Get ALL views and subview of NSWindow

Question

Is there a way I can get ALL the views and subviews and subviews of these subviews (you get the idea...) of an NSWindow?

Thanks.

Answer 1

Here is a category on NSView:

@interface NSView (MDRecursiveSubviews)
- (NSArray *)md__allSubviews;
@end

@implementation NSView (MDRecursiveSubviews)

- (NSArray *)md__allSubviews {
    NSMutableArray *allSubviews = [NSMutableArray arrayWithObject:self];
    NSArray *subviews = [self subviews];
    for (NSView *view in subviews) {
        [allSubviews addObjectsFromArray:[view md__allSubviews]];
    }
    return [[allSubviews copy] autorelease];
}

@end

With a quick nib file I created with a view hierarchy, it printed this:

[RecursiveSubviewsAppDelegate awakeFromNib] allSubviews == (
    "<NSView: 0x10390dfd0>",
    "<NSView: 0x103c07ae0>",
    "<NSView: 0x100129cc0>",
    "<NSButton: 0x100115ce0>",
    "<NSButton: 0x100116900>",
    "<NSButton: 0x1001165c0>",
    "<NSButton: 0x100116130>",
    "<NSButton: 0x100114ad0>",
    "<NSButton: 0x100115910>",
    "<NSButton: 0x100115090>",
    "<NSScrollView: 0x103b07a30>",
    "<NSClipView: 0x103b07d40>",
    "<NSTextView: 0x103b083c0>\n
Frame = {{0.00, 0.00}, {159.00, 58.00}},
Bounds = {{0.00, 0.00}, {159.00, 58.00}}\n
Horizontally resizable: NO, Vertically resizable: YES\n
MinSize = {159.00, 58.00}, MaxSize = {463.00, 10000000.00}\n",
    "<NSScroller: 0x1001145b0>",
    "<NSScroller: 0x100114840>",
    "<NSScrollView: 0x10390ea00>",
    "<NSClipView: 0x10390ef10>",
    "<NSTableView: 0x10390f570>",
    "<NSScroller: 0x103b06f10>",
    "<NSScroller: 0x103b07460>",
    "<NSClipView: 0x1039105d0>",
    "<NSTableHeaderView: 0x103910300>",
    "<_NSCornerView: 0x103911c20>"

One note of concern I should add is that it's unclear to me how this would be useful, except as a debugging tool. But even then, there are probably easier ways of doing things.

Answer 2

There's a private message that can be sent on NSView to print the control hierarchy.

[NSView _subtreeDescription] gives you the whole hierarchy of the NSView i.e. its children and their children.

Answer 3

static void dumpViews(NSView* v, int level) {
    NSString* indent = @"";
    for (int i = 0; i < level; i++) {
        indent = [indent stringByAppendingString:@"    "];
    }
    NSLog(@"%@%@ %@", indent, [v class], NSStringFromRect(v.frame));
    if (v.subviews != null) {
        for (id s in v.subviews) {
            dumpViews(s, level + 1);
        }
    }
}

- (void) windowControllerDidLoadNib: (NSWindowController*) controller {
    NSWindow* window = controller.window;
    dumpViews(window.contentView, 0);
    ...

Answer 4

If I understood you correctly, you would have to create a method that calls itself recursively. Something like this:

- (NSArray *)allSubviewsOfView:(NSView *)view
{
  NSMutableArray *subviews = [[view subviews] mutableCopy];
  for (NSView *subview in [view subviews])
    [subviews addObjectsFromArray:[self allSubviewsOfView:subview]]; //recursive
  return subviews;
}

You would then call something like

NSArray *allSubviewsOfWindow = [self allSubviewsOfView:[window contentView]];

to get your views. (And don't forget to do memory management if you're not using GC.)

Answer 5

Not sure about infinite recursion in the other answers but you definitely can't modify an array while you are doing a fast enumeration on it. Here's a method I wrote for iOS that iterates through all subviews until there aren't any more left to explore. I assume the same or similar would work for NSView. Hope this helps.

(Edit: now… if I had just looked a little further down my search results, I would have found this really easy way to do it first: How can I loop through all subviews of a UIView, and their subviews and their subviews )

- (NSMutableArray *)allSubviewsInView:(UIView *)parentView {

    NSMutableArray *allSubviews     = [[NSMutableArray alloc] initWithObjects: nil];
    NSMutableArray *currentSubviews = [[NSMutableArray alloc] initWithObjects: parentView, nil];
    NSMutableArray *newSubviews     = [[NSMutableArray alloc] initWithObjects: parentView, nil];

    while (newSubviews.count) {

        [newSubviews removeAllObjects];

        for (UIView *view in currentSubviews) {

            for (UIView *subview in view.subviews) [newSubviews addObject:subview];

        }

        [currentSubviews removeAllObjects];
        [currentSubviews addObjectsFromArray:newSubviews];
        [allSubviews addObjectsFromArray:newSubviews];

