITableViewCell in IB and you want to instantiate it again and again from your UITableViewController). Here's how you would do that:
Add a new IBOutlet to your existing class called "specialView" (or something like that). It may also be helpful to declare it as a (nonatomic, retain) property.
Create a new view xib called "SpecialView", and build the view however you like.
Set the File's Owner of the view to be your controller object.
Set the specialView outlet of File's Owner to be the new view.
Whenever you need a new copy of the view in your code, you can simply do the following.
(gratuitous text to get formatting working properly)
NSNib * viewNib = [[NSNib alloc] initWithNibNamed:#"SpecialView" bundle:nil];
[viewNib instantiateNibWithOwner:self topLevelObjects:nil];
[viewNib release];
NSView * myInstantiatedSpecialView = [[[self specialView] retain] autorelease];
[self setSpecialView:nil];
Yes, it's a bit more code than other ways, but I prefer this method simply because the view shows up in the designated IBOutlet. I retain and autorelease the view, because I like to reset the outlet to nil once I have the view, so it can be immediately ready to load a new copy of the view. I'll also point out that the code for this is even shorter on the iPhone, which requires one line to load the view, and not 3 (as it does on the Mac). That line is simply:
[[NSBundle mainBundle] loadNibNamed:#"SpecialView" owner:self options:nil];
HTH!
Related
I have a UIViewController (StoreViewController), and in it's .xib is a UITableView to the left, and a standard UIView to the right. I have created a UITableViewController called StoreTableController and want to somehow make it the the controller of the table view within the StoreView.xib.
Unfortunately, I need to keep the File Owner of the nib file as StoreViewController. I have a delegate within the StoreTableController which has been set as the StoreViewController (this is for calling certain methods), and within the StoreViewController I have an instance of the StoreTableController.
So far I have tried keeping an outlet of the UITableView within StoreViewController and then doing this:
[self addChildViewController:self.tableController];
[self.tableController setTableView:self.table];
[self.table setDataSource:self.tableController];
[self.table setDelegate:self.tableController];
Where self.table is the outlet, and self.tableController is the instance of the StoreTableController.
However, I do not fully understand how to use UIViewController containment, so this is obviously incorrect.
I have tried variations of this as well, but really don't know what to do.
I have avoided using a UISplitViewController here because not only is the left view larger than the right, but also there are various things I plan to do which mean this must be done in a single .xib file if possible.
Any help is very much appreciated.
First, put a regular UIView instead of a UIScrollView in your .xib. Connect it with an IBOutlet called "tableContentView".
Then, create a new instance of UITableViewController (or your custom class, derived from UITableViewController) in your code, and add its UIView to the tableContentView like so:
- (void)viewDidLoad
{
[super viewDidLoad];
// Add tableView
UITableViewController *someTableViewController = [[UITableViewController alloc] init];
someTableViewController.view.frame = self.tableContentView.bounds;
someTableViewController.view.autoresizingMask = UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleHeight | UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleWidth;
[self.tableContentView addSubview:someTableViewController.view];
}
I have a UIViewController with an UIScrollView in it.
Then I created a new UIView subclass with some properties that I want to programmatically add in this UIScrollView until my data ends.
Something that should look like this picture:
I have read other topics that does that by creating a view and setting its class to the custom view subclass, but I want to do it programmatically and its not working.
how would I do that?
From your image it looks like you're looking to load views from a nib and add them as subviews of your UIScrollView. To do this have a look at the UINib documentation.
You want to create your nib and set it's main view to be an instance of your UIView subclass then load the nib in viewDidLoad of your viewController, and add the nib's views as subivews of your scrollview (which I'm assuming is a subview of your viewController's view).
You can instantiate a nib with instantiateWithOwner:options:.
