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Project Window Layouts

There are many factors affecting the optimal workspace arrangement for you. How much screen real estate do you have? What do you spend most of your time working on? How many projects do you normally have open at once?

Configuring your development environment to allow you to be as productive as possible is critical. Whatever your preferred workflow, Xcode provides several different project window layouts for you to choose from. Xcode defines the following layouts:

• Default. This configuration provides the traditional Xcode project window experience, described in the previous section. This is Xcode’s default layout, combining outline and detail views to let you quickly navigate your project.

• Condensed. This layout provides a smaller, simpler project window with an outline view of your project contents and separate windows for common development tasks, such as debugging and building.

• All-in-One. This layout provides a single project window that lets you perform all of the tasks typical of software development—such as debugging, viewing build results, searching, and so forth—within a single window.

This section describes each project window layout and the differences between them.

In this section:

The Default Layout
The Condensed Layout
The All-In-One Layout
Changing the Project Window Layout
Saving Changes to the Current Layout

The Default Layout

Xcode’s default layout provides the project window described in “The Project Window and its Components.” As mentioned there, the default project window contains:

1. The Groups & Files list gives you an outline view of your project contents, as described in “The Groups & Files List.”

2. The detail view shows a flat list of the items selected in the Groups & Files list, as described in “The Detail View.” In the Default layout, you can hide the detail view by collapsing the project window. To collapse the detail view, double-click the button above the split-view control in the Groups & Files list. Double-clicking the button a second time shows the detail view again.

   In addition, you can customize the toolbar shown for the project window in each of these states, both collapsed and uncollapsed. To do so, collapse or expand the project window to the appropriate state and customize the toolbar in the usual way, described in “The Project Window Toolbar.” Xcode stores the contents of the toolbar for each state separately.

3. An optional attached editor. In the Default layout, you can choose to view and edit all files within the project window, using the attached editor. Or, you can choose to have Xcode use a separate editor window, and use only the Groups & Files list and the detail view in the project window.

Although you can accomplish most of your daily development tasks in the project window, Xcode also provides a number of other task-specific windows that let you focus on a particular part of the development process. Table 4-1 shows the separate windows available in the Default layout.

The Condensed Layout

The Condensed layout provides a smaller, more compact version of the project window. In this configuration, the project window contains several views, each showing a different subset of the items in your project in the Groups & Files list. You can switch between these outline views using the tabs at the top of the project window.

The condensed project window contains:

1. The Files pane shows your project and all of the source groups and files in your project.

2. The Targets pane shows the targets and executables defined in your project.

3. The Other pane shows all of the remaining smart groups. This includes the standard smart groups defined by Xcode, as well as any smart groups you have added to the project.

You can show any of the built-in smart groups, opening the appropriate pane if necessary, by choosing an item from the View > Show menu.

The toolbar of the Condensed project window layout is also simpler than that of the other available layouts. By default, the condensed project window toolbar contains only the Build buttons, Tasks button, and Info button. These buttons are described in “The Project Window Toolbar.”

The Condensed layout provides the same additional windows as the Default layout, listed in Table 4-1. The Condensed layout also includes the following additional windows:

The All-In-One Layout

The All-In-One project window layout provides a single project window in which you can perform all of the tasks necessary for software development. In this project window, you can edit files, view project items in an outline view or detail view, view build system output, run and debug your executable, search and more. The project window of the all-in-one configuration provides three different views, or pages. To switch between pages, use the Page control in the project window toolbar, shown in Figure 4-10. The available pages are:

1. Project. This page lets you perform general project management tasks, such as searching, sorting and viewing SCM status. To open the project page, click the project icon.

2. Build. This page lets you view build results and the run log. To open the build page, click the hammer icon.

3. Debug. This page includes an integrated debugger view, similar to the standalone debugger window available with the other layouts. To open the debug page, click the spray can icon. For a description of the debugger interface, see “The Debugger Window.”

