NSSecureTextField stringValue is always "(null)"

Question

I have a User class with the properties myUsername and myPassword and I want my text fields in the UI to pass the string values to an AppDelegate method called link which does some background NSTask things and to a method setUserCredentials for the user object.

However, using NSSecureTextField to retrieve the password and then passing it to NSLog to verify always print (null) to screen? NSTextField works fine.

[self.activeUser setMyUsername:self.myUsernameTextField.stringValue];
[self.activeUser setMyPassword:self.myPasswordSecureTextField.stringValue];
NSLog(@"Username: %@", self.activeUser.myUsername);
NSLog(@"Password: %@", self.activeUser.myPassword);

prints:

2013-02-09 23:34:58.491 LabSync[25215:303] Username: jon
2013-02-09 23:34:58.491 LabSync[25215:303] Password: (null)

Totally new to Obj-C, Cocoa and XCode. Couldn't find anything in the docs or a search about this. the Secure field is supposed to be identical to the regular field except it prevents copy, cut and paste and viewing the string (or so I read).

How do I get the password value?

If you try to just output the stringValue, is it still null? As in, if you do NSLog(@"Password string: %@", self.myPasswordSecureTextField.stringValue]); — ryanwils
I just created a blank Mac app with a secure text field and a button to log it, and it worked fine for me. Make sure it's connected in IB (or properly initialized programatically) and your setMyPassword is working (maybe try setting it as "TestPassword" or something) — ryanwils

Tom Hancocks Tom Hancocks · Accepted Answer · 2013-02-10T13:16:59

There is a problem in Interface Builder, where occasionally outlets won't properly connect, often resulting in your outlet being nil. If you were to call stringValue on a nil object it will simply return nil (displayed as (null) in the console).

You might want to first of all check if the outlet is registering in the application, which you can do by:

NSLog(@"password field = %@", self.myPasswordSecureTextField);

Place that somewhere it will be executed AFTER the view has finished loading. If it displays as null, then make sure you have actually connected the text field to your outlet. If you have, then try making a new outlet, or renaming the existing one, and see what happens.

I appreciate that the last suggestion probably seems a little strange, if down right bizarre, but I have seen this problem a few times, and that has been the fix before.

Hope some of this helps.

NSSecureTextField stringValue is always "(null)"

1 Answers