validateMenuItem not called for every menu item - swift

I have main menu that has several menu items (File, Edit, View, Window - and more). All menu items have their action set to an operation in FirstResponder.
The application has a single window and that window is of the type MyWindow that inherits from NSWindow (see below).
Note that NSWindow implements NSMenuValidation and hence it is flagged as an error when MyWindow would declare conformance to NSMenuValidation.
I have overriden the function validateMenuItem as follows:
class MyWindow: NSWindow, NSMenuDelegate {
...
override func validateMenuItem(_ item: NSMenuItem) -> Bool {
Log.atDebug?.log("\(item.title)")
....
}
}
When I run the application the validateMenuItem function is called for the File and the Window menu items but not for the Edit and View items.
Note: Log is an instance of a logging framework (SwifterLog).
The actions for all menu items are called correctly. (Also for the menu items for which the validateMenuItem is not called)
It is not difficult for me to work around this problem (the function menuNeedsUpdate is called for all menu's and can be used for this), but I would like to know why this behaviour occurs.

Answer can be found here:
validateMenuItem or menuWillOpen not called for NSMenu
validateMenuItem: belongs to the NSMenuValidation informal protocol;
for it to be called the relevant menu items must have a target.

This is not an answer, but to anyone interested in a work-around:
#objc func menuNeedsUpdate(_ menu: NSMenu) {
Log.atDebug?.log("\(menu.title)")
... // do other stuff
menu.items.forEach( { $0.isEnabled = validateMenuItem($0) } )
}
You must als set the delegate of each menu that must be handled to the MyWindow object (in this example). In my example, the menu of the menu item View must have its delegate set to MyWindow.

Related

How to force the order of UIKit pop up menu button items?

I have a couple of UIKit pop-up menu buttons with identical menu items on the same screen in a Swift app. The buttons are built by calling a function that uses an array of strings to create the list of menu items.
The problem is that depending on the button's vertical position on the screen, the menu items may appear in the order specified by the function, or reversed. If the button is in the upper half of the screen, the menu items are listed in the correct order. If the button is in the lower half of the screen the menu items are listed in reverse order.
I would prefer the menu items to appear in the same order regardless of the button's position on the screen. I could check the button location and have the menu creation function reverse the order, but that seems kind of clunky. I am hoping there's a cleaner way to override this behaviour.
The code and array used to create the button menus:
let buttonMenuItems = ["Spring","Summer","Autumn","Winter"]
func createAttributeMenu(menuNumber: Int)->UIMenu {
var menuActions: [UIAction] = []
for attribute in buttonMenuItems {
let item = UIAction(title: attribute) { action in
self.updateMenu(menuID: menuNumber, selected: attribute)
}
menuActions.append(item)
}
return UIMenu(title: "", children: menuActions)
}
The result is this:
Versions I'm using now in testing: Xcode 14.1, iOS 16.1, but I have seen this behaviour on earlier versions as well. (back to iOS 14.x)
Starting with iOS 16, there is a .preferredMenuElementOrder property that can be set on the button:
case automatic
A constant that allows the system to choose an ordering strategy according to the current context.
case priority
A constant that displays menu elements according to their priority.
case fixed
A constant that displays menu elements in a fixed order.
Best I can tell (as with many Apple definitions), there is no difference between .automatic and .priority.
From the .priority docs page:
Discussion
This ordering strategy displays the first menu element in the UIMenu closest to the location of the user interaction.
So, we get "reversed" order based on the position of the menu relative to the button.
To keep your defined order:
buttonNearTop.menu = createAttributeMenu(menuNumber: 1)
buttonNearBottom.menu = createAttributeMenu(menuNumber: 2)
if #available(iOS 16.0, *) {
buttonNearBottom.preferredMenuElementOrder = .fixed
buttonNearTop.preferredMenuElementOrder = .fixed
} else {
// out of luck... you get Apple's "priority" ordering
}

