NSPopover and adding spacing with NSStatusItem

Question

I am working on a menubar app, that uses NSPopover. I am using the following code to present popover.

[self.mainPopover showRelativeToRect:[testView bounds] ofView:testView preferredEdge:NSMinYEdge];

Issue is this is being present too close to status bar as shown below.

Even if i change the rect it does not have any effect and rightly so, as the documentation states

The rectangle within positioningView relative to which the popover should be positioned. Normally set to the bounds of positioningView. May be an empty rectangle, which will default to the bounds of positioningView.

Following is the screenshot from dropbox app, was just wondering how can i add some spacing in my app like dropbox.

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 03 '18 at 23:40

To achieve this i added a padding view and attach set NSStatusItem View to that container view. Code from the solution used is as follow for anybody looking to implement it.

_paddingView = [NSView new];
[_containerView addSubview:_paddingView];
[_containerView addSubview:_dragView];

[_dragView      setTranslatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints:NO];
[_paddingView   setTranslatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints:NO];
[_containerView addConstraints:[NSLayoutConstraint constraintsWithVisualFormat:@"V:|[_dragView(22)][_paddingView(5)]|"                                                                                                                 options:0
                                                                       metrics:nil views:views]];
[_containerView addConstraint:[NSLayoutConstraint constraintWithItem:_dragView
                                                           attribute:NSLayoutAttributeLeft relatedBy:NSLayoutRelationEqual
                                                              toItem:_paddingView attribute:NSLayoutAttributeLeft
                                                          multiplier:1. constant:0]];
[_containerView addConstraint:[NSLayoutConstraint constraintWithItem:_dragView
                                                           attribute:NSLayoutAttributeRight relatedBy:NSLayoutRelationEqual
                                                              toItem:_paddingView attribute:NSLayoutAttributeRight
                                                          multiplier:1. constant:0]];

self.mainPopover = [[NSPopover alloc] init];
self.mainPopover.delegate = self;
self.mainPopover.backgroundColor = [NSColor greenColor];
[self.mainPopover setAnimates:NO];
[self.mainPopover setBehavior:NSPopoverBehaviorTransient];
[self.mainPopover setContentViewController:viewController];

[_containerView layoutSubtreeIfNeeded];

[_statusItem setView:_containerView];

This is how I solved it in Swift https://stackoverflow.com/questions/48594212/how-to-open-a-nspopover-at-a-distance-from-the-system-bar/48604455#48604455 — Pier, Feb 04 '18 at 03:43

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 15 '17 at 10:40

0

You could inset the test view bounds to add some margin between de view and popover:

NSPopover *mainPopover = [self mainPopover];
NSRect bounds = CGRectInset([testView bounds], -50.0, -50.0);
[mainPopover showRelativeToRect:bounds ofView:testView preferredEdge:NSMinYEdge];

answered Nov 15 '17 at 10:40

Maarten Foukhar

349
1
11

This does not work as documentation states `postioningrect` is the rectangle within positioningView – Mirza Bilal Nov 15 '17 at 11:01
It works for a NSButton I placed inside a window, but I guess the containing window of the NSMenuItemButton doesn't allow it to go outside the bounds. – Maarten Foukhar Nov 15 '17 at 11:23
I had to layout an invisible view below the actual view to achieve this. – Mirza Bilal Nov 15 '17 at 11:35
Had the same idea, seems be the only solution. in my experience on Mac development, sometimes hacky sollutions are the only solution. – Maarten Foukhar Nov 15 '17 at 12:09
hey @MirzaBilal could you post your solution as an answer? – Pier Feb 03 '18 at 18:39
1

@Pier Let me do that – Mirza Bilal Feb 03 '18 at 23:39

NSPopover and adding spacing with NSStatusItem

2 Answers2