I am developing a macOS app (using Swift & Storyboard) which window behaves like the Adobe Creative Cloud app. And I could not find the optimal solution after hours of research.
This means:
When the app launches, the main window shows up with various menus on the status bar, an icon appears in the dock, and an icon appears in the status bar.
When the user clicks the red X, the main window and the icon in the dock are hidden.
The main app window can be reopened by clicking the status bar icon. And the dock icon reappears.
My storyboard looks like this:
I have tried the following:
By setting Application is agent (UIElement) to YES, I was able to close the main app window while keeping the app alive. However, the app icon does not show up in the dock, and there are no menus in the left side of the status bar.
I was able to launch a new app window by clicking the status bar icon. But doing so simply opens a whole new window regardless of whether a window is already being presented (I only want one window to show up).
let storyboard = NSStoryboard(name: "Main", bundle: nil)
guard let window = storyboard.instantiateController(withIdentifier: .init(stringLiteral: "main")) as? WindowController else { return }
window.showWindow(self)
Much appreciation for anyone who can help!
Don't use the Application is agent approach, but change the activationPolicy of the NSApp.
To dynamically hide the icon after closing the (last) window use this in your AppDelegate:
func applicationShouldTerminateAfterLastWindowClosed(_ sender: NSApplication) -> Bool {
NSApp.setActivationPolicy(.accessory)
return false
}
And use something simular to this to initialise your menubar icon and activate the window including a dock icon:
class ViewController: NSViewController {
var status: NSStatusItem?
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
status = NSStatusBar.system.statusItem(withLength: NSStatusItem.variableLength)
status?.button?.title = "Test"
status?.button?.action = #selector(activateWindow(_:))
status?.button?.target = self
}
#IBAction func activateWindow(_ sender: AnyObject) {
NSApp.setActivationPolicy(.regular)
DispatchQueue.main.async {
NSApp.windows.first?.orderFrontRegardless()
}
}
}
Related
In my window controller, I implement:
#IBAction override func newWindowForTab(_ sender: Any?) {
if let wc = NSStoryboard.main?.instantiateInitialController() as? WindowController,
let window = wc.window {
self.window?.addTabbedWindow(window, ordered: .above)
window.makeKey()
}
}
In the view controller, I have this code:
let window = self.view.window?.windowController as? WindowController
Also tried:
let window = NSApp.mainWindow?.windowController as? WindowController
If I don't have any tabs, it's able to get the window controller. But on new tabs, it does grab the window controller.
Similarly, I've unsuccessfully tried sending an action to the WindowController:
NSApp.sendAction(#selector(WindowController.pageLabelChange), to: nil, from: label)
Works for the original window, but not for any newly created tabs.
How do the newly created view controller objects communicate with the window controller?
Edit:
For more context in how I am using this code: It's basically a PDFView that's embedded in a window. The window has a tool bar that displays the page number. Using any of the above code, I can set the current page number of the PDFView, but when there's a tab, it does not work. Using the .PDFViewPageChanged notification, I call my func
NSApp.sendAction(#selector(WindowController.pageLabelChange), to: nil, from: pdfView)
Edit 2:
I've created a GitHub with a test project that shows the problem I have. You should be able to see that when you launch the project, the + button will add a number to the textfield in the tab bar. But if you go to the View menu > Add tab, it creates a new tab, but the + does nothing.
You create new window controller on stack so it is destroyed right after return, that is the reason. You need to store somewhere reference to created tab window controller and manage it (the place of storage is up to your app logic).
Here is simple demo that makes code work
Tested with Xcode 11.4 / macOS 10.15.5
final class WindowController: NSWindowController {
#IBOutlet weak var testField: NSTextField!
var tabControllers = [WindowController]() // << storage for child controllers
#IBAction override func newWindowForTab(_ sender: Any?) {
if let wc = NSStoryboard.main?.instantiateInitialController() as? WindowController,
let window = wc.window {
self.window?.addTabbedWindow(window, ordered: .above)
window.makeKey()
tabControllers.append(wc) // keep reference in storage
// TODO: - you are responsible to manage wc, eg: remove
// from storage on window close.
}
}
}
First of all the native macOS application is made into an accessory type application 3 seconds after launching (to show an info screen first, before the app goes into the system menu bar):
DispatchQueue.main.asyncAfter(deadline: .now() + 3) {
NSApplication.shared.setActivationPolicy(.accessory)
}
It has a status bar menu created with:
class func createMenu(color: Bool) -> Void {
let statusBar = NSStatusBar.system
self.sharedInstance.storedStatusItem = statusBar.statusItem(withLength: NSStatusItem.variableLength)
self.sharedInstance.storedStatusItem.menu = ABCMenu.statusBarMenu()
}
The user has several options in the status bar menu to open different screens with controls. One of them is shown with:
class func showServiceViewController() -> Void {
let storyboard = NSStoryboard(name: NSStoryboard.Name("Main"), bundle: Bundle.main)
guard let vc = storyboard.instantiateController(withIdentifier: "ABCServiceViewController") as? ABCServiceViewController, let checkedWindow = ABCUIManager.sharedInstance.window else {
return
}
checkedWindow.contentViewController = vc
checkedWindow.setIsVisible(true)
checkedWindow.orderFrontRegardless()
}
The problem is that sometimes the selected view controller is not brought to the background and has to be found underneath many other already opened applications and windows. Most of the time it works fine, but not always.
Are there any better ways to assure that the new view controller is always brought up to the highest level and shown to the user?
