Construct and manage a graphical, event-driven user interface for your macOS app using AppKit.

Posts under AppKit tag

200 Posts

Post

Replies

Boosts

Views

Activity

Draw SwiftUI.Form style pop-up button with NSPopUpButton in AppKit
In SwiftUI on macOS, A menu-style Picker is drawn as a pop-up button. It generally looks and behaves the same as an NSPopUpButton in AppKit. SwiftUI introduced iOS-like looking UI for settings in macOS, and consequently, the Picker also has its own style when placed inside a Form. A Form-style Picker displays only up/down chevrons and draws the background only when the mouse hovers over it. It also changes its width dynamically based on the selected item. Form { Picker("Animal:", selection: $selection) { ForEach(["Dog", "Cow"], id: \.self) { Text($0) } .pickerStyle(.menu) } You can find it, for instance, in the Print dialog. My question is: I couldn't find a way to draw an NSPopUpButton in AppKit with this style. Does anyone know how to achieve this in AppKit? Some might say I should just use SwiftUI straightforwardly, but I would like to use it in a print panel accessory that currently still avoids using SwiftUI but its dialog has SwiftUI.Form-looking.
4
1
380
Sep ’25
NSCollectionView Liquid Glass Section Headers Don't Show After Fading Out on Scroll Sometimes
I'm noticing some weird glitches with my collection view headers on macOS Tahoe. The sections headers are pinned to the visible region. I headers fade out when scrolling and are supposed to fade back in but sometimes they don't fade back in and the header remains but the header text doesn't come back (until I scroll again). How can I turn off this scroll animation thingy?
Topic: UI Frameworks SubTopic: AppKit Tags:
4
0
189
Sep ’25
macOS Tahoe: NSView -cacheDisplayInRect:toBitmapImageRep: Doesn't Work on NSButton that uses NSBezelStyleGlass
If I try making a bitmap of a NSButton using the following code: NSBitmapImageRep *rep = [button bitmapImageRepForCachingDisplayInRect:button.bounds]; [button cacheDisplayInRect:button.bounds toBitmapImageRep:rep]; NSData *tiffData = rep.TIFFRepresentation; I get a blank image if the NSButton has its bezelStyle set to NSBezelStyleGlass. If I change the bezel style to something else like NSBezelStyleFlexiblePush I do get an image
Topic: UI Frameworks SubTopic: AppKit Tags:
1
0
108
Sep ’25
SwiftUI crash on OSX 26 using NSColorPanel
Crashlog-0916-071225.log I have an app that crashes on OSX 26 only. I have a @StateObject which is an observer of the NSColorPanel. When I call let panel = NSColorPanel.shared in init(), SwiftUI will crash - apparently with an update while view is being updated. See crash log. I was able to work around it by adding let _ = NSColorPanel.shared in my AppDelegate before SwiftUI is initialized. The exact code worked fine in all previous OSX versions.
0
0
178
Sep ’25
How to differentiate between user-generated NSEvents and programmatically posted events in AppKit?
Hi all, In my AppKit app, I sometimes simulate events programmatically, for example: func simulateKeyPress(characters: String, keyCode: UInt16) { guard let keyDown = NSEvent.keyEvent( with: .keyDown, location: .zero, modifierFlags: [], timestamp: 0, windowNumber: NSApp.mainWindow?.windowNumber ?? 0, context: nil, characters: characters, charactersIgnoringModifiers: characters, isARepeat: false, keyCode: keyCode ) else { return } NSApp.postEvent(keyDown, atStart: false) } At the same time, I install a local event monitor: NSEvent.addLocalMonitorForEvents(matching: .any) { event in // Ideally, detect whether this event came from a real user // (mouse, keyboard, trackpad, etc.) // or was programmatically generated via NSEvent + postEvent. return event } The problem: Events I generate with NSEvent.* factory methods and post using NSApp.postEvent look the same as real system events when received in the monitor. My question: Is there a supported way to tell whether an incoming NSEvent is system/user-generated vs programmatically posted?
Topic: UI Frameworks SubTopic: AppKit Tags:
1
0
136
Sep ’25
macOS Document-Based SwiftUI App: “Save” menu item not localized in French
Hi everyone, I’ve run into a strange localization issue with macOS document-based apps in SwiftUI/AppKit. I created a standard document-based macOS app in Xcode (SwiftUI template) and added a French localization to the project. All system-generated menu bar commands (File → New, Close, Print, etc.) are correctly translated into French… except for “Save”, which remains in English. To rule out problems in my own code, I created a fresh, unmodified document-based app project in Xcode, and immediately added French localization without touching any code. Same result: all commands are translated except “Save”. This suggests the issue isn’t specific to my app code, but either the project template, or possibly macOS itself. My environment • Xcode version: 16.4 • macOS version: 15.6.1 Sequoia] • Swift: Swift 6 Questions 1. Has anyone else seen this issue with the “Save” command not being localized? 2. Is this expected behavior (maybe “Save” is handled differently from other menu items)? 3. If it’s a bug in the template or OS, is there a known workaround? Thanks for any insights P.S. Please note that I'm a total beginner
4
0
319
Sep ’25
Inset or disable NSSheetEffectDimmingView when presenting a sheet?
