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

AppKit Documentation

Post

Replies

Boosts

Views

Activity

SwiftUI Scene with a single window on macOS
Is it possible to only allow a single window instance on macOS? WindowGroup/DocumentGroup allow the user to create multiple instances of a window. I'd like to only allow one, for an Onboarding sequence. I've checked the Scene documentation - https://developer.apple.com/documentation/swiftui/scene, and it appears the only types conforming to the Scene protocol are WindowGroup, DocumentGroup and Settings. How can I create a single Window in a SwiftUI App? An example use case: struct TutorialScene: Scene {   var body: some Scene { 	// I don't want to allow multiple windows of this Scene! 	WindowGroup { 		TutorialView() 	}	 }
6
0
3.8k
Aug ’20
How to capture or monitor all kind of keyboard event from NSViewController?
import Cocoa class MyView: NSView { override init(frame frameRect: NSRect) { super.init(frame: frameRect) } required init?(coder: NSCoder) { fatalError("init(coder:) has not been implemented") } override func becomeFirstResponder() -> Bool { return true } override var acceptsFirstResponder: Bool { return true } override func keyUp(with event: NSEvent) { print("keyUp: keyCode=\(event.keyCode)") } // the 'CMD + q' combination will quit the app // the 'CMD + t' combination will open a font setting window // the 'CMD + Space' combination will toggle the spotlight search // the 'CTRL + Space' combination will toggle the input method switching // why this can't capture the key board event like 'CMD + Space' or 'CMD + t' or 'CMD + q'? // or how capture those combinations regardless of the system-wide shortcuts? override func keyDown(with event: NSEvent) { print("keyDown: keyCode=\(event.keyCode)") if event.modifierFlags.contains(.command) { if event.keyCode == 49 { print("keyDown: CMD + Space") // if the 'CMD' and 'Space' keys were pressed both, this line is not print } else { print("keyDown: CMD + others") // here, like 'CMD' and 'j' keys were pressed both, this line is print } } else if event.modifierFlags.contains(.control) { if event.keyCode == 49 { print("keyDown: CTRL + Space") // if the 'CTRL' and 'Space' keys were pressed both, this line is not print } else { print("keyDown: CTRL + others") // here, like 'CTRL' and 'j' keys were pressed both, this line is print } } else { print("keyDown: CMD or CTRL is not pressed") } } override func flagsChanged(with event: NSEvent) { print(#function, event.keyCode) } } class ViewController: NSViewController { override func viewDidLoad() { super.viewDidLoad() } override func viewWillAppear() { super.viewWillAppear() let myview = MyView(frame: view.bounds) view.addSubview(myview) } }
3
0
153
1w
Progress bar in NSTableCellView changes to other cell when scrolling
Hello, I'm not I00% sure how to ask this, so I apologize if I word it wrong. This is Obj-C from an older project I have. My app has a NSTableView and each cell has a button to perform and action and shows a progress bar in each cell. The issue I'm running in to is when I scroll down while a task is running the running progress bar shows running on a different cell. So if its he 2nd from the bottom and a scroll an even number of row its equivalent is now showing the progress bar. How do I target just that one cell; making it unique?
1
0
97
5d
Attachment is displayed incorrectly
In the recent MacOS Sequoia Beta 3 NSTextAttachment initialized with custom data and an Image cell as attachmentCell are shown as a file icon istead of the image cell. I am creating a NSAttributedString and showing it in NSTextView like this: NSTextAttachment *attachment = [[NSTextAttachment alloc] initWithData:[text dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding] ofType:nil]; attachment.attachmentCell = [[NSTextAttachmentCell alloc] initImageCell:img]; NSMutableAttributedString *res = [[NSMutableAttributedString alloc] initWithAttributedString:[NSAttributedString attributedStringWithAttachment:attachment]]; ...
0
0
114
6d
SF Symbol rotate animation in NSImageView looks weird in macOS 15 beta
When using the new ‘addSymbolEffect’ effect method on NSImageView with the ‘.rotate.byLayer’ parameter with an applicable SF Symbol 6 symbol, the resulting animation is not completely as expected, to say it mildly. This is the code line I use: imageView.addSymbolEffect(.rotate.byLayer, options: .repeat(.continuous), animated: true) The correct layer rotates around the correct anchor point, but the whole image is moving up and down. The same code with the same symbol in iOS 18 beta runs perfectly. Does anyone know how to get this new rotate API correctly working in macOS 15 beta? In case an Apple engineer reads this: FB13916874 contains example projects for macOS (wobbling rotation) and iOS (perfect rotation), and a screen recording what I see in macOS 15 beta.
