I am in the process of writing a menubar icon for an app i'm developing. However the NSStatusBar class does not have a method which would make the icon draggable, via cmd+left mouse drag.
How do you make your menubar icon draggable with Objective-C code?
Thank you :)
You can't currently do it with NSStatusBar. NSMenuExtra will behave the the way you want, but unfortunately it's not part of the part of the public Cocoa API, and from what I understand (I haven't used it myself) takes a bit of a hack to even get it working. Also NSStatusBar will be easier to integrate into an existing application, NSMenuExtra is more of a separate bundle that's loaded by the system.
In my opinion it's not a good idea to depend on private APIs to add major functionality like this to your app. I would stick with NSStatusBar, most users will be used to the behavior from other applications, and with any luck a future version of Mac OS X will allow dragging the icon the same way NSMenuExtra works.
Related
I have a client that adamantly insists on a solution with embedded camera in terms of having a ContentPage with an camera stream and custom buttons and icons, similar to https://github.com/pierceboggan/Moments, or at very least as I understand it seeing as it is a Snapchat clone. And my client wants similar swipe capabilities as to how navigation works in Snapchat.
However, as far as I can tell most of what is utilized in that solution has been deprecated.
I have suggested using the Media Plugin https://github.com/jamesmontemagno/MediaPlugin but they're not satisfied with the camera being pushed on the stack.
I've looked into implementing it natively and using dependency injections but it appears to be an overwhelming amount of work just to implement the most basic functions, particularly for Android's Camera2.
I'm hoping someone can provide me with good news of an easier alternative or an alteration to either Moments or Media Plugin or anything similar that will facilitate the requirements or if my only option is time consuming and complex?
From the code of Moment, you can do what you want to achieve. I did this for iOS.
You will have to create a custom renderer to display the camera page. You will be able to add buttons on top of it.
You could try this example which use custom renderer to add a take photo button and switch camera button on the camera view. Which is able to use on iOS and Android platform.
Main Page:
Camera View with custom button page:
How do you programmatically hide the menu bar in a cocoa app? I would like to make full use of the screen area.
There are two good ways I know of to do this.
1
In Cocoa, you can call the NSMenu class method setMenuBarVisible: to show or hide the menu bar.
As of this writing, the documentation for the NSMenu class does not tell you the following additional information.
The menu bar will only be hidden for the app that calls this method.
The Dock will also be hidden at the same time.
(This is true at least in 10.9 and I have not tested any other versions.)
This is useful when you want to use an app in a full screen way where you have a cover window, a borderless window the size of the screen.
The nice feature of this (as opposed to playing with LSUIElement settings) is that your app can continue to be in the application switcher cycling, as well as visible in the Dock when other apps are active.
This allows users to still activate a full screen app through the Dock or application switcher.
That means you can still use your app's Dock menu to access a preferences window for your app or other features.
This is incredibly convenient if your app is indeed a full screen cover window that runs at a window level higher than other apps, but you still want to make preferences and the ability to quit your app available, and you want your app's visual functionality available when other apps are active.
2
Another option is via NSApplication's method setPresentationOptions: with the arguments from NSApplicationPresentationOptions enum, such as option NSApplicationPresentationHideMenuBar
With this approach be very wary of reading the documentation, although it gives you additional options, and is still app-specific only, you need to know that some of the options are mutually exclusive. There are rules you must follow, or you get nothing but exceptions spewed to the console.
3 There is a 3rd and crappy option. If you have a helper app that is a daemon, you can use it to change your app's LSUIElement state and basically relaunch your app. It's dumb and it takes you out of the app switcher completely, which is great if you really are writing something that should not be there, but that is rare.
There is also the NSView enterFullScreenMode:withOptions: method, although most apps for which that would be appropriate prior to 10.7 should probably use the modern full-screen-window API on 10.7 and later.
I'm beginning some OS X development, I am reasonably accomplished with objective C and UIKIT.
There doesn't seem to be as much online about moving from iOS development to OS X as I thought there would be!
Anyway, I found a decent tutorial over a Ray Wenderlich, that basically explained the differences, (multiple NSWindows, then add to them NSViewControllers etc)
What I would like to do is make a little app that shows info in the status bar (beside the Wifi icon etc)
Basically all it does is have an NSStatusitem that has it's title set with info I want shown (e.g. current song title)
I've got one going and it's working ok so to my question:
I've got Application is agent (UIElement) (so I cannot see a dock icon or menubar)
The code for my little app all resides in the app delegate, now from iOS dev i'm sure this is not the right place for this code, but since the app is a just a status bar item, that has it's title updated I don't think I need a UIViewController etc....
Where should my apps logic go?
Anything online to transition from iOS to OS X?
As you dont have much work with NSWindows and NSViews, you surely dont need NSWindowController or NSViewController.
And I think for this kind of app even your AppDelegate class is enough and best place to put all your logic.
If you have some models then you can break your code upto that, and use it in the AppDelegate itself.
Transition from iOS to OSX.
If you are good in Objective-C then you dont have to worry about few more Cocoa-Controls especially GUI levels, you have full support of Documentation.
Switching between iOS to OSX, vice-versa is not to difficult, but yes if you end up with system level then you need to interact with OSX too.
As stated earlier, if you know Objective-C well, then you should not face major problems. However, there are some differences. I found these following documents helpful:
About Developing for Mac
Migrating from Cocoa Touch
I've been looking at the possibility of reusing some icons of Mac OS X, most notably the green checkmark (similar to the one in Automator).
However, I could not find that icon in any of the application packages or on Apple's documentation.
While I can create the image myself, I'd rather reuse something that's supposed to be already there (if it really is there).
Is there a struct/class that'll help me reuse that particular icon?
The only system-defined icons you can use are available in Interface Builder. There are no other APIs to get those icons. And you cannot simply take icons from other apps, they are copyrighted. If you want that icon you’ll have to make it yourself or license it from someone.
I am just curious how facebook for iPhone application can display a list of icons with the text, then all the icons shake to allow user to change the position of each item.
What kind of control is that, and is there some sample code that do the same thing?
I think it must be standard because it exists as well in home screen of iPhone and iPod app to choose the tab item.
Thank you.
It's not a standard control. It's generally implemented with Core Animation and a rotation transform.
Apple discourages App developers from imitating the spring board, claiming it is confusing for the user. So don't expect standard controls for this.
You can of course implement it yourself with animation. Basic (property based) animation should be sufficient.