    } 

    NSLog(@"\n%d total subviews:\n%@",allSubviews.count, allSubviews);

    return allSubviews;

}

Logged results from a sample view:

18 total subviews:
(
    "<UIRoundedRectButton: 0x6a7a590; frame = (26 20; 72 37); opaque = NO; autoresize = RM+BM; layer = <CALayer: 0x6a772d0>>",
    "<UISwitch: 0x6a7f930; frame = (26 76; 79 27); opaque = NO; autoresize = RM+BM; layer = <CALayer: 0x6a7fa20>>",
    "<UIImageView: 0x685e4a0; frame = (82 20; 139 139); clipsToBounds = YES; opaque = NO; layer = <CALayer: 0x685eca0>>",
    "<UITextView: 0x6893e40; frame = (20 196; 192 79); text = 'Lorem ipsum dolor sit er ...'; clipsToBounds = YES; autoresize = RM+BM; layer = <CALayer: 0x687c330>; contentOffset: {0, 0}>",
    "<UIView: 0x6a88af0; frame = (26 304; 198 123); autoresize = RM+BM; tag = 1; layer = <CALayer: 0x6a88b20>>",
    "<UIButtonLabel: 0x6a7f410; frame = (0 0; 0 0); clipsToBounds = YES; hidden = YES; opaque = NO; userInteractionEnabled = NO; layer = <CALayer: 0x6a7f4d0>>",
    "<_UISwitchInternalView: 0x6a7fa50; frame = (-1 0; 79 27); layer = <CALayer: 0x6a79b90>>",
    "<UITextSelectionView: 0x6894070; frame = (0 0; 0 0); userInteractionEnabled = NO; layer = <CALayer: 0x68940d0>>",
    "<UIImageView: 0x68924b0; frame = (0 72; 192 7); alpha = 0; opaque = NO; autoresize = TM; userInteractionEnabled = NO; layer = <CALayer: 0x6892520>>",
    "<UIImageView: 0x6894100; frame = (185 0; 7 79); alpha = 0; opaque = NO; autoresize = LM; userInteractionEnabled = NO; layer = <CALayer: 0x6894180>>",
    "<UIWebDocumentView: 0x7416600; frame = (0 0; 192 394); text = 'Lorem ipsum dolor sit er ...'; opaque = NO; userInteractionEnabled = NO; layer = <UIWebLayer: 0x6895330>>",
    "<UIView: 0x6a88b50; frame = (10 10; 80 80); autoresize = W+H; tag = 2; layer = <CALayer: 0x6a88b80>>",
    "<UIImageView: 0x6a80610; frame = (1 0; 77 27); opaque = NO; userInteractionEnabled = NO; layer = <CALayer: 0x6a80650>>",
    "<UIView: 0x6a806f0; frame = (1 0; 77 27); clipsToBounds = YES; alpha = 0; layer = <CALayer: 0x6a80720>>",
    "<UIView: 0x6a88fa0; frame = (5 5; 50 50); autoresize = W+H; tag = 3; layer = <CALayer: 0x6a88fd0>>",
    "<UIImageView: 0x6a808e0; frame = (-2 0; 79 27); opaque = NO; userInteractionEnabled = NO; layer = <CALayer: 0x6a84d30>>",
    "<UIImageView: 0x6a84c00; frame = (-2 0; 131 27); opaque = NO; userInteractionEnabled = NO; layer = <CALayer: 0x6a84d90>>",
    "<UIImageView: 0x6a84c40; frame = (49 0; 29 27); userInteractionEnabled = NO; layer = <CALayer: 0x6a84c80>>"
)

Answer 6

The above solution will not work if there are views within views. We would need to do a recursive solution as shown below.

-(void) printViewHierarchy: (UIView * ) view withTag: (NSInteger) tag {
  if (view == nil) {
    return;
  }
  if (view == nil || [view tag] == tag) {
    NSLog(@"%@", view);
    return;
  }
  for (UIView * subview in [view subviews]) {
    [self printViewHierarchy: subview withTag: tag];
  }
}

- (void) findAllViews {
    
    UIView * baseView = [UIView new];
    [baseView setTag: 1];
    
    UIView * secondRowA = [UIView new];
    [secondRowA setTag: 2];
    
    UIView * secondRowB = [UIView new];
    [secondRowB setTag: 3];
    
    UIView * thirdRowA = [UIView new];
    [thirdRowA setTag: 4];
  
    UIView * thirdRowB = [UIView new];
    [thirdRowB setTag: 5];
    
    [secondRowA addSubview: thirdRowA];
    [secondRowB addSubview: thirdRowB];
    
    [baseView addSubview: secondRowA];
    [baseView addSubview: secondRowB];
  
    [self printViewHierarchy: baseView withTag: 6];
}

Answer 7

NSArray *arrofView = [[self view] subviews];