[DaGuy]

Hi there. Here's a basic one.

I have a window with two NSScrollView objects. Only at runtime will the controller know which one of these views gets a message to display some text.

My design calls for passing the widget name as a parameter. How do I achieve this? Any examples or snipplets appreciated?

[Brass]

Do you have IBOutlets for the views (or for the NSTextView within each, which is probably more useful, for most contexts)?

An IBOutlet connects the controller to a UI object, so the controller knows how to access that UI object.

Is this what you're asking?

[DaGuy]

I have two NSScrollViews as IBOutlets. The controller can definitely message both of these. What I need to do is target one of the NSScrollViews for a message. Which one of the two? That's two be decided at runtime.

At runtime I would like to pass the name of the targeted NSScrollView as a parameter. Something like:

If (someCondition){
targetWidgetName = ScrollView1;
}
else{
targetWidgetName = ScrollView2;
}

[targetWidgetName insertText:someString];

I'm varying not just the "insertText" argument but also the name of the object that's suppose to recieve the message.

I know I could just use something like:

If (someCondition){
[ScrollView1 insertText:someString];
}
else{
[ScrollView2 insertText:someString];
}

but I really want to use the first approach since it shows some Objective-C muscle.

I must be doing something off beat and not getting it to work -I'm really green at this.
So, I'm seeking for an example.

Thanks,

[DaGuy]

Nevermind. I "sort of" got the first approach to work.

My next question is about reflection/introspection. What facilities are available in Cococa. Any good links?

[Chuckit]

Originally posted by DaGuy:
Nevermind. I "sort of" got the first approach to work.

In what way did you not get it to work? Assuming "targetWidgetName" is an id, it should do exactly what you seem to want it to.

[DaGuy]

Originally posted by Chuckit:
In what way did you not get it to work? Assuming "targetWidgetName" is an id, it should do exactly what you seem to want it to.

I drowened in a glass of water. I had a good night sleep and took a fresh look at it and corrected my missundertandings.

The "sort of" remark (made in my prior post) derives from my very green Objective-c foundations. I have some level of understanding about why the above exercise worked but nothing to write home about.

For instance:

1. Would I ever need to manually declare an IBOutlet id type or should I leave that to IB and not worry about it?

2. Why does IB need to declare widgets of type IBOutlet? Why doesn't id suffice?

Can anyone help me clear these?

Thanks!

[Wevah]

IBOutlet doesn't mean anything; it's not a type. It's just there so that when Interface Builder reads the header file, it knows what to show you in the Outlet part of the inspector palette.

You can also be specific about types and do:

IBOutlet NSScrollview *someScrollView;

if you want to.

[DaGuy]

thanks that cleared things up. Now it's time to go stumble on something else!