Thank you for any suggestions.
I would activate application before showing window (as you have accessory application it is not activated by default and must be done programmatically)
...
NSApplication.shared.activate(ignoringOtherApps: true)
checkedWindow.contentViewController = vc
checkedWindow.setIsVisible(true)
checkedWindow.orderFrontRegardless()
}
I create a simple app for only status bar in macOS Swift.
I create a new NSWindowController and xib, when I call #objc function
self.aboutWindows.showWindow(self)
if I click it opens, but every time I click it opens a new window. How can I avoid it.
Same for another function of an NSMenuItem, I would like to start it only once.
Thanks
EDIT:
ALL IN APPDELEGATE
var aboutWindows = AboutWindows()
...
//TAP ON MENU ITEM
#objc func aboutWindows(_ sender: Any) {
aboutWindows = AboutWindows(windowNibName: "AboutWindows")
self.aboutWindows.showWindow(self)
}
I have a NSWindowControllerclass in an app that can be used to show a standalone window or to show a tabbed window attached to a main window, which has a different window controller. If the user opens the window as standalone, then I want to use the same window position and size as the last standalone window session. It's comparable to opening a code view in Xcode in a new window.
So I have a self.windowFrameAutosaveName = NSWindow.FrameAutosaveName("Detail App Window") line in windowDidLoad. This works, but the problem is that it also works when the window is shown as a tab in the main window. Next time the user opens the same window as standalone, the size of the main window is being used.
Question: how can I keep self.windowFrameAutosaveName outside a tabbed window scenario?
I create the window controller like this:
let storyboard = NSStoryboard(name: "Detail", bundle: nil)
if let controller = storyboard.instantiateInitialController() as? DetailController {
document.addWindowController(controller)
if tabbed,
let mainWindow = document.windowControllers.first?.window,
let detailWindow = controller.window {
mainWindow.addTabbedWindow(detailWindow, ordered: .above)
}
else {
controller.showWindow(nil)
}
}
The code in windowDidLoad of the DetailController above is:
override func windowDidLoad() {
super.windowDidLoad()
self.shouldCascadeWindows = true
self.windowFrameAutosaveName = NSWindow.FrameAutosaveName("Detail App Window")
}
As you see, I use self.shouldCascadeWindows = true, and this must also keep working. I have experimented with detecting being in a tab scenario, but without any complete success. Also, moving the windowFrameAutosaveName before the controller.showWindow(nil) works in itself, but the windows are no longer loaded with shouldCascadeWindows = true.
Interesting, even Xcode doesn't do that, so maybe it's a limitation of AppKit.
The Problem:
on a full screen mac app, when you move the mouse pointer to the top, the mac menu bar will instantly drop down. I'd like to make an app which delays the showing of the menu bar by a couple seconds.
It should be possible since that is the exact behaviour that VMWare Fusion does. while in fullscreen, the app lets the mouse pointer sits at the top of the screen for a couple seconds, before dropping down the menu bar.
how would I go about approaching this problem?
---- Update ----
I'm able to hide and show the menu bar when I want using NSMenu.setMenuBarVisible().
However, this doesn't seem to work as I thought it should be if I have multiple window app in fullscreen.
it works fine for one of the fullscreen window, but if I switch to the other fullscreen window I have to move the mouse before the call to setMenuBarVisible(true) seems to take effect.
Code
public class CustomWindowController: NSWindowController, NSWindowDelegate {
override public func windowDidLoad() {
window!.delegate = self
}
public class func create() -> CustomWindowController {
let storyboard = NSStoryboard(name: "Main", bundle: nil)
let controller = storyboard.instantiateControllerWithIdentifier("CustomWindowController") as! CustomWindowController
controller.window?.collectionBehavior.insert(.FullScreenDisallowsTiling)
return controller
}
// MARK: NSWindowDelegate protocol
public func windowDidEnterFullScreen(notification: NSNotification) {
print("window did enter fullscreen")
NSMenu.setMenuBarVisible(false)
}
public func windowDidBecomeKey(notification: NSNotification) {
print("window did become key")
NSMenu.setMenuBarVisible(false)
}
}
public class CustomWindow: NSWindow {
// right now I'm using mouse click to trigger the showing of the menu bar
// but my end goal is to use timer to trigger the showing of the menu bar
// to delay the menu bar showing by a couple seconds
public override func mouseUp(theEvent: NSEvent) {
NSMenu.setMenuBarVisible(true)
}
}
class CustomViewController: NSViewController {
private var otherWindowControllers = [CustomWindowController]()
// button to spawn a second identical window
#IBAction func spawnWindowButton(sender: AnyObject) {
let controller = CustomWindowController.create()
controller.showWindow(self)
// needed at least 1 strong reference to prevent the window to go away,
// so we save the controller to a list
otherWindowControllers.append(controller)
}
deinit {
otherWindowControllers.removeAll()
}
}
Repro:
start the app
click the spawn button to spawn a second window
click the greenlight button to make both window go to fullscreen
go to one of the fullscreened app window
move the mouse to the top of the screen
menu bar shouldn't drop down (intended behaviour)
left click
menu bar should drop down immediately (intended behaviour)
go to the other fullscreened app window
move the mouse to the top of the screen
menu bar shouldn't drop down (intended behaviour)
left click
menu bar doesn't drop down
move the mouse pointer a little bit
now it should drop down
any idea why this happens? and how to fix it so both fullscreen window has the correct behavior