I have an NSWindow that isn't entirely opaque. When presenting a sheet AppKit overlays the window with NSSheetEffectDimmingView. The problem is the entire window frame is used so NSSheetEffectDimmingView overlays the transparent areas of the window and it looks bad. Is there a clean way to inset NSSheetEffectDimmingView or even perhaps disable this behavior completely so I can draw my own? I'm looking for a clean solution (other than modifying the view hierarchy of NSNextStepFrame) or swizzles which I might have to resort to if there is no other way.
Topic: UI Frameworks SubTopic: AppKit Tags:
0
0
163
Sep ’25
NSWindowCollectionBehavior in Full Screen Spaces
The NSWindow collection behavior is supposed to allow for a window to appear in all spaces, even when another window is full screen in that space. However, I cannot get this to work as expected with any combination. This should be as simple as: window.level = .screenSaver window.collectionBehavior = [ .canJoinAllSpaces, .fullScreenAuxiliary, .canJoinAllApplications, .stationary, .ignoresCycle ] If I have a window (Safari for example) which is full screen in its own space, run my app and change to the Safari window's space, my app's window is not visible at all; it will only float on top of windows in non-fullscreen spaces. What am I misunderstanding?
Topic: UI Frameworks SubTopic: AppKit Tags:
0
0
174
Sep ’25
NSToolbar Space item rendered with Liquid Glass Background
Hi, I have a NSToolbar in my Mac Catalyst app with a space and flexible space item in it (https://developer.apple.com/documentation/appkit/nstoolbaritem/identifier/space). On macOS Tahoe the space item is being rendered with a Liquid Glass effect and seems to be automatically grouped with the previous item. Is there a way to prevent this? It basically adds some undesired padding next to the previous item and looks add. The flexible space is rendered normally and as before. I am talking about the space right next to the back chevron item. Thanks for any hints!
1
0
267
Sep ’25
Printing of NSTextView
I have a document-based macOS app written in Objective-C, and each document window contains a scrollable NSTextView. I know that printing can get complicated if you want to do nice pagination, but is there a quick and dirty way to get basic printing working? As it is, the print panel shows up, but its preview area is totally blank. Here's the current printing part of my NSDocument subclass. - (NSPrintInfo *)printInfo { NSPrintInfo *printInfo = [super printInfo]; [printInfo setHorizontalPagination: NSPrintingPaginationModeFit]; [printInfo setHorizontallyCentered: NO]; [printInfo setVerticallyCentered: NO]; [printInfo setLeftMargin: 72.0]; [printInfo setRightMargin: 72.0]; [printInfo setTopMargin: 72.0]; [printInfo setBottomMargin: 72.0]; return printInfo; } - (void)printDocumentWithSettings:(NSDictionary<NSPrintInfoAttributeKey, id> *)printSettings showPrintPanel:(BOOL)showPrintPanel delegate:(id)delegate didPrintSelector:(SEL)didPrintSelector contextInfo:(void *)contextInfo { NSPrintInfo* thePrintInfo = [self printInfo]; [thePrintInfo setVerticallyCentered: NO ]; NSPrintOperation *op = [NSPrintOperation printOperationWithView: _textView printInfo: thePrintInfo ]; [op runOperationModalForWindow: _docWindow delegate: delegate didRunSelector: didPrintSelector contextInfo: contextInfo]; }
Topic: UI Frameworks SubTopic: AppKit Tags:
2
0
285
Aug ’25
Why is the nib still loaded even though the class has been registered with NSCollectionView?
I implemented a subclass of NSCollectionViewItem: class ViewItem: NSCollectionViewItem { override func loadView() { self.view = NSView() } } and registed to NSCollectionView: class PictureFrameThemeListView: NSCollectionView { init(viewModel: PictureFrameViewModel) { super.init(frame: .zero) self.register(ViewItem.self, forItemWithIdentifier: .item) } However, when calling makeItem(withIdentifier:for:), the following error is prompted: FAULT: NSInternalInconsistencyException: -[NSNib _initWithNibNamed:bundle:options:] could not load the nib 'Item' in bundle NSBundle What confuses me is that I registered the subclass of NSCollectionViewItem, why do NSCollectionView to init the NSNib?