This method unarchives each object, initializes it, sets its
properties to their configured values, and reestablishes any
connections to other objects
To get the array of views from a nib you do something similar to:
UINib *myNib = [UINib nibWithNibName:#"myNib" bundle:[NSBundle mainBundle]];
NSArray *viewsFromNib = [myNib instantiateWithOwner:nil options:nil];
I'll assume we're inside a UIViewController and we're somewhere in (or after) viewDidLoad. You would then use the array from above and add the views as subviews of your scrollview. You may need to set the frames of these views to place them properly, but that should be trivial.
UIView *aView = [viewsFromNib objectAtIndex:0];
[self.scrollView addSubview:aView];
I hope that sets you in the right direction.
Edit:
If you want more information you may need to read deeper into how nibs work to manage your expectation. Linked with the UINib documentation is the 'Resource Programming Guide' in particular the nib section
André, this can be done with relative ease. make sure to import the class that you want to embed. then to create them with your normal
ClassName *subview=[[ClassName alloc]init];
[subview.view setFrame:CGRectMake(x,y,width,height)];
[self.view addSubview:subview.view];
which will add it to the x,y coordinates you specify with the size specified by your width, height. you can do this in the viewDidLoad or whenever you need them to be created.
Can anyone tell me how (or direct me to info on) displaying a .xib (nib) on another .xib (nib).
How ever I wish to place it so I can programically move it around the main nib sort of like this (which obviously doesn't work)
- (void)drawRect:(NSRect)dirtyRect
{
NSRect customView = NSMakeRect(pos1, pos1, 200, 100);
[[NSBundle mainBundle] loadNibNamed:#"secondXib" owner:self];
NSRectFill (customView);
}
And I wish to do this for Mac OS X (Not iPhone). (By the way using xCode 4 incase it makes a difference)
You can easily load a view from another nib using NSViewController. In your nib you should just set File's Owner's custom class to NSViewController and hook up the view outlet of File's Owner to point to the view you want to load. You can then just do this:
//create an NSViewController and use it to load the nib
NSViewController* vc = [[NSViewController alloc] initWithNibName:#"YourNibName" bundle:nil];
//get the view from the view controller
NSView* loadedView = [vc view];
//release the view controller so we don't leak
[vc release];
//add the view as a subview of your main view
[mainView addSubview:loadedView];
//position the view
[loadedView setFrameOrigin:NSMakePoint(100.0, 100.0)];
You don't need to do anything in drawRect:. The subview will draw itself, and drawRect: will be called automatically if you move the subview.
You should read the View Programming Guide for Cocoa. It is critical to understanding how views work, and it is clear from your question that you do not yet have that understanding.
You should also read the Cocoa Drawing Guide.
Thanks a lot,
Another alternative ( which is basically the non programming way of doing it ), is to add a NSViewController object in your first xib, and set it to you use the nib name that you specify.
In your second xib, don't forget to set the class name in the "custom class" field on the view ( and NSViewController on file's owner ) else that won't work.
I'm making an app that includes the same group of buttons in many different contexts. The buttons send their actions to a different object in each context. I'd like to be able to design a single NSView in IB containing the buttons, and then be able to put copies of that view in many places in my nibs, while maintaining the link, so changes propagate. I'd like to connect each of those instances to different objects, and have the buttons send their actions to whatever object their parent view is connected to.
I thought of creating a subclass of NSView which, when loaded, replaces itself with another view which it loads from a nib file, setting the connected object as File's Owner, but I'm not convinced this is the cleanest method. Here's my implementation of that idea (which -does- work):
#implementation AVNViewFromNib
- (void)awakeFromNib
{
//Load the nib whose name is specified by the "nibFile" key
NSNib* viewNib = [[NSNib alloc] initWithNibNamed:[self valueForKey:#"nibFile"] bundle:[NSBundle mainBundle]];
NSMutableArray* topLevelObjects = [NSMutableArray new];
[viewNib instantiateNibWithOwner:relatedObject topLevelObjects:&topLevelObjects];
//Find our replacement view in that nib
for (id currentObject in topLevelObjects)
{
if ([currentObject isKindOfClass:NSClassFromString(#"AVNReplacementView")])
{
representedView = currentObject;
break;
}
}
//Copy appropriate properties from us to our representedView
[representedView setAutoresizingMask:[self autoresizingMask]];
[representedView setFrame:[self frame]];
[[self superview] addSubview:representedView];
//We were never here. :)
[self removeFromSuperview];
[viewNib autorelease];
}
#end
#implementation AVNReplacementView
#end
Is that the cleanest method? Is there a standard way of going about this?
