Setting NSWindowController for the root window?

Question

I am playing around with the default XCode template for a cocoa application. By default it has a MainMenu.xib with a window and a menu -- awesome.

I intend to build up my views/subviews in code, so I then create a RootView : NSView and a RootViewController : NSViewController, and bind them up in IB so that my base view in that window is my RootView, controlled by my RootViewController.

Enter my question -- How do I do the same to have a RootWindowController bound to the NSWindow? I had assumed File Owner was the trick, but it's set to NSApplication, which I think is correct. The main goal of NSWindowController in my case is to manage the toolbar based on NSNotifications fired from other services -- is this even the correct design here? I don't think I can do this from my RootViewController since I don't have a window reference, but is that where I should do it instead?

Answer 1

Many times, the application delegate is used as the main/central controller for a non-document-based application. This is a good place. This can be an NSWindowController instance if you like. You can just do away with the existing window in your nib.

Helpful information from the NSWindowController API reference:

You should create a subclass of NSWindowController when you want to augment the default behavior, such as to give the window a custom title or to perform some setup tasks before the window is loaded. In your class’s initialization method, be sure to invoke on super either one of the initWithWindowNibName:... initializers or the initWithWindow: initializer. Which one depends on whether the window object originates in a nib file or is programmatically created.

But if it were me, I wouldn't bother going the NSWindowController route; I'd just add this logic to my app controller (and set it as the app delegate) since this is app-level stuff. No need to add a layer of complexity unless you've got a LOT of main-UI-updating complexity you want to compartmentalize.