Topic: UI Frameworks SubTopic: AppKit Tags:
2
0
109
Aug ’25
Xcode unit test "Creating more than one Application"
When I try to make a unit test target for my macOS app that uses Objective-C, running tests fails, and the debugging log shows a message "Creating more than one Application". If, on the other hand, when I create the unit test target, I select "None" as the target to be tested, and then add all my sources to that target, my tests work. So, I can get my testing done, but I think I must be doing something wrong. By the way, along with the error message, there is a stack crawl: 0 CoreFoundation 0x00007ff8140410aa __exceptionPreprocess + 242 1 libobjc.A.dylib 0x00007ff813b660b7 objc_exception_throw + 48 2 Foundation 0x00007ff814f19bd8 -[NSCalendarDate initWithCoder:] + 0 3 AppKit 0x00007ff817030062 -[NSApplication init] + 1718 4 XCTestCore 0x000000010774b0df -[XCTestDriver _createTestBundlePrincipalClassInstance] + 82 5 XCTestCore 0x0000000107749338 -[XCTestDriver _runTests] + 111 6 XCTestCore 0x000000010770f194 _XCTestMain + 126 7 libXCTestBundleInject.dylib 0x0000000106e8982d __copy_helper_block_e8_32s + 0 8 CoreFoundation 0x00007ff813fc9a91 __CFRUNLOOP_IS_CALLING_OUT_TO_A_BLOCK__ + 12 9 CoreFoundation 0x00007ff813fc99ca __CFRunLoopDoBlocks + 398 10 CoreFoundation 0x00007ff813fc883d __CFRunLoopRun + 898 11 CoreFoundation 0x00007ff813fc7e51 CFRunLoopRunSpecific + 560 12 HIToolbox 0x00007ff81da52f3d RunCurrentEventLoopInMode + 292 13 HIToolbox 0x00007ff81da52b84 ReceiveNextEventCommon + 199 14 HIToolbox 0x00007ff81da52aa8 _BlockUntilNextEventMatchingListInModeWithFilter + 64 15 AppKit 0x00007ff8170689d8 _DPSNextEvent + 858 16 AppKit 0x00007ff817067882 -[NSApplication(NSEvent) _nextEventMatchingEventMask:untilDate:inMode:dequeue:] + 1214 17 AppKit 0x00007ff817059ef7 -[NSApplication run] + 586 18 AppKit 0x00007ff81702e111 NSApplicationMain + 817 19 PlainCalc 0x00000001057d0a91 main + 65 20 dyld 0x00007ff813b93418 start + 1896
3
0
270
Aug ’25
NSTableView.reloadData(forRowIndexes:columnIndexes:) causes wrong subview layout when usesAutomaticRowHeights = true
I have a table view where each row has two labels, one left-aligned and one right-aligned. I would like to reload a single row, but doing so causes the right-aligned label to hug the left-aligned label. Before the reload: After the reload: Reloading the whole table view instead, or disabling automatic row height, solves the issue. Can a single row be reloaded without resorting to these two workarounds? I created FB13534100 1.5 years ago but got no response. class ViewController: NSViewController, NSTableViewDataSource, NSTableViewDelegate { override func loadView() { let tableView = NSTableView() tableView.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false tableView.dataSource = self tableView.delegate = self tableView.usesAutomaticRowHeights = true let column = NSTableColumn() column.width = 400 tableView.addTableColumn(column) let scrollView = NSScrollView(frame: CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: 500, height: 500)) scrollView.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false scrollView.documentView = tableView view = scrollView Timer.scheduledTimer(withTimeInterval: 2, repeats: false) { _ in print("reload") tableView.reloadData(forRowIndexes: IndexSet(integer: 2), columnIndexes: IndexSet(integer: 0)) // tableView.reloadData() } } func numberOfRows(in tableView: NSTableView) -> Int { return 5 } func tableView(_ tableView: NSTableView, viewFor tableColumn: NSTableColumn?, row: Int) -> NSView? { let cell = NSTableCellView() let textField1 = NSTextField(labelWithString: "hello") textField1.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false let textField2 = NSTextField(wrappingLabelWithString: "world") textField2.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false textField2.alignment = .right let stack = NSStackView(views: [ textField1, textField2 ]) stack.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false stack.distribution = .fill cell.addSubview(stack) NSLayoutConstraint.activate([stack.topAnchor.constraint(equalTo: cell.topAnchor, constant: 0), stack.leadingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: cell.leadingAnchor, constant: 0), stack.bottomAnchor.constraint(equalTo: cell.bottomAnchor, constant: 0), stack.trailingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: cell.trailingAnchor, constant: 0)]) return cell } }
Topic: UI Frameworks SubTopic: AppKit Tags:
2
0
183
Aug ’25
How can I connect NSTableCellView.textField to a SwiftUI view?
When using NSTableView or NSOutlineView, if you use an NSTableCellView and wire up the .imageView and .textField properties then you get some "free" behaviour with respect to styling and sizing of those fields. (ex: They reflect the user's preferred "Sidebar Icon Size" as selected in Settings. ) If I'm using a SwiftUI View inside an NSTableCellView, is there any way to connect a Text or Image to those properties? Consider the following pseudo code: struct MyCellView: View { let text: String let url: URL? var body: some View { HStack { Image(...) // How to indicate this is .imageView? Text(...) // How to indicate this is .textField? } } } final class MyTableCellView: NSTableCellView { private var hostingView: NSHostingView<MyCellView>! init() { self.hostingView = NSHostingView(rootView: MyCellView(text: "", url: nil)) self.addSubview(self.hostingView) } func configureWith(text: String, url: URL) { let rootView = MyCellView(text: text, url: url) hostingView.rootView = rootView // How can I make this connection? self.textField = rootView.??? self.imageView = rootView.??? } } I'm ideally looking for a solution that works on macOS 15+.
