macOS NSCollectionView - selecting items?

[larswik]

I have been working on my Mac app on and off. I use it to help me produce images for an on screen weekly specials for my local grocery store. This weekend I tried something new to help speed things up. Instead of searching the database of items I created and NSCollectionView. My hopes are click on images and have them populate to the lefts side (in picture).

I got the NSCollectionView working but I am unable to select items in this view. Instead when I click on something the whole NSScrollView gets selected?

Is the NSCollectionView the correct object to use for this? I was also looking at the IKImageBrowserView, is that better for interactivity with objects in a view like the CollectionView?

 

[Red Menace]

Is the view template set to be selectable?

 

[larswik]

Is the view template set to be selectable?

Yes.

[collectionView setSelectable:YES];

I tried a different approach too and added a NSButton to each one. But this is also my first project dealing with "Bindings" and it has been a struggle adding targets to binding.

Here is the code that sets up the array for the NSCollectionView

-(void)loadItemDatabaseArray{
    _itemDatabaseArray = [[NSMutableArray alloc]init];
    int countForIndex = 0; // use for tag.
    
    NSFileManager *fm = [NSFileManager defaultManager];
    NSString *pathName = @"/Users/larspro/Documents/ERad files/items database";
    
    NSURL *directoryURL = [[NSURL alloc] initFileURLWithPath:pathName];
    NSArray *keys = [NSArray arrayWithObject:NSURLIsDirectoryKey];
    // Below will enumerates through a directory
    NSDirectoryEnumerator *enumerator = [fm enumeratorAtURL:directoryURL includingPropertiesForKeys:keys
                                         options:0 errorHandler:^(NSURL *url, NSError *error) {
                                             // Handle the error.
                                             // Return YES if the enumeration should continue after the error.
                                             return YES;
                                         }];
    for (NSURL *url in enumerator) {

        NSString *theString = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@", url]; // convert the URL to NSString to test
        NSArray *splitStringArray = [theString componentsSeparatedByString:@"."]; // Splits the string looking for 'plist'
        NSString *result = [splitStringArray lastObject];
        
        if ([result isEqualToString:@"plist"]) {
            NSError *error;
            NSNumber *isDirectory = nil;
            if (! [url getResourceValue:&isDirectory forKey:NSURLIsDirectoryKey error:&error]) {
                // handle error
            }
            else if (! [isDirectory boolValue]) {
                NSMutableArray *items = [[NSMutableArray alloc] initWithContentsOfURL:url];
                dataBaseItem *newItem = [[dataBaseItem alloc]init];
                
                NSImage *importImage = [[NSImage alloc] initWithData:[items objectAtIndex:0]];
                
                newItem.itemName = [items objectAtIndex:1];
                newItem.itemImage = importImage;
                newItem.selectButton.tag = countForIndex;
                [newItem.selectButton setTarget:self];
                [newItem.selectButton setAction: @selector(itemSelected)];
                
                [arrayController addObject:newItem];
                countForIndex++;
            }
        }
    }
    NSLog(@"count:%ld", (unsigned long)_itemDatabaseArray.count);
}

-Lars

 

[larswik]

Could not figure this out so I built my own NSScrollView and populated it with NSButton's with images and text on the buttons.

Looks the same as the NSCollectionView but now it's selectable and I have targets for the buttons.