Passing keyboard events from NSTextView to another

I have NSTextView which pops up a NSPopOver that contains another NSTextView. In some cases, I'd like to pass the keyboard events (arrow keys, mostly) from the "top" text view to the bottom one.
I have overridden keyDown on the topmost text view and tried various ways of forwarding the keyboard event to the view below.
Just calling bottomTextView.keyDown(with: event) doesn't do anything. The closest I've gotten is using window.sendEvent(event).
override func keyDown(with event: NSEvent) {
if (NSLocationInRange(Int(event.keyCode), NSMakeRange(123, 4)) &&
self.string.count == 0 && event.modifierFlags.contains(.shift)) {
// Pass the event through somehow
return
}
super.keyDown(with: event)
}
Through trial and error, I found one way which actually did pass on the events: calling the methods twice.
// Make the bottom text field first responder
self.window?.makeFirstResponder(self.delegate.bottomTextView)
self.window?.makeFirstResponder(self.delegate.bottomTextView)
// Send the keydown event to window
self.window?.sendEvent(event)
self.window?.sendEvent(event)
However, this causes strange issues, such as the topmost text view getting a one-byte string as its contents.
Is there a correct way to actually forward any key events from a text view to another, or is it even possible?

How to Implement accessibilityCustomActions for VoiceOver on Mac?

I have a button that responds to various mouse clicks (regular click, right click, control+click, option+click, command+click...) to show different popup menus. Since it would be annoying for VoiceOver users to use actual physical mouse, I would like to map those to different VoiceOver actions.
However, I'm not getting the results I expected. Could someone help me to understand better what I'm missing? Here is what I discovered so far.
If I subclass NSButton and override the following functions, they work fine. Except there's one odd thing. If I press vo+command+space to bring up the list of available actions, VoiceOver says Action 1 instead of Show Menu.
override func accessibilityPerformPress() -> Bool {
print("Pressed!")
return true
}
override func accessibilityPerformShowAlternateUI() -> Bool {
print("Show Alternate UI")
return true
}
override func accessibilityPerformShowMenu() -> Bool {
print("Show Menu")
return true
}
In the same NSButton subclass, if I also override accessibilityCustomActions function, "Do Something" never comes up in the list of available actions when I press vo+command+space.
override func accessibilityCustomActions() -> [NSAccessibilityCustomAction]? {
let custom = NSAccessibilityCustomAction(name: "Do Something", target: self, selector: #selector(doSomething))
return [custom]
}
#objc func doSomething() -> Bool {
print("Done something.")
return true
}
If I subclass NSView instead of NSButton, and override the same functions from #1, everything works fine. Unlike first case, even VoiceOver correctly says "Show Menu" for the action from accessibilityPerformShowMenu instead of "Action 1".
in the same NSView subclass, if I override accessibilityCustomActions along with accessibilityPerformPress, accessibilityPerformShowMenu, or accessibilityPerformShowAlternateUI, "Do Something" doesn't come up in the action list.
However, "Do Something" does come up in the action list if I just override accessibilityCustomActions by itself without accessibilityPerformPress, accessibilityPerformShowMenu, and accessibilityPerformShowAlternateUI.
I tried creating another action with the name "Press" that does the same thing when pressing vo+space, and including in the return value of accessibilityCustomActions. However, Vo+space did not trigger the action. Instead, I had to press vo+command+space, and then select "Press". I guess the action just has the name "Press", but it's not actually connected to vo+space. I'm not sure how I can actually make that particular custom action to respond to vo+space.
I would appreciate if someone could help me to implement accessibilityCustomActions as well as accessibilityPerformPress, accessibilityPerformShowMenu, and accessibilityPerformShowAlternateUI together into NSButton.
Thanks so much!
The problem is that you are overriding these AX methods on the NSButton, not the NSButtonCell. For nearly everything to do with accessibility in NSControls, you will want to deal with the NSCell in question. If you use the custom action code you've written above and stick it in a subclass of NSButtonCell used by your button, then it will work.

