Enabling/Disabling Control view hiearchies
-
I'm trying to set up a scheme whereby I can enable and disable a group
of related controls all at once. Under most of the application
frameworks that I am more familiar with (Carbon/HIView, PowerPlant,
etc...) one can set up a view hierarchy of controls and then
enable/disable the parent view to change the enabled state of the
children. Most are clever enough that when you reenable the parent
view, if any of the children were enabled before the parent was
disabled, then those "latently enabled" controls will be enabled again.
If I'm reading things properly, however, Cocoa distinguishes itself
from those other frameworks in that NSView doesn't have the concept of
being enabled. You don't see enabling behavior in the hierarchy until
you get to NSControl.
This, however, begs the question of how to group controls so that they
enable or disable together (i.e. if I turn on this checkbox then I
enable all the controls related to it).
As far as I can tell, you have to do something like maintain IB outlets
that point to the controls (including static text labels) and then
enable/disable them one-by-one.
I thought to group the controls inside of an NSBox that had no border,
but NSBox doesn't seem to understand enabling or disabling itself (and
it's subviews) either.
Given the elegance of the rest of the framework, I can only think that
I must have misunderstood something. Can anyone help me out by
describing the expected strategy for enabling/disabling controls, or by
pointing me to the appropriate documentation?
Scott
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Before bindings, I never found (though I'll admit I didn't
whole-heartedly search) a good way to enable/disable groups of
controls.
With bindings, however, it's quite simple and relatively elegant. For
every control you want to group together, bind its "enabled" property
to the same key within a controller.
Then just modify that key to enable/disable those controls.
Example: [theController setValue:[NSNumber numberWithBool:YES]
forKey:@"groupFooEnabled"];
- Mark
On Jun 18, 2004, at 4:15 PM, Scott Thompson wrote:> I'm trying to set up a scheme whereby I can enable and disable a group_______________________________________________
> of related controls all at once. Under most of the application
> frameworks that I am more familiar with (Carbon/HIView, PowerPlant,
> etc...) one can set up a view hierarchy of controls and then
> enable/disable the parent view to change the enabled state of the
> children. Most are clever enough that when you reenable the parent
> view, if any of the children were enabled before the parent was
> disabled, then those "latently enabled" controls will be enabled
> again.
>
> If I'm reading things properly, however, Cocoa distinguishes itself
> from those other frameworks in that NSView doesn't have the concept of
> being enabled. You don't see enabling behavior in the hierarchy until
> you get to NSControl.
>
> This, however, begs the question of how to group controls so that they
> enable or disable together (i.e. if I turn on this checkbox then I
> enable all the controls related to it).
>
> As far as I can tell, you have to do something like maintain IB
> outlets that point to the controls (including static text labels) and
> then enable/disable them one-by-one.
>
> I thought to group the controls inside of an NSBox that had no border,
> but NSBox doesn't seem to understand enabling or disabling itself (and
> it's subviews) either.
>
> Given the elegance of the rest of the framework, I can only think that
> I must have misunderstood something. Can anyone help me out by
> describing the expected strategy for enabling/disabling controls, or
> by pointing me to the appropriate documentation?
>
> Scott
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On Jun 18, 2004, at 2:15 PM, Scott Thompson wrote:> I'm trying to set up a scheme whereby I can enable and disable a group
> of related controls all at once. Given the elegance of the rest of
> the framework, I can only think that I must have misunderstood
> something. Can anyone help me out by describing the expected strategy
> for enabling/disabling controls, or by pointing me to the appropriate
> documentation?
If all controls and cells follow convention and manage state using
accessor methods, you can add a category to NSView, and poseAs
NSControl (and subclasses, as necessary) to enforce its use. Example
(untested, written in Mail.app):
@interface NSView (EnabledState)
- (BOOL)superviewIsEnabled;
- (BOOL)isEnabled;
- (void)setEnabled:(BOOL)enabled;
- (BOOL)enabled;
@end
@implementation NSView (EnabledState)
- (BOOL)superviewIsEnabled
{
return [[self superview] isEnabled];
}
- (BOOL)isEnabled
{
return YES; // Override in subclasses.