0
0
129
1w
Regression macOS 15 beta: NSTableViewDiffableDataSource does not call the 'cellProvider' when the data of a visible cell changes
In one of my apps, I use NSTableViewDiffableDataSource in tandem with NSFetchedResultsController, which provides the necessary snapshots. This works great in macOS 14.5. However in latest macOS 15 betas, NSTableViewDiffableDataSource does not call the 'cellProvider' completion handler anymore when the data of a visible cell changes. When data of a visible cell changes, the didChangeContentWith method of NSFetchedResultsController is called correctly, but applying the provided snapshot doesn’t result in calling the said 'cellProvider' completion handler. This looks a rollback to the early state of this API in 2020. It concerns this piece of code: dataSource = NSTableViewDiffableDataSource(tableView: tableView, cellProvider: { (tableView, tableColumn, row, item) -> NSView in // Return a cell view with data }) Does anyone know a solution or workaround to get animated updates of visible cells working in macOS 15 beta? Yes, applying the snapshot without animation works, but that’s not where NSTableViewDiffableDataSource is designed for. In case an Apple engineer reads this: Looking at the sample code associated with FB13931189, is there anything wrongly implemented that prevents calling the 'cellProvider' method for visible cells? Is this perhaps actually a bug of NSFetchedResultsController? I’m asking this because NSCollectionViewDiffableDataSource does have a very similar problem (FB13943853). PS Yes, this post looks very similar to https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/759381#759381021, because the problem is identical except that concerns NSCollectionViewDiffableDataSource.
0
0
138
1w
Regression macOS 15 beta: NSCollectionViewDiffableDataSource does not call the 'itemProvider' when the data of a visible item changes
In one of my apps, I use NSCollectionViewDiffableDataSource in tandem with NSFetchedResultsController, which provides the necessary snapshots. This works great in macOS 14.5. However, when updating data in Core Data related to a visible item in a NSCollectionView, the NSCollectionViewDiffableDataSource no longer calls the ‘itemProvider’ closure of the diffable data source when using macOS 15 Seed 3, after applying a snapshot with animation. As a result of this, the collection view does not update visible items when the related data changes. I’m talking about this piece of code which is no longer called when it concerns a visible item: dataSource = NSCollectionViewDiffableDataSource<String, NSManagedObjectID>(collectionView: collectionView, itemProvider: { // Return an NSCollectionViewItem here }) Does anyone know a workaround or solution to get updating of visible cells working in macOS 15 Seed 3, without losing animated updates? In case an Apple engineer is reading this: Are there any related API changes that must be taken into account? Is this perhaps actually a bug of NSFetchedResultsController? I’m asking this because NSTableViewDiffableDataSource does have a very similar problem in macOS 15 beta. See also FB13943853
0
0
129
1w
NSApplicationPresentationDisableHideApplication is not disabling the "Hide" option from the dock menu
Hello, I am trying to use the following code to disable the Hide option for my application : NSApplicationPresentationOptions options = [NSApp presentationOptions]; options |= NSApplicationPresentationDisableHideApplication; [NSApp setPresentationOptions:options]; , but it doesn't have any effect : the Hide option is still clickable : How could I remove this option? Thanks for any help in advance!
0
0
110
1w
refresh the folder icon
Problem Description: I used Swift code to change a folder icon by calling the NSWorkspace.shared.setIcon(_:forFile:options:) method. The specific code is as follows: NSWorkspace.shared.setIcon(coloredIcon, forFile: folderURL.path, options: [.exclude10_4ElementsIconCreationOption]) I noticed that the folder icon has been correctly changed in the Finder preview window, but the icon displayed on the desktop is still the original one. Expected Result: I hope the folder icon on the desktop can also be updated to display the new icon. Solutions Tried: I have tried restarting Finder and manually refreshing the icon cache, but the folder icon on the desktop still does not update. Help Needed: I would like to know if there is a way to automatically refresh the desktop folder icon cache in Swift code to ensure that the changed icon can be immediately displayed.