2
0
177
Aug ’25
Crash when assigning NSImage to `@objc dynamic var` property
Xcode downloaded a crash report for my app which I don't quite understand. It seems the following line caused the crash: myEntity.image = newImage where myEntity is of type MyEntity: class MyEntity: NSObject, Identifiable { @objc dynamic var image: NSImage! ... } The code is called on the main thread. According to the crash report, thread 0 makes that assignment, and at the same time thread 16 is calling [NSImageView asynchronousPreparation:prepareResultUsingParameters:]. What could cause such a crash? Could I be doing something wrong or is this a bug in macOS? crash.crash
11
0
331
Aug ’25
vImageConverter_CreateWithCGImageFormat Fails with kvImageInvalidImageFormat When Trying to Convert CMYK to RGB
So I get JPEG data in my app. Previously I was using the higher level NSBitmapImageRep API and just feeding the JPEG data to it. But now I've noticed on Sonoma If I get a JPEG in the CMYK color space the NSBitmapImageRep renders mostly black and is corrupted. So I'm trying to drop down to the lower level APIs. Specifically I grab a CGImageRef and and trying to use the Accelerate API to convert it to another format (to hopefully workaround the issue... CGImageRef sourceCGImage = `CGImageCreateWithJPEGDataProvider(jpegDataProvider,` NULL, shouldInterpolate, kCGRenderingIntentDefault); Now I use vImageConverter_CreateWithCGImageFormat... with the following values for source and destination formats: Source format: (derived from sourceCGImage) bitsPerComponent = 8 bitsPerPixel = 32 colorSpace = (kCGColorSpaceICCBased; kCGColorSpaceModelCMYK; Generic CMYK Profile) bitmapInfo = kCGBitmapByteOrderDefault version = 0 decode = 0x000060000147f780 renderingIntent = kCGRenderingIntentDefault Destination format: bitsPerComponent = 8 bitsPerPixel = 24 colorSpace = (DeviceRBG) bitmapInfo = 8197 version = 0 decode = 0x0000000000000000 renderingIntent = kCGRenderingIntentDefault But vImageConverter_CreateWithCGImageFormat fails with kvImageInvalidImageFormat. Now if I change the destination format to use 32 bitsPerpixel and use alpha in the bitmap info the vImageConverter_CreateWithCGImageFormat does not return an error but I get a black image just like NSBitmapImageRep
14
0
1.8k
Aug ’25
Sleep State Notification Inconsistencies on MacBook Devices When Unplugged
There are inconsistent behaviors in sleep/wake notification callbacks across different MacBook devices and macOS versions when the device is not connected to power, with or without external displays, entering sleep mode by closing the lid, and waking up from sleep by opening the lid. When monitoring the following Objective-C notifications: NSWorkspaceScreensDidSleepNotification NSWorkspaceScreensDidWakeNotification NSWorkspaceWillSleepNotification NSWorkspaceDidWakeNotification Different devices exhibit varying notification trigger patterns: Some devices trigger all four notifications properly Some devices fail to trigger NSWorkspaceScreensDidWakeNotification Some devices fail to trigger NSWorkspaceDidWakeNotification Some devices fail to trigger NSWorkspaceWillSleepNotification These inconsistencies make it challenging to implement reliable sleep/wake detection logic across different MacBook models and macOS versions.
1
0
155
Aug ’25
NSToolbar doesn't restore displayMode when NSWindow.titleVisibility = .hidden
Apparently when setting a window to hide its title, the toolbar's displayMode is not restored when relaunching the app. For example, by default my app sets to show toolbar icons only, but when right-clicking it, selecting "Icon and Text" and relaunching the app, it's again "Icon Only". Is there a workaround? I've filed FB17144212. class ViewController: NSViewController, NSToolbarDelegate { override func viewDidAppear() { let toolbar = NSToolbar(identifier: "toolbar") toolbar.delegate = self toolbar.autosavesConfiguration = true toolbar.displayMode = .iconOnly view.window?.titleVisibility = .hidden view.window?.toolbar = toolbar view.window?.toolbarStyle = .unified } func toolbarAllowedItemIdentifiers(_ toolbar: NSToolbar) -> [NSToolbarItem.Identifier] { return [.init(rawValue: "item")] } func toolbarDefaultItemIdentifiers(_ toolbar: NSToolbar) -> [NSToolbarItem.Identifier] { return [.init(rawValue: "item")] } func toolbar(_ toolbar: NSToolbar, itemForItemIdentifier itemIdentifier: NSToolbarItem.Identifier, willBeInsertedIntoToolbar flag: Bool) -> NSToolbarItem? { let item = NSToolbarItem(itemIdentifier: itemIdentifier) item.image = NSImage(named: NSImage.addTemplateName)! item.label = "item" return item } }
Topic: UI Frameworks SubTopic: AppKit Tags:
2
0
161
Aug ’25
Draw SwiftUI.Form style pop-up button with NSPopUpButton in AppKit
In SwiftUI on macOS, A menu-style Picker is drawn as a pop-up button. It generally looks and behaves the same as an NSPopUpButton in AppKit. SwiftUI introduced iOS-like looking UI for settings in macOS, and consequently, the Picker also has its own style when placed inside a Form. A Form-style Picker displays only up/down chevrons and draws the background only when the mouse hovers over it. It also changes its width dynamically based on the selected item. Form { Picker("Animal:", selection: $selection) { ForEach(["Dog", "Cow"], id: \.self) { Text($0) } .pickerStyle(.menu) } You can find it, for instance, in the Print dialog. My question is: I couldn't find a way to draw an NSPopUpButton in AppKit with this style. Does anyone know how to achieve this in AppKit? Some might say I should just use SwiftUI straightforwardly, but I would like to use it in a print panel accessory that currently still avoids using SwiftUI but its dialog has SwiftUI.Form-looking.
