Rating-style LevelIndicator not showing dots

FROM : Jens Alfke
DATE : Mon Mar 24 07:10:29 2008

I've put an NSLevelIndicator into a panel, configured it to show 
iTunes-style star ratings, and made it editable. Unfortunately it 
doesn't draw the dots where stars would go; so if the current rating 
is zero stars, the control is completely invisible. This presents a UI 
problem, as the user has no idea there's something there to click.

I remember I previously ran into this a few years ago and reported it 
— it turned out to be a bug in the cell's implementation in AppKit. 
The cell suppresses the dots when it's in a table view and the row 
it's in isn't selected [as in iTunes], but the code for this didn't 
consider the case where it _wasn't_ in a table view, with the result 
that it always suppresses the dots.

Unfortunately I can't remember the workaround, or whether there even 
is one. Has anyone else dealt with this?

—Jens