Xcode single window, display custom view from xib file

Question

I'm creating an OSX application, which has one window. This window contains a single view, which presents different views throughout usage.

My current approach:

In the default MainMenu.xib, I have created an outlet for a custom view in the default generated window (which is the window I will be using). Let's call it MainView.
I created a view controller, with a xib file. In the xib, I created a view and an outlet for it. Let's call it CustomView1. I will later have multiple views in this view controller.
In AppDelegate.h I imported the view controller, and assigned it as so: @property (strong, nonatomic) MasterViewController *masterViewController;
In AppDelegate.m in applicationDidFinishLaunching I attempt to display the custom view: _MainView = _masterViewController.CustomView1;

Currently this results in an empty window. I suspect I am going about this the wrong way. What is the best way to do this?

maybe its will help you stackoverflow.com/questions/5249507/… — Febri Valentino

MacUserT MacUserT · Accepted Answer · 2015-01-17T16:38:05

Your mistake is that you didn't initially displayed your first view. Here is the way I learned how to swap views in and out of a window. Whether it is the best way, is not up to me. The difference with your approach is that you should decouple the views from your window. There might be better ways, but the following approach is officially taught.

Use your mainmenu.xib als the window controller. Drop a box in the window and set the box border to None. You will have an invisible box that will be the container of your views.

Create as many viewcontrollers as you want to have different views. This by, of course, creating a new class as a subclass of NSViewController. In your main class (perhaps appDelegate, but it can be some other class) you at least create an IBOutlet of NSBox (the box you droppend in the main window) and an array of viewcontrollers. The later will contain all the views you want to display.

Here is an easy sample to show you how it works:

The appDelegate.h contains these declarations:

@interface AppDelegate : NSObject <NSApplicationDelegate>


@property (weak) IBOutlet NSButton *swapViewButton;
@property (weak) IBOutlet NSBox *viewBox;
@property NSMutableArray *viewControllers;
@property NSUInteger currentView;

-(IBAction)swapViewOnButtonclick:(id)sender;
-(void)displayViewController:(NSViewController *)vc;

@end

The appDelegate.m contains these methods:

#import "AppDelegate.h"
#import "FirstViewController.h"
#import "SecondViewController.h"

@interface AppDelegate ()

@property (weak) IBOutlet NSWindow *window;
@end

@implementation AppDelegate

@synthesize viewControllers;
@synthesize currentView;

-(id)init
{
    self = [super init];
    if(self)
    {
        viewControllers = [[NSMutableArray alloc]init];

        NSViewController *vc;

        vc = [[SecondViewController alloc]init];
        [viewControllers addObject:vc];

        vc = [[FirstViewController alloc]init];
        [viewControllers addObject:vc];
    }

    NSLog(@"The number of views in the view controller array is: %ld.\n", [viewControllers count]);
    return self;
}

-(void)displayViewController:(NSViewController *)vc
{
    NSWindow *w = [_viewBox window];
    BOOL ended = [w makeFirstResponder:w];
    if(!ended)
    {
        NSBeep();
        return;
    }

    NSView *v = [vc view];
    [_viewBox setContentView:v];
}


-(IBAction)swapViewOnButtonclick:(id)sender
{
    if(!currentView)
    {
        currentView++;
    }else
    {
        currentView = 0;
    }
    NSLog(@"Current view is: %ld.\n", currentView);
    NSViewController *vc = [viewControllers objectAtIndex:currentView];
    [self displayViewController:vc];
}

-(void)awakeFromNib
{
    currentView = 0;
    [self displayViewController:[viewControllers objectAtIndex:currentView]];
}

@end

The view controllers are similar and just have an initializer in the sample. I droppend a text label on the view with the text "first/second view". Of course, this is just an example how view swapping works. You can make it as complicated as necessary for your app. Hope this helps.

MacUserT

Xcode single window, display custom view from xib file

2 Answers