0
0
149
2w
I tried to add a overlay window onto app in full screen mode but failed
As the topic mentioned, I want to add a overlay window onto Apps that are in full screen mode, trying to create some blur effect on the screen. But Apple seems to treat full screen mode Apps differently as a "space." So currently I can only apply the blur effect like this. (This is my Desktop page) But When it doesn't affect the full screen mode Apps. (For example: My Xcode) And I know some of the App down this kind of stuff. Like this This is my current code. Hope someone can tell me how to solve it.
1
0
245
2w
Display interactable UI on macOS login screen
We are developing a lightweight VPN client inside a daemon process that will run even when no user session is active on machine. The lightweight VPN runs in machine context and does not require user session. We would like to display some basic diagnosis information about our lightweight client on macOS login window before user is logged into their machine (in case users need that). So, is it possible to display a UI window on login screen with some basic info that user can interact with. If yes, where can I get started? Please note, this is not an authorization plugin. We are just wanting to display info about our process that runs a lightweight VPN client on macOS login screen.
0
0
178
2w
Programmatically created NSWindow crashes upon close
I am trying to wrap my head around proper lifecycles of NSWindows and how to handle them properly. I have the default macOS app template with a ViewController inside a window that is inside a Window Controller. I also create a simple programatic window in applicationDidFinishLaunching like this: let dummyWindow = CustomWindow(contentRect: .init(origin: .zero, size: .init(width: 200, height: 100)), styleMask: [.titled, .closable, .resizable], backing: .buffered, defer: true) dummyWindow.title = "Code window" dummyWindow.makeKeyAndOrderFront(nil) The CustomWindow class is just: class CustomWindow: NSWindow { deinit { print("Deinitializing window...") } } When I close the programatic window (either by calling .close() or by just tapping the red close button, the app crashes with EXC_BAD_ACCESS. Even though I am not accessing the window in any way. One might think it's because of ARC but it's not. One—the window is still strongly referenced by NSApplication.shared.windows even when the local scope of applicationDidFinishLaunching ends. And two—the "Deinitializing window..." is only printed after the window is closed. Closing the Interface Builder window works without any crashes. I dug deep and played with the isReleasedWhenClosed property. It made no difference whether it was false or true for the IB window. It stopped the crashing for the programmatic window though. But this raises three questions: What is accessing the programatic window after it's closed—causing a crash because the default behaviour of NSWindow is to release it—if it's not my code? What is the difference under the hood between a normal window and a window inside a window controller that prevents these crashes? If the recommended approach for programmatic windows is to always set isReleasedWhenClosed = true then how do you actually release a programatic window so that it does not linger in memory indefinetely? If the EXC_BAD_ACCESS means that an object is double de-allocated then that would mean that .close() both releases the window (first release) and removes it from the window list which would mean last strong reference is released and ARC cleans the window out (second release). The theory is supported by me calling .orderOut() instead of close which only removes it from the application list and that does indeed release it without crash. Does this mean programmatic windows should override the close() instance method to call orderOut() instead? This seems like poor API design or I am understanding it wrong?
2
0
226
3w
NSTableView flickers while using dynamic cell heights in macOS Sonoma
Suppose we have a nstableview(view based) with automatic row heights enabled. Also each cell view is very dynamic with a lot of elements including text views, buttons and custom views. The enclosingScrollView for the tableview has vertical elasticity. In this case, there is flicker occurring when we pull down or pull up in the tableview. The more dynamic the cells are the greater the amount of flicker. I suspect this would be the cause, Since this did not occur when building with xcode 14 macOS Ventura, There are some changes that have been said to be made in WWDC 2023 regarding automatic row heights in macOS Sonoma - https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2023/10054/ Kindly suggest fixes or alternative ways to achieve smoother performance.
