View-based NSTableView view controllers

Question

I'm not sure if I am doing things right but this is my problem:

I have a view-based NSTableView using bindings to an arraycontroller.

I need to do some custom drawing on each row, depending the represented object as well as capture click in certain areas so for this I would need to have a controller for each row and set outlets for the sub-views in my custom cell view, but I don't understand how I can achieve this.

If I just add an object to the nib and make the connections to it, then I cannot tell which of the views is being drawn (or has been clicked).

Could you elaborate more on what you are trying to achieve. What do you mean by capture clicks? Do you have buttons or do you want to handle the events? — Suhas, Sep 05 '12 at 03:44
I have several sub-views and I want to handle the mouseUp events. At the same time I want to draw on those sub-views with different colors depending on values from the represented object. — Francisco Silva, Sep 05 '12 at 08:59

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 04 '12 at 21:31

You have to implement the delegate methods :

- (NSView *)tableView:(NSTableView *)tableView viewForTableColumn:(NSTableColumn *)tableColumn row:(NSInteger)row

It's used by the table view to get a view for a give cell (column, row). Then by using "makeViewWithIdentifier:owner:", you can get the a reusable cell with a given identifier and a given owner (view controller). The simplest way is to design your cells in Interface Builder, and set a different identifier for each one. Then the method "makeViewWithIdentifier:owner" will automatically create a view for you for the given identifier.

Doesn't that collide with the using of bindings? – Francisco Silva Sep 04 '12 at 22:18 — Francisco Silva, Sep 04 '12 at 22:18

score -1 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:20

I just found someone asked a similar question and the answer to it also satisfies my needs, so for anyone ending up here, this is what I did:

I set my NSTableCellView controller as the delegate of the NSTableView.
In my NSTableCellView subclass I implement the needed methods (drawRect:, mouseUp: and so forth) and call the respective methods in the controller.

To access the controller I get the NSTableView and then its delegate like this:

NSTableView *tableView = (NSTableView*)myView.superview.superview.superview;
MyControllerClass *controller = (MyControllerClass*)tableView.delegate;
[controller view:myView drawRect:dirtyRect]

On the controller, to tell which view is sending an event, I use their identifiers.

View-based NSTableView view controllers

2 Answers2