NSOutlineView: Cells are initially too narrow

Question

I did a little demo to isolate a problem I faced in a Project.

When I start the Application, the Cells of the NSOutlineView are too narrow for the text:

Initial View

Then I resize the window with the mouse, making it even narrower than the contents of the NSOutlineView:

Narrowed View

When I now enlarge the window again, the problem is cured. From now on the outline works as expected:

Re-Enlarged View

This is the main method of my AppDelegate:

- (void)applicationDidFinishLaunching:(NSNotification *)notification {
    NSRect frame = NSMakeRect(0., 0., 400., 300.);
    NSUInteger styleMask = NSTitledWindowMask | NSClosableWindowMask | NSResizableWindowMask;
    _mainWindow = [[NSWindow alloc] initWithContentRect:frame styleMask:styleMask backing:NSBackingStoreBuffered defer:NO];
    _mainWindow.title = @"Outline";

    NSScrollView *leftScrollView = [[NSScrollView alloc] init];
    leftScrollView.hasVerticalScroller = YES;
    leftScrollView.hasHorizontalScroller = NO;
    leftScrollView.drawsBackground = NO;
    leftScrollView.autoresizingMask = NSViewWidthSizable | NSViewHeightSizable;
    _mainWindow.contentView = leftScrollView;

    NSOutlineView *outlineView = [[NSOutlineView alloc] init];
    NSTableColumn *outlineColumn = [[NSTableColumn alloc] initWithIdentifier:@"Menu Item"];
    [outlineView addTableColumn:outlineColumn];
    outlineView.outlineTableColumn = outlineColumn;
    outlineView.selectionHighlightStyle = NSTableViewSelectionHighlightStyleSourceList;
    outlineView.autoresizingMask = NSViewWidthSizable | NSViewHeightSizable;
    outlineView.headerView = nil;
    _outlineDataSourceAndDelegate = [[MROutlineDataSourceAndDelegate alloc] init];
    outlineView.dataSource = _outlineDataSourceAndDelegate;
    outlineView.delegate = _outlineDataSourceAndDelegate;
    leftScrollView.documentView = outlineView;

    [_mainWindow makeKeyAndOrderFront:NSApp];
}

Can anyone please explain that odd behavior?

I already tried using initWithFrame instead of init with a reasonable large rectangle for both the scroll view and the outline view. That didn't change anything. I also tried setting outlineView.frame before adding it to the scroll view, afterwards and after makeKeyAndOrderFront. That was not helpful, either. — Michael Manner

Michael Manner Michael Manner · Accepted Answer · 2012-08-21T19:10:51

I don't know whether that is the most elegant solution, but at least it works. I added the following single line after creating the NSTableColumn:

    outlineColumn.width = SIDEBAR_WIDTH_DEFAULT;

That's it. Took me almost a day to figure out :(

NSOutlineView: Cells are initially too narrow

2 Answers