Replies
4
Boosts
1
Views
380
Activity
Sep ’25
NSCollectionView Liquid Glass Section Headers Don't Show After Fading Out on Scroll Sometimes
I'm noticing some weird glitches with my collection view headers on macOS Tahoe. The sections headers are pinned to the visible region. I headers fade out when scrolling and are supposed to fade back in but sometimes they don't fade back in and the header remains but the header text doesn't come back (until I scroll again). How can I turn off this scroll animation thingy?
Topic: UI Frameworks SubTopic: AppKit Tags:
Replies
4
Boosts
0
Views
189
Activity
Sep ’25
macOS Tahoe: NSView -cacheDisplayInRect:toBitmapImageRep: Doesn't Work on NSButton that uses NSBezelStyleGlass
If I try making a bitmap of a NSButton using the following code: NSBitmapImageRep *rep = [button bitmapImageRepForCachingDisplayInRect:button.bounds]; [button cacheDisplayInRect:button.bounds toBitmapImageRep:rep]; NSData *tiffData = rep.TIFFRepresentation; I get a blank image if the NSButton has its bezelStyle set to NSBezelStyleGlass. If I change the bezel style to something else like NSBezelStyleFlexiblePush I do get an image
Topic: UI Frameworks SubTopic: AppKit Tags:
Replies
1
Boosts
0
Views
108
Activity
Sep ’25
SwiftUI crash on OSX 26 using NSColorPanel
Crashlog-0916-071225.log I have an app that crashes on OSX 26 only. I have a @StateObject which is an observer of the NSColorPanel. When I call let panel = NSColorPanel.shared in init(), SwiftUI will crash - apparently with an update while view is being updated. See crash log. I was able to work around it by adding let _ = NSColorPanel.shared in my AppDelegate before SwiftUI is initialized. The exact code worked fine in all previous OSX versions.
Replies
0
Boosts
0
Views
178
Activity
Sep ’25
How to differentiate between user-generated NSEvents and programmatically posted events in AppKit?
Hi all, In my AppKit app, I sometimes simulate events programmatically, for example: func simulateKeyPress(characters: String, keyCode: UInt16) { guard let keyDown = NSEvent.keyEvent( with: .keyDown, location: .zero, modifierFlags: [], timestamp: 0, windowNumber: NSApp.mainWindow?.windowNumber ?? 0, context: nil, characters: characters, charactersIgnoringModifiers: characters, isARepeat: false, keyCode: keyCode ) else { return } NSApp.postEvent(keyDown, atStart: false) } At the same time, I install a local event monitor: NSEvent.addLocalMonitorForEvents(matching: .any) { event in // Ideally, detect whether this event came from a real user // (mouse, keyboard, trackpad, etc.) // or was programmatically generated via NSEvent + postEvent. return event } The problem: Events I generate with NSEvent.* factory methods and post using NSApp.postEvent look the same as real system events when received in the monitor. My question: Is there a supported way to tell whether an incoming NSEvent is system/user-generated vs programmatically posted?
Topic: UI Frameworks SubTopic: AppKit Tags:
Replies
1
Boosts
0
Views
136
Activity
Sep ’25
macOS Document-Based SwiftUI App: “Save” menu item not localized in French
Hi everyone, I’ve run into a strange localization issue with macOS document-based apps in SwiftUI/AppKit. I created a standard document-based macOS app in Xcode (SwiftUI template) and added a French localization to the project. All system-generated menu bar commands (File → New, Close, Print, etc.) are correctly translated into French… except for “Save”, which remains in English. To rule out problems in my own code, I created a fresh, unmodified document-based app project in Xcode, and immediately added French localization without touching any code. Same result: all commands are translated except “Save”. This suggests the issue isn’t specific to my app code, but either the project template, or possibly macOS itself. My environment • Xcode version: 16.4 • macOS version: 15.6.1 Sequoia] • Swift: Swift 6 Questions 1. Has anyone else seen this issue with the “Save” command not being localized? 2. Is this expected behavior (maybe “Save” is handled differently from other menu items)? 3. If it’s a bug in the template or OS, is there a known workaround? Thanks for any insights P.S. Please note that I'm a total beginner
Replies
4
Boosts
0
Views
319
Activity
Sep ’25
Inset or disable NSSheetEffectDimmingView when presenting a sheet?
I have an NSWindow that isn't entirely opaque. When presenting a sheet AppKit overlays the window with NSSheetEffectDimmingView. The problem is the entire window frame is used so NSSheetEffectDimmingView overlays the transparent areas of the window and it looks bad. Is there a clean way to inset NSSheetEffectDimmingView or even perhaps disable this behavior completely so I can draw my own? I'm looking for a clean solution (other than modifying the view hierarchy of NSNextStepFrame) or swizzles which I might have to resort to if there is no other way.