Looping through entities which describe what action should be taken on screen after keypresses

Please forgive me if I don't describe this question too well, I am new to programming MacOS apps using Swift. I know the way I'm going about this is probably wrong and I just need someone to tell me the right way.
My main app screen
I have a Core Data application that stores an ordered list of entities called Items. These Items are intended to describe a single step in an activity that describes what should happen on screen. If you know the Mac application QLab each Item is like a single cue in QLab.
I have created an Activity class that is designed to read through each Item to determine the Item type and it's related information. Once the Item type has been determined the Activity class needs to present a View with information related to that particular Item and then wait until the user presses the right arrow key to then proceed to the next Item in the Core Data store where the process repeats until all Items have been read. Each time a new Item is read in the loop, the information on the screen should change after the user presses the right arrow each time.
The problem is that I don't know exactly how the best way of going about this should be programatically speaking. I have the code that retrieves the array of Items as an NSFetchRequest:
let moc = (NSApplication.shared.mainWindow?.contentViewController?.representedObject as! NSPersistentDocument).managedObjectContext!
let fetchRequest : NSFetchRequest = Item.fetchRequest()
do {
let items = try moc.fetch(fetchRequest)
print("Found " + String(items.count) + " items to use in the activity.")
for item in items {
print(item.itemType)
// How do I pause this loop for a user keypress after using data from this Item to display?
}
} catch {
print("Error retrieving Items")
}
I can retrieve the keydown event using NSEvent.addLocalMonitorForEvents(matching: .keyDown) and I'm also able to create View Controllers to display the information on a second screen. I just don't know how I should create the 'main loop', so to speak, so that information is displayed and then the app waits until the user presses a key to proceed...
I can share my project code if more information is needed and many thanks to anyone who can enlighten me... :)
You could try using a NSPageController. In your NSPageController you add a ContainerView which will display the ViewControllers that display information for each item. Each ViewController will need a storyboard identifier, e.g. ViewControllerItem1.
Your NSPageController class must conform to the NSPageControllerDelegate protocol and contains an array of ViewControllers to display.
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
delegate = self
arrangedObjects = ["ViewControllerItem1", "ViewControllerItem2", "...","ViewControllerItemN" ]
}
Note about arrangedObjects from the NSPageController documentation: An array containing the objects displayed in the page controller’s view.
Then you implement NSPageControllers viewControllerForIdentifier to return the ViewController that you currently want to display in the ContainerView.
func pageController(_ pageController: NSPageController, viewControllerForIdentifier identifier: String) -> NSViewController {
switch identifier {
case "ViewControllerItem1":
return mainStoryboard().instantiateController(withIdentifier:"ViewControllerItem1") as? ViewControllerItem1
case "...":
default:
}
}
In your action handler for the key down event you implement.
self.navigateForward(sender) or self.navigateBack(sender)
I also implemented this method but I don't remember whether it was required.
func pageControllerDidEndLiveTransition(_ pageController: NSPageController) {
self.completeTransition()
}

Side menu controller

I am working on a YouTube project and the problem is that I want to add a side menu and I know how to do that. However, when I press a cell I don't want it to load a new view. Instead, I want it to update my table view because I don't want 20 different views that do nearly the same thing and just load different videos. Any idea how I can achieve my goal?
I was thinking of using this side menu: https://github.com/John-Lluch/SWRevealViewController
Coding in swift
You could create a custom class that does all the tableview initialization as a BaseClass and make childClass for different Menus. Instead of:
class menu1: UITableViewController {
}
class menu2: UITableViewController {
}
Use this:
class BaseTableViewController: UITableViewController {
}
class menu1: BaseTableViewController {
}
class menu2: BaseTableViewController {
}
Reuse the class and make a fetch function content for cell with customizable input parameters. You could refer letsbuildthatapp youtube tutorial series for reference. It has a letsbuildyoutube app series.