cocoa nstableview like interface builder

Question

What I'd like to do is basically use a widget like the one in step 4 here:

This is the utilities panel on the right of Interface Builder / XCode, where you can use various Inspector tools, e.g. 'Attributes Inspector', etc.

Does a widget like that exist in Cocoa/Interface Builder? It looks like it's somewhat based on a NSTableView, but I don't see how I'd do the grouping-based functionality using a standard NSTableView (i.e. the 'Show' button on the top-right, or the horizontal line separators between groups), and I also don't quite see how I would do the headers (which span multiple table-rows). The images on top are probably a mix between (visually) a toolbar and (practically) a tab-bar, but it looks like it's integrated in the whole.

I searched somewhat, did see this post, which refers to a non-existing project. I found copies, but they don't appear to work in latest versions of Interface Builder (I'm using XCode 6.1.1). They also appear to be pane/window-based, which is an older version of Interface Builder.

Answer 1

There is no one built-in control to do that. It's a combination of multiple controls, including custom views. Likewise, there are multiple ways to approach implementing it.

There may very well be a tab view to switch out the various inspectors, but, if so, it's "tabless" and the actual buttons to do the switching are customized. There's just a row of buttons and the controller switches the tab view's tab based on which is pressed. If you pick the right button style, set a template image and no title, and set their states so they act like radio buttons (only one "on" at a time), they should draw properly (the selected one will glow blue).

I think it's conceivable that the sections could be implemented using a view-based outline view. It would be a single column and the cells would be the complex views you're seeing. The section headers would be rows at the root level and the sections would be children of those rows, a level deeper in the hierarchy of the outline. Therefore, hiding and showing the sections would be achieved by collapsing and expanding the section header rows. There's even a special view identifier, NSOutlineViewShowHideButtonKey, that NSOutlineView uses to look up a Show/Hide button view from the NIB (or the delegate).

You can also implement the sections and their headers using a stack view. Apple actually has sample code for that exact thing: InfoBarStackView.