Topic: UI Frameworks SubTopic: AppKit Tags:
Replies
0
Boosts
0
Views
163
Activity
Sep ’25
NSWindowCollectionBehavior in Full Screen Spaces
The NSWindow collection behavior is supposed to allow for a window to appear in all spaces, even when another window is full screen in that space. However, I cannot get this to work as expected with any combination. This should be as simple as: window.level = .screenSaver window.collectionBehavior = [ .canJoinAllSpaces, .fullScreenAuxiliary, .canJoinAllApplications, .stationary, .ignoresCycle ] If I have a window (Safari for example) which is full screen in its own space, run my app and change to the Safari window's space, my app's window is not visible at all; it will only float on top of windows in non-fullscreen spaces. What am I misunderstanding?
Topic: UI Frameworks SubTopic: AppKit Tags:
Replies
0
Boosts
0
Views
174
Activity
Sep ’25
NSToolbar Space item rendered with Liquid Glass Background
Hi, I have a NSToolbar in my Mac Catalyst app with a space and flexible space item in it (https://developer.apple.com/documentation/appkit/nstoolbaritem/identifier/space). On macOS Tahoe the space item is being rendered with a Liquid Glass effect and seems to be automatically grouped with the previous item. Is there a way to prevent this? It basically adds some undesired padding next to the previous item and looks add. The flexible space is rendered normally and as before. I am talking about the space right next to the back chevron item. Thanks for any hints!
Replies
1
Boosts
0
Views
267
Activity
Sep ’25
Printing of NSTextView
I have a document-based macOS app written in Objective-C, and each document window contains a scrollable NSTextView. I know that printing can get complicated if you want to do nice pagination, but is there a quick and dirty way to get basic printing working? As it is, the print panel shows up, but its preview area is totally blank. Here's the current printing part of my NSDocument subclass. - (NSPrintInfo *)printInfo { NSPrintInfo *printInfo = [super printInfo]; [printInfo setHorizontalPagination: NSPrintingPaginationModeFit]; [printInfo setHorizontallyCentered: NO]; [printInfo setVerticallyCentered: NO]; [printInfo setLeftMargin: 72.0]; [printInfo setRightMargin: 72.0]; [printInfo setTopMargin: 72.0]; [printInfo setBottomMargin: 72.0]; return printInfo; } - (void)printDocumentWithSettings:(NSDictionary<NSPrintInfoAttributeKey, id> *)printSettings showPrintPanel:(BOOL)showPrintPanel delegate:(id)delegate didPrintSelector:(SEL)didPrintSelector contextInfo:(void *)contextInfo { NSPrintInfo* thePrintInfo = [self printInfo]; [thePrintInfo setVerticallyCentered: NO ]; NSPrintOperation *op = [NSPrintOperation printOperationWithView: _textView printInfo: thePrintInfo ]; [op runOperationModalForWindow: _docWindow delegate: delegate didRunSelector: didPrintSelector contextInfo: contextInfo]; }
Topic: UI Frameworks SubTopic: AppKit Tags:
Replies
2
Boosts
0
Views
285
Activity
Aug ’25
Why is the nib still loaded even though the class has been registered with NSCollectionView?
I implemented a subclass of NSCollectionViewItem: class ViewItem: NSCollectionViewItem { override func loadView() { self.view = NSView() } } and registed to NSCollectionView: class PictureFrameThemeListView: NSCollectionView { init(viewModel: PictureFrameViewModel) { super.init(frame: .zero) self.register(ViewItem.self, forItemWithIdentifier: .item) } However, when calling makeItem(withIdentifier:for:), the following error is prompted: FAULT: NSInternalInconsistencyException: -[NSNib _initWithNibNamed:bundle:options:] could not load the nib 'Item' in bundle NSBundle What confuses me is that I registered the subclass of NSCollectionViewItem, why do NSCollectionView to init the NSNib?