}
- (void)setEnabled:(BOOL)enabled
{
// NOP. Override in subclasses, to set ivar.
}
- (BOOL)enabled // KVC/bindings support
{
return [self isEnabled];
}
@end
@interface PosedNSControl : NSControl {}
@end
@implementation PosedNSControl
+ (void)load
{
[self poseAsClass:[NSControl class]];
}
- (BOOL)isEnabled
{
return [super isEnabled] && [self superviewIsEnabled];
}
@end
--
Shaun Wexler
MacFOH
http://www.macfoh.com
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Followup:
I just tested this, and it works fine; in fact, I added it to my base
framework. However, you'll need to change the -superviewIsEnabled
method as shown:
- (BOOL)superviewIsEnabled
{
NSView *superview;
if ((superview = [self superview])) {
return [superview isEnabled];
}
return YES;
}
I'd written it correctly at first, and it apparently got fuxored during
an undo/redo while editing in Mail.app.
Good luck!
--
Shaun Wexler
MacFOH
http://www.macfoh.com
On Jun 18, 2004, at 3:00 PM, Shaun Wexler wrote:> On Jun 18, 2004, at 2:15 PM, Scott Thompson wrote:
>
>> I'm trying to set up a scheme whereby I can enable and disable a group
>> of related controls all at once. Given the elegance of the rest of
>> the framework, I can only think that I must have misunderstood
>> something. Can anyone help me out by describing the expected strategy
>> for enabling/disabling controls, or by pointing me to the appropriate
>> documentation?
>
> If all controls and cells follow convention and manage state using
> accessor methods, you can add a category to NSView, and poseAs
> NSControl (and subclasses, as necessary) to enforce its use. Example
> (untested, written in Mail.app):
>
> @interface NSView (EnabledState)
> - (BOOL)superviewIsEnabled;
> - (BOOL)isEnabled;
> - (void)setEnabled:(BOOL)enabled;
> - (BOOL)enabled;
> @end
>
> @implementation NSView (EnabledState)
>
> - (BOOL)superviewIsEnabled
> {
> return [[self superview] isEnabled];
> }
>
> - (BOOL)isEnabled
> {
> return YES; // Override in subclasses.
> }
>
> - (void)setEnabled:(BOOL)enabled
> {
> // NOP. Override in subclasses, to set ivar.
> }
>
> - (BOOL)enabled // KVC/bindings support
> {
> return [self isEnabled];
> }
>
> @end
>
> @interface PosedNSControl : NSControl {}
> @end
>
> @implementation PosedNSControl
>
> + (void)load
> {
> [self poseAsClass:[NSControl class]];
> }
>
> - (BOOL)isEnabled
> {
> return [super isEnabled] && [self superviewIsEnabled];
> }
>
> @end
> --
> Shaun Wexler
> MacFOH
> http://www.macfoh.com
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I have a subclass of NSQuickDraw that I play some quickdraw based
graphics into that include some controls (think Flash movie)
As soon as I right click and bring up a context menu I can no longer
interact with the quickdraw content. I'm pretty puzzled about this, but
since Cocoa does all the work for a context menu I'm at a bit of a loss
as to why the view no longer sees things like mousedowns.
My Cocoa view is still getting the events, but when I pass them along
to the quickdraw nothing happens.
It all works fine until this menu is popped up, it seems *something* is
being deactivated, but I can't figure out what.
john pattenden
screentime media.
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My email cheesed out, so I did not get any messages for many hours
after I posted this...
I have a subclass of NSQuickDraw that I play some quickdraw based
graphics into that include some controls (think Flash movie)
As soon as I right click and bring up a context menu I can no longer
interact with the quickdraw content. I'm pretty puzzled about this, but
since Cocoa does all the work for a context menu I'm at a bit of a loss
as to why the view no longer sees things like mousedowns. It will still
track a mouse (not dragging just following the mouse) and continues to
draw on its own - it is just that control no longer respond.
My Cocoa view is still getting the events, but when I pass them along
to the quickdraw environement nothing happens.
everything works fine until this menu is popped up, it seems
*something* is being deactivated, but I can't figure out what.
john pattenden
screentime media.
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