In addition to using the Page control, choosing any of the menu items for opening other Xcode windows will, in the All-In-One layout, open the appropriate page to the correct pane. For example, choosing Build > Build Results opens the Build page and selects the Build pane.

Each page of the All-In-One layout has a different project window toolbar, that contains items specific to the development tasks performed in that page.

The Project Page

The project page, shown here, lets you perform typical project management tasks. You can view the contents of your project in outline view, search for project items in the detail view, perform a project-wide find, and view status for the files under version control in your project.

The project page contains a Groups & Files list, which shows all of the contents of your project in outline view; an attached editor, which lets you edit source files right in the project window; and a tabbed view, which lets you switch between several panes, each of which provides an interface for a common project management task. These panes are:

• The Detail pane includes a detail view, which lets you view additional information about project items selected in the Group & Files list or quickly filter project items. The detail view is described in “The Detail View.”

• The Project Find pane lets you perform project-wide searches and view search results. The interface is the same as that provided by the Project Find window in other layouts. See “Searching in a Project.”

• The SCM Results pane opens a dedicated view displaying only those project items under version control and their status. It is similar to what you see in the SCM window with other layouts. See “Viewing File Status.”

The default toolbar for the project page of the All-In-One layout is the same as that of the Default project window, described in “The Project Window Toolbar,” with the addition of the Page control.

The Build Page

The build page, shown here, provides an interface for common build tasks. It lets you see the progress of your build, view errors and warnings, and see the run log.

The build page contains an attached editor, that lets you view source code and jump to the location of any build errors; a Groups & Files list that shows your project contents in an outline; and tabs that let you switch between:

1. The Build pane displays the commands used to build your project and the output of the build system. This is the same information as that in the Build Results window available with the other layouts. See “Viewing Build Status.”

2. The Run pane displays any information logged by your program while running in Xcode.

If the outline view is not visible in the build page, you can open it by dragging or double-clicking the splitter at the far left side of the window, or by choosing an item from the View > Show menu.

The default toolbar of the build page contains items that give you easy access to commands you commonly use when building and running.

Other Windows in the All-In-One Layout

The All-In-One layout is designed to let you perform all development tasks in the project window; it does, however, include a few additional windows, listed in Table 4-3. These windows let you view content already available from the project window in a separate window, should you choose to do so.

Changing the Project Window Layout

You can change the current project window layout in the General pane of Xcode Preferences. From the Layout menu, choose the Default, Condensed, or All-In-One layouts. Selecting a layout from this menu shows a brief description of the layout below the menu. Note that you cannot change the project window layout when any projects are open; you must first close all open projects. The project window layout is a user-specific setting; it applies to all projects that you open.

Saving Changes to the Current Layout

Xcode’s available project window layouts give you the flexibility to choose the configuration that best suits your preferred workflow. You can further customize your work environment by saving the changes that you make to the windows in an open project and applying them to all projects using that layout.

For example, the project window of the condensed layout shows three different outline views, each of them focused on a different subset of a project’s groups. By default, the Files view shows only the project group, which contains all files and folders in the project. The Other view shows all smart groups. If you want access to both your project files and your bookmarked locations in the same view, you could add the Bookmarks smart group to the Files view by choosing View > Show > Bookmarks.

To save this change, and have the Bookmarks smart group appear in the Files pane for all projects using the Condensed layout, choose Window > Defaults.

In the dialog that Xcode displays, click Make Layout Default to save your changes to the current layout. Clicking Restore to Factory Default discards all of your changes—both current changes and those you’ve previously saved—to the current layout. Xcode restores the original configuration settings for the layout.

You can save changes to:

• Window size and position.

• Visibility of views—whether they are hidden or revealed—in a window.

• Contents and visibility of outline views.

• The default set of toolbar items.

If the “Save window state” option in the General pane of Xcode Preferences is enabled, Xcode saves the state of the open windows for each project when you close that project. However, when you choose Window > Defaults, you save configuration changes that apply to all projects when you open them using the modified layout.

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