Topic: UI Frameworks SubTopic: AppKit Tags:
Replies
2
Boosts
0
Views
109
Activity
Aug ’25
Xcode unit test "Creating more than one Application"
When I try to make a unit test target for my macOS app that uses Objective-C, running tests fails, and the debugging log shows a message "Creating more than one Application". If, on the other hand, when I create the unit test target, I select "None" as the target to be tested, and then add all my sources to that target, my tests work. So, I can get my testing done, but I think I must be doing something wrong. By the way, along with the error message, there is a stack crawl: 0 CoreFoundation 0x00007ff8140410aa __exceptionPreprocess + 242 1 libobjc.A.dylib 0x00007ff813b660b7 objc_exception_throw + 48 2 Foundation 0x00007ff814f19bd8 -[NSCalendarDate initWithCoder:] + 0 3 AppKit 0x00007ff817030062 -[NSApplication init] + 1718 4 XCTestCore 0x000000010774b0df -[XCTestDriver _createTestBundlePrincipalClassInstance] + 82 5 XCTestCore 0x0000000107749338 -[XCTestDriver _runTests] + 111 6 XCTestCore 0x000000010770f194 _XCTestMain + 126 7 libXCTestBundleInject.dylib 0x0000000106e8982d __copy_helper_block_e8_32s + 0 8 CoreFoundation 0x00007ff813fc9a91 __CFRUNLOOP_IS_CALLING_OUT_TO_A_BLOCK__ + 12 9 CoreFoundation 0x00007ff813fc99ca __CFRunLoopDoBlocks + 398 10 CoreFoundation 0x00007ff813fc883d __CFRunLoopRun + 898 11 CoreFoundation 0x00007ff813fc7e51 CFRunLoopRunSpecific + 560 12 HIToolbox 0x00007ff81da52f3d RunCurrentEventLoopInMode + 292 13 HIToolbox 0x00007ff81da52b84 ReceiveNextEventCommon + 199 14 HIToolbox 0x00007ff81da52aa8 _BlockUntilNextEventMatchingListInModeWithFilter + 64 15 AppKit 0x00007ff8170689d8 _DPSNextEvent + 858 16 AppKit 0x00007ff817067882 -[NSApplication(NSEvent) _nextEventMatchingEventMask:untilDate:inMode:dequeue:] + 1214 17 AppKit 0x00007ff817059ef7 -[NSApplication run] + 586 18 AppKit 0x00007ff81702e111 NSApplicationMain + 817 19 PlainCalc 0x00000001057d0a91 main + 65 20 dyld 0x00007ff813b93418 start + 1896
Replies
3
Boosts
0
Views
270
Activity
Aug ’25
universal clipboard not working when App not touched
I have a voice chat app that frequently writes to the universal clipboard. This works fine most of the time, but I've noticed that if I don't touch the screen for a long time, the universal clipboard information I read on my Mac won't update until I touch the app screen again. How can I fix this?
Replies
0
Boosts
0
Views
109
Activity
Aug ’25
NSTableView.reloadData(forRowIndexes:columnIndexes:) causes wrong subview layout when usesAutomaticRowHeights = true
I have a table view where each row has two labels, one left-aligned and one right-aligned. I would like to reload a single row, but doing so causes the right-aligned label to hug the left-aligned label. Before the reload: After the reload: Reloading the whole table view instead, or disabling automatic row height, solves the issue. Can a single row be reloaded without resorting to these two workarounds? I created FB13534100 1.5 years ago but got no response. class ViewController: NSViewController, NSTableViewDataSource, NSTableViewDelegate { override func loadView() { let tableView = NSTableView() tableView.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false tableView.dataSource = self tableView.delegate = self tableView.usesAutomaticRowHeights = true let column = NSTableColumn() column.width = 400 tableView.addTableColumn(column) let scrollView = NSScrollView(frame: CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: 500, height: 500)) scrollView.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false scrollView.documentView = tableView view = scrollView Timer.scheduledTimer(withTimeInterval: 2, repeats: false) { _ in print("reload") tableView.reloadData(forRowIndexes: IndexSet(integer: 2), columnIndexes: IndexSet(integer: 0)) // tableView.reloadData() } } func numberOfRows(in tableView: NSTableView) -> Int { return 5 } func tableView(_ tableView: NSTableView, viewFor tableColumn: NSTableColumn?, row: Int) -> NSView? { let cell = NSTableCellView() let textField1 = NSTextField(labelWithString: "hello") textField1.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false let textField2 = NSTextField(wrappingLabelWithString: "world") textField2.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false textField2.alignment = .right let stack = NSStackView(views: [ textField1, textField2 ]) stack.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false stack.distribution = .fill cell.addSubview(stack) NSLayoutConstraint.activate([stack.topAnchor.constraint(equalTo: cell.topAnchor, constant: 0), stack.leadingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: cell.leadingAnchor, constant: 0), stack.bottomAnchor.constraint(equalTo: cell.bottomAnchor, constant: 0), stack.trailingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: cell.trailingAnchor, constant: 0)]) return cell } }
Topic: UI Frameworks SubTopic: AppKit Tags:
Replies
2
Boosts
0
Views
183
Activity
Aug ’25
How can I connect NSTableCellView.textField to a SwiftUI view?
When using NSTableView or NSOutlineView, if you use an NSTableCellView and wire up the .imageView and .textField properties then you get some "free" behaviour with respect to styling and sizing of those fields. (ex: They reflect the user's preferred "Sidebar Icon Size" as selected in Settings. ) If I'm using a SwiftUI View inside an NSTableCellView, is there any way to connect a Text or Image to those properties? Consider the following pseudo code: struct MyCellView: View { let text: String let url: URL? var body: some View { HStack { Image(...) // How to indicate this is .imageView? Text(...) // How to indicate this is .textField? } } } final class MyTableCellView: NSTableCellView { private var hostingView: NSHostingView<MyCellView>! init() { self.hostingView = NSHostingView(rootView: MyCellView(text: "", url: nil)) self.addSubview(self.hostingView) } func configureWith(text: String, url: URL) { let rootView = MyCellView(text: text, url: url) hostingView.rootView = rootView // How can I make this connection? self.textField = rootView.??? self.imageView = rootView.??? } } I'm ideally looking for a solution that works on macOS 15+.
Replies
2
Boosts
0
Views
177
Activity
Aug ’25
Is it possible to create a Finder-like sidebar on Tahoe using AppKit?
