Reusable NSView from .xib

Question

In several parts of my application, I need a control where a user can enter a password. The password field is secure, however I want the user to have the ability to switch the field to plain text and check for typos, etc.

The password field itself is no problem. I subclassed NSSecureTextField to get the behaviour I want. I make it bindable, so I can toggle the display from another control (say, a Checkbox).

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Now, I want to reuse this in multiple places within my application. I can simply use my custom secure text field along side a checkbox everywhere I need this. But I would prefer to group these pieces together into a reusable component.

So I create one using interface builder:

enter image description here

Now, how can I use that in my different windows? I have added a 'Custom View' component to my window, and set it's type appropriately:

enter image description here

But at runtime, I just get an empty space.

1 - Presumably because my view is defined in a .xib - I need to do something in code to load my PasswordView instance from the .xib; but what exactly do I need to do? I'm having trouble working this out.

Specifically:

What is the process / API to load an instance of my view from a .xib? I'm struggling to find the documentation on this.
Once I have loaded an instance of my view, how to insert it in place of my Custom View 'placeholder'? Presumably I need an outlet to my custom view, but then what? Do I just assign my loaded instance to the outlet? Am I supposed to add it as a subview to the outlet?
Where should this logic be happening? Inside init, inside AwakeFromNib?

2 - I know I can use an NSViewController for my custom view (example), and load it that way. But do I really need a view controller just for this? It seems I should just be able to create standalone views and instantiate them easily... But perhaps this is not the Cocoa 'way'? It seems to me that there should be a straightforward way of composing a view from multiple .xibs without needing a controller for every sub view (which may just be a text field, or a button), but I'm just not finding it...

Thank you in advance.

you say it, you need code to load your NSView whenever you need it and place it into the view... nothing you can do out-of-the-box with interface builder — Daij-Djan
@Daij-Djan thank you, but I've added some specifics to my question on my particular sticking points — TheNextman

Anoop Vaidya Anoop Vaidya · Accepted Answer · 2013-02-25T15:43:35

If I am getting from your question - You have an XIB having window that contains a passwordTextField and a checkBox.

And you want this xib window to load everytime you need to show password field.

I would suggest you not to create a window, you can create an NSView with a passwordTextField and a checkBox.

And in all the windows draw an empty view and you can load this xib view onto that, so a single object can be used multiple times.

EDIT:

Here is some sample code how I use to load a labelView on main Window.

#import "AppDelegate.h"

@implementation AppDelegate

@synthesize window = _window;
@synthesize myLabelViewController;

- (void)applicationDidFinishLaunching:(NSNotification *)aNotification{

    myLabelViewController=[[LabelView alloc] initWithNibName:@"LabelView" bundle:nil];
    [_window setContentView:[myLabelViewController view]];

}

@end

LabelView.h

#import <Cocoa/Cocoa.h>

@interface LabelView : NSViewController

@end

LabelView.m

#import "LabelView.h"

@implementation LabelView

- (id)initWithNibName:(NSString *)nibNameOrNil bundle:(NSBundle *)nibBundleOrNil
{
    self = [super initWithNibName:nibNameOrNil bundle:nibBundleOrNil];
    if (self) {
        // Initialization code here.
    }

    return self;
}

@end

Reusable NSView from .xib

1 Answers