macOS Questions about NSDocuments

[Duke Leto]

I have made a simple application already, and I now realize that it would be best to have documents. I have been reading through http://developer.apple.com/document...sNSDocument.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/20000028 , and I started to wonder about how a document structure would fit into my code.

First of all, is it possible to have only one window, open, thus allowing only one document to be open at a time?

If that is not possible or not recommended, should I separate my window that displays the document from the nib that has the mainmenu data?

I have a NSObject subclass that controls about everything in a window. Other than simply saying it is a subclass of NSWindowController, are there any methods I need to subclass?

What kind of data can be stored? Is it possible to have a .plist kind of thing, with an array and a few numbers?

Any advice for switching to an NSDocument Application is welcomed!

 

[isharan]

I have made a simple application already, and I now realize that it would be best to have documents. I have been reading through http://developer.apple.com/document...sNSDocument.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/20000028 , and I started to wonder about how a document structure would fit into my code.

First of all, is it possible to have only one window, open, thus allowing only one document to be open at a time?

If that is not possible or not recommended, should I separate my window that displays the document from the nib that has the mainmenu data?

I have a NSObject subclass that controls about everything in a window. Other than simply saying it is a subclass of NSWindowController, are there any methods I need to subclass?

What kind of data can be stored? Is it possible to have a .plist kind of thing, with an array and a few numbers?

Any advice for switching to an NSDocument Application is welcomed!

If you want to only have one window open, why make it a document-based application? There are really no advantages to switching to NSDocument if you only want one window open...kinda defeats the purpose of the whole thing

 

[Duke Leto]

Yeah, i guess you are right. I just wanted a save capability, without having to deal with more than one window.

BTW, I came up with another question.

That nib had a controller that did just about everything, and now I realize that that class can become an NSDocument subclass. However, how do I keep the connections between buttons/MainMenu if there are more than one?

Should I subclass NSDocumentController and pass the events down?
In other words, I need to keep the nib connections in some way while adding save/new/open functionality.

If someone needs a visual, I can post a .zip of the app (be careful, there is a memory leak!)

 

[isharan]

Yeah, i guess you are right. I just wanted a save capability, without having to deal with more than one window.

BTW, I came up with another question.

That nib had a controller that did just about everything, and now I realize that that class can become an NSDocument subclass. However, how do I keep the connections between buttons/MainMenu if there are more than one?

Should I subclass NSDocumentController and pass the events down?
In other words, I need to keep the nib connections in some way while adding save/new/open functionality.

If someone needs a visual, I can post a .zip of the app (be careful, there is a memory leak!)

There are ways to do save without using NSDocument. I guess if you want to keep your existing nib connections, then yes, just use NSDocument to pass the events down.

 

[Duke Leto]

Basically, I could have an object that receives the input and tells the correct document what to do by something like this.

- (IBAction)doSomething:(id)sender
{
      [[NSDocumentController currentDocument] doSomething];
}

And this could be connected to the nib. Seems like kind of a waste, but I'll do it.

As for actually reading/writing, I think I would use an XML document. Where can I find help managing those kinds of documents?
Meh, I'll figure it out with documentation.

Thanks for the help