I'm using IB to create an NSOutlineView. I configure it: [_outlineView setStyle:NSTableViewStyleSourceList] I put it in an NSSplitView. What I get is an old-style sidebar with a VisualEffect background and no rounded rect border.
Replies
3
Boosts
0
Views
215
Activity
Aug ’25
Crash when assigning NSImage to `@objc dynamic var` property
Xcode downloaded a crash report for my app which I don't quite understand. It seems the following line caused the crash: myEntity.image = newImage where myEntity is of type MyEntity: class MyEntity: NSObject, Identifiable { @objc dynamic var image: NSImage! ... } The code is called on the main thread. According to the crash report, thread 0 makes that assignment, and at the same time thread 16 is calling [NSImageView asynchronousPreparation:prepareResultUsingParameters:]. What could cause such a crash? Could I be doing something wrong or is this a bug in macOS? crash.crash
Replies
11
Boosts
0
Views
331
Activity
Aug ’25
vImageConverter_CreateWithCGImageFormat Fails with kvImageInvalidImageFormat When Trying to Convert CMYK to RGB
So I get JPEG data in my app. Previously I was using the higher level NSBitmapImageRep API and just feeding the JPEG data to it. But now I've noticed on Sonoma If I get a JPEG in the CMYK color space the NSBitmapImageRep renders mostly black and is corrupted. So I'm trying to drop down to the lower level APIs. Specifically I grab a CGImageRef and and trying to use the Accelerate API to convert it to another format (to hopefully workaround the issue... CGImageRef sourceCGImage = `CGImageCreateWithJPEGDataProvider(jpegDataProvider,` NULL, shouldInterpolate, kCGRenderingIntentDefault); Now I use vImageConverter_CreateWithCGImageFormat... with the following values for source and destination formats: Source format: (derived from sourceCGImage) bitsPerComponent = 8 bitsPerPixel = 32 colorSpace = (kCGColorSpaceICCBased; kCGColorSpaceModelCMYK; Generic CMYK Profile) bitmapInfo = kCGBitmapByteOrderDefault version = 0 decode = 0x000060000147f780 renderingIntent = kCGRenderingIntentDefault Destination format: bitsPerComponent = 8 bitsPerPixel = 24 colorSpace = (DeviceRBG) bitmapInfo = 8197 version = 0 decode = 0x0000000000000000 renderingIntent = kCGRenderingIntentDefault But vImageConverter_CreateWithCGImageFormat fails with kvImageInvalidImageFormat. Now if I change the destination format to use 32 bitsPerpixel and use alpha in the bitmap info the vImageConverter_CreateWithCGImageFormat does not return an error but I get a black image just like NSBitmapImageRep
Replies
14
Boosts
0
Views
1.8k
Activity
Aug ’25
Sleep State Notification Inconsistencies on MacBook Devices When Unplugged
There are inconsistent behaviors in sleep/wake notification callbacks across different MacBook devices and macOS versions when the device is not connected to power, with or without external displays, entering sleep mode by closing the lid, and waking up from sleep by opening the lid. When monitoring the following Objective-C notifications: NSWorkspaceScreensDidSleepNotification NSWorkspaceScreensDidWakeNotification NSWorkspaceWillSleepNotification NSWorkspaceDidWakeNotification Different devices exhibit varying notification trigger patterns: Some devices trigger all four notifications properly Some devices fail to trigger NSWorkspaceScreensDidWakeNotification Some devices fail to trigger NSWorkspaceDidWakeNotification Some devices fail to trigger NSWorkspaceWillSleepNotification These inconsistencies make it challenging to implement reliable sleep/wake detection logic across different MacBook models and macOS versions.
Replies
1
Boosts
0
Views
155
Activity
Aug ’25
NSToolbar doesn't restore displayMode when NSWindow.titleVisibility = .hidden
Apparently when setting a window to hide its title, the toolbar's displayMode is not restored when relaunching the app. For example, by default my app sets to show toolbar icons only, but when right-clicking it, selecting "Icon and Text" and relaunching the app, it's again "Icon Only". Is there a workaround? I've filed FB17144212. class ViewController: NSViewController, NSToolbarDelegate { override func viewDidAppear() { let toolbar = NSToolbar(identifier: "toolbar") toolbar.delegate = self toolbar.autosavesConfiguration = true toolbar.displayMode = .iconOnly view.window?.titleVisibility = .hidden view.window?.toolbar = toolbar view.window?.toolbarStyle = .unified } func toolbarAllowedItemIdentifiers(_ toolbar: NSToolbar) -> [NSToolbarItem.Identifier] { return [.init(rawValue: "item")] } func toolbarDefaultItemIdentifiers(_ toolbar: NSToolbar) -> [NSToolbarItem.Identifier] { return [.init(rawValue: "item")] } func toolbar(_ toolbar: NSToolbar, itemForItemIdentifier itemIdentifier: NSToolbarItem.Identifier, willBeInsertedIntoToolbar flag: Bool) -> NSToolbarItem? { let item = NSToolbarItem(itemIdentifier: itemIdentifier) item.image = NSImage(named: NSImage.addTemplateName)! item.label = "item" return item } }
Topic: UI Frameworks SubTopic: AppKit Tags:
Replies
2
Boosts
0
Views
161
Activity
Aug ’25