0
0
133
3w
NSTextInputClient concurrency issues in Swift 6
Hello! In our codebase we have a NSView subclass that conforms to NSTextInputClient. This protocol is currently not marked as a main actor, but in the decade this has been in use here it has always been called on the main thread from AppKit. With Swift 6 (or complete concurrency checking in Swift 5) this conformance causes issues since NSView is a main actor but not this protocol. I've tried a few of the usual fixes (MainActor.assumeIsolated or prefixing the protocol conformance with @preconcurrency) but they were not able to resolve all warnings. So I dug in the AppKit headers and found that NSTextInputClient is usually implemented by the view itself, but that that is not a hard requirement (see NSTextInputContext.h the documentation for the client property or here). With that I turned my NSView subclass extension into a separate class that is not a main actor and in my NSView subclass create an instance of it and NSTextInputContext. This all seems to work fine in my initial tests, the delegate methods are called. But when the window loses and then regains key, I see a warning message in the console output. -[TUINSCursorUIController activate:]: Foo.TextInputClient isn't subclass of NSView. So my question is, am I doing it wrong with the custom class that implements the protocol? Or is the warning wrong? I would also appreciate a hint on how to better resolve the concurrency issues with NSTextInputClient. Is a main actor annotation coming at some point from your end? Thanks! Markus
0
1
209
3w
NSTextLayoutManager's enumerateTextSegments parameters documentation
This function on NSTextLayoutManager has the following signature func enumerateTextSegments( in textRange: NSTextRange, type: NSTextLayoutManager.SegmentType, options: NSTextLayoutManager.SegmentOptions = [], using block: (NSTextRange?, CGRect, CGFloat, NSTextContainer) -> Bool ) The documentation here doesn't define what the CGRect and CGFloat passed to block are. However, looking at sample code Using TextKit2 To Interact With Text, they seem to be the frame for the textsegment and baselineposition respectively. But, the textSegmentFrame seems to start at origin.x = 5.0 when text is empty. Is this some starting offset for text segments? I don't seem to be able to find mention of this anywhere.
1
0
458
Oct ’23
What sets NSTextParagraph.paragraphSeparatorRange and paragraphContentRange
With my continued experiments with TextKit2, I'm trying to figure out what sets the properties paragraphSeparatorRange and paragraphContentRange on a NSTextParagraph. These seem to be computed properties (or at least they cannot be directly set via public API). var paragraph = NSTextParagraph(attributedString: NSAttributedString(string: "It was the best of times.\n")) print("attributes: \(paragraph.attributedString.attributes(at: 0, effectiveRange: nil))") print("paragraphSeparatorRange: \(String(describing: paragraph.paragraphSeparatorRange))") print("paragraphContentRange: \(String(describing: paragraph.paragraphContentRange))") In the above example, both paragraphSeparatorRange and paragraphContentRange are nil. However, when using NSTextLayoutManager/NSTextContentStorage they are set. let layoutManager = NSTextLayoutManager() let container = NSTextContainer(size: NSSize(width: 400, height: 400)) layoutManager.textContainer = container let contentStorage = NSTextContentStorage() contentStorage.textStorage = NSTextStorage(string: "It was the best of times.\n") contentStorage.addTextLayoutManager(layoutManager) layoutManager.enumerateTextLayoutFragments(from: contentStorage.documentRange.location, options: .ensuresLayout) { textLayoutFragment in print("layoutFragment: \(textLayoutFragment)") print("textElement: \(String(describing: textLayoutFragment.textElement))") print("textElement.range: \(String(describing: textLayoutFragment.textElement?.elementRange))") let paragraph = textLayoutFragment.textElement as! NSTextParagraph print("paragraphContentRange: \(String(describing: paragraph.paragraphContentRange))") print("paragraphSeparatorRange: \(String(describing: paragraph.paragraphSeparatorRange))") return true } Would appreciate any ideas on how these values are computed/set. Thanks
1
0
487
Dec ’23
NSTableView cells disappear on macOS Sonoma
Hi, i have an old popover status bar mac app that i didn't check in the past few macOS releases, so don't know when the problem appeared. On Sonoma i have the following problem: All NSTableViews cells when they are reused the second time, they are blank. The cells are of type view and only one column. If i investigate in the Xcode's view hierarchy I indeed see no subviews in the cell, but if i print the subviews and their frames and their visibility, they are there alright, they exist. All the cells are instantiated from nib and I tried few strategies to use them: register the cell in the tableview and load it with tableView.makeView(withIdentifier: ) no registration, just load them from xib and keep a reference to their instance and feed that to the table when asked no registration, load them from xib when the table asks. This solution actually works but i really need a reference to them that doesn't change, it's a settings screen and someone else is feeding some info to this cells. I'm stuck, I have no idea what is happening, can you think of something? Thanks!
