One App Delegate, Two Windows

Question

I have a simple Cocoa app. It has two windows, each in a separate xib file:

MainMenu.xib
SecondaryWindow.xib

I have an AppDelegate class, which has a reference to the window in MainMenu.xib. I'm trying to make it have a reference to the window in SecondaryWindow.xib. I'm confused about how to do this. I have made an outlet, as such:

@interface AppDelegate : NSObject <NSApplicationDelegate>

@property (assign) IBOutlet NSWindow *window;
@property (assign) IBOutlet NSWindow *secondaryWindow;

@end

Here's the implementation:

@implementation AppDelegate

@synthesize window = _window;
@synthesize secondaryWindow = _secondaryWindow;


- (void)applicationDidFinishLaunching:(NSNotification *)aNotification {
    [NSBundle loadNibNamed:@"SecondaryWindow" owner:self];
    NSLog(@"_window = %@", _window);
    NSLog(@"_secondaryWindow = %@", _secondaryWindow);
}

@end

_secondaryWindow is always (null)

I've add an outlet from in SecondaryWindow.xib connection the second window to the outlet in AppDelegate. What else do I need to do in SecondaryWindow.xib to make the connection complete?

EDIT: added [NSBundle loadNibNamed...]

Martin Ullrich Martin Ullrich · Accepted Answer · 2012-07-24T12:56:05

You need to load it... By default, MainWindow.xib is loaded by the framework, which creates its own instance of the app delegate. You should load your second window from your app delegate (try [NSBundle laodNibNamed:@"SecondaryWindow" owner:self]. when you do this, the File's owner will be the application delegate - change the class of the file's owner in interface builder to reflect that and make your connections to it)

One App Delegate, Two Windows

2 Answers