You can create the view with the buttons in it in IB, then drag that view into the Library window and save it. The catch is, there's no “link” between them; editing one won't change anything about the others.
If you want that, you'll need to make a subclass of NSView instead.
I thought of creating a subclass of NSView which, when loaded, replaces itself with another view which it loads from a nib file, setting the connected object as File's Owner, but I'm not convinced this is the cleanest method.
That could work. I don't think that's really all that dirty; the reason init methods return an object is that they explicitly can return a different object. However, I'm not sure how you'd handle views of different frames, since the loaded view will have whatever frame it has in the nib.
Another way would be to load the buttons from a nib, but you'd have to adjust their frames before adding them as subviews.
I'm designing a simple Quiz application. The application needs to display different types of QuizQuestions. Each type of QuizQuestion has a distinct behavior and UI.
The user interface will be something like this:
alt text http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/907284/Picture%201.png
I would like to be able to design each type of QuizQuestion in Interface Builder.
For example, a MultipleChoiceQuizQuestion would look like this:
alt text http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/907284/Picture%202.png
Originally, I planned to make the QuizQuestion class a UIViewController. However, I read in the Apple documentation that UIViewControllers should only be used to display an entire page.
Therefore, I made my QuizController (which manages the entire screen e.g. prev/next buttons) a UIViewController and my QuizQuestion class a subclass of UIView.
However, to load this UIView (created in IB), I must[1] do the following in my constructor:
//MultipleQuizQuestion.m
+(id)createInstance {
UIViewController *useless = [[UIViewController alloc] initWithNibName:#"MultipleQuizQuestion" bundle:nil];
UIView *view = [[useless.view retain] autorelease];
[useless release];
return view; // probably has a memory leak or something
}
This type of access does not seem to be standard or object-oriented. Is this type of code normal/acceptable? Or did I make a poor choice somewhere in my design?
Thankyou,
edit (for clarity): I'd like to have a separate class to control the multipleChoiceView...like a ViewController but apparently that's only for entire windows. Maybe I should make a MultipleChoiceViewManager (not controller!) and set the File's Owner to that instead?
You're on the right track. In your QuizController xib, you can create separate views by dragging them to the xib's main window rather than to the QuizController's main view. Then you can design each view you need according to your question types. When the user taps next or previous, remove the previous view and load the view you need based on your question type using -addSubview on the view controller's main view and keep track of which subview is currently showing. Trying something like this:
[currentView removeFromSuperView];
switch(questionType)
{
case kMultipleChoice:
[[self view] addSubview:multipleChoiceView];
currentView = multipleChoiceView;
break;
case kOpenEnded:
[[self view] addSubview:openEndedView];
currentView = openEndedView;
break;
// etc.
}
Where multipleChoice view and openEndedView are UIView outlets in your QuizController connected to the views you designed in IB. You may need to mess with the position of your view within the parent view before you add it to get it to display in the right place, but you can do this with calls to -setBounds/-setFrame and/or -setCenter on the UIView.
Yeah, IB on iPhone really wants File's Owner to be a UIViewController subclass, which makes what you want to a bit tricky. What you can do is load the nib against an existing UIViewController instead of instantiating one using the nib:
#implementation QuizController
- (void) loadCustomViewFromNib:(NSString *)viewNibName {
(void)[[NSBundle mainBundle] loadNibNamed:viewNibName owner:self options:nil];
}
#end
That will cause the runtime to load the nib, but rather than creating a new view controller to connect the actions and outlets it will use what you pass in as owner. Since we pass self in the view defined in that nib will be attached to whatever IBOutlet you have it assigned to after the call.