0
0
210
Jun ’24
Opt out of window tiling (macOS 15)
Is there a way to opt certain windows out of tiling in macOS 15? I'm supporting a beloved feature called App Veil[1], which places windows below others that are not owned by the host application. These windows are passive: they don't allow mouse events and cannot be resized or moved. With the new tiling feature on macOS 15, the window manager will rearrange these windows if you choose an arrangement option (such as Arrange Left & Right). Ideally, I'd like to opt out of this behavior altogether for these windows, but I couldn't find a way to do that. The only thing I've found was that I could set a high window level, but that's not really an option as it's important to preserve the ordering so that the windows are directly below the out-of-process windows. 1: https://tuple.app/app-veil
0
0
244
Jun ’24
NSTextField changes its text color when users click on it under dark theme
// //  AppDelegate.swift //  HelloCocoa // import Cocoa @main class AppDelegate: NSObject, NSApplicationDelegate {     func applicationDidFinishLaunching(_ aNotification: Notification) {                  let myAlert = NSAlert()         myAlert.messageText = "Alert Title"         let messageAttributedString = NSAttributedString(string: "Hello,world", attributes: [.font : NSFont.systemFont(ofSize: 12, weight: .bold)])         let myTextField = NSTextField(labelWithAttributedString: messageAttributedString)         myTextField.allowsEditingTextAttributes = true         myTextField.isSelectable = true         myAlert.accessoryView = myTextField         myAlert.runModal()     }     func applicationWillTerminate(_ aNotification: Notification) {         // Insert code here to tear down your application     }     func applicationSupportsSecureRestorableState(_ app: NSApplication) -> Bool {         return true     } } The alert appears like this: but when I clicks on the textfield, the text's color become black: Adding foregroundColor key to attribute dictionary works for me but I really want to know why NSTextfield has such behavior
1
1
654
Jan ’23
Can't typing on NSTextField
Hi, I just did a NSTextField with auto complete that show a cities menu bar the problem is when I typing the first letter, the focus change to the menubar and if I try to write another letter it just replace the first letter and not add it how can I fix it? Thank you! class NSTextFieldAuto: NSTextField, NSMenuDelegate, NSTextFieldDelegate { var suggestionMenu: NSMenu? var selectedSuggestionIndex: Int? override func awakeFromNib() { super.awakeFromNib() self.delegate = self self.suggestionMenu = NSMenu() self.suggestionMenu?.delegate = self } override func mouseDown(with event: NSEvent) { super.mouseDown(with: event) // Deselect all text when the text field is clicked } override func textDidChange(_ notification: Notification) { super.textDidChange(notification) print("Still typing") updateSuggestionMenu() showSuggestionMenu() } override func textDidEndEditing(_ notification: Notification) { print("Finished typing") cityDef.setValue(self.stringValue, forKey: cityDefKey) } func updateSuggestionMenu() { self.suggestionMenu?.removeAllItems() let searchText = self.stringValue.lowercased() for (index, city) in allCities.enumerated() { if city.lowercased().hasPrefix(searchText) { let item = NSMenuItem(title: city, action: #selector(selectSuggestion(_:)), keyEquivalent: "") item.target = self self.suggestionMenu?.addItem(item) } } } func showSuggestionMenu() { if let menu = self.suggestionMenu, !menu.items.isEmpty { let textFieldRect = self.bounds let origin = NSPoint(x: textFieldRect.origin.x + 100.0, y: textFieldRect.origin.y + textFieldRect.size.height) menu.autoenablesItems = false menu.popUp(positioning: nil, at: origin, in: self) } } @objc func selectSuggestion(_ sender: NSMenuItem) { self.stringValue = sender.title } override func cancelOperation(_ sender: Any?) { self.suggestionMenu?.cancelTracking() self.window?.becomeFirstResponder() } func menuDidClose(_ menu: NSMenu) { self.window?.makeFirstResponder(self) // Set text field as first responder again print("Close menu") } override func becomeFirstResponder() -> Bool { let result = super.becomeFirstResponder() self.selectedSuggestionIndex = nil // Reset selected suggestion index return result } }
3
0
316
Jun ’24