The problem with an NSTableView is that we cannot tell it what to
do. NSTableView works like the old joke about Soviet Russia: "In
Soviet Russia television watches you". In other words, instead of us
calling methods in the NSTableView object, the NSTableView object
expects us to provide a data source object with methods for the
NSTableView object to call.
Our plan shall be to put an NSTableView in our window and then write
a class that acts as its data source, instantiate the class and hope
for the best.
1. Double-click MainWindow.xib to open Xcode.
2. In Xcode, find the main window. It's the big thing that looks
like a window.
3. In the Object Library find an NSTableView control.
Picture 1: We found an NSTableView in the Object Library
4. Drag the NSTableView into the window.
Picture 2: The window with an NSTableView
Note that the NSTableView is embedded in an NSScrollView which we
will try to ignore.
5. Try clicking on the actual NSTableView control.
Picture 3: We managed to click on the actual NSTableView control.
6. Find the configuration thingy for the NSTableView control and
configure it for one column, with no reordering or resizing.
Picture 4: The NSTableView configuration thingy.
7. Find the button to call the Assistant editor.
Picture 5: Found the Assistant editor button.
8. Configure the Assistant editor to display MainWindow.h and
control-drag the NSTableView control into the MainWindow class.
Picture 6: Name the outlet "tblTable".
9. Add a file TableViewDataSource.cs with the following content.
// File
TableViewDataSource.cs using System; using
System.Collections.Generic; using
System.Linq; using
MonoMac.Foundation; using
MonoMac.AppKit;
namespace Test {
[Register ("TableViewDataSource")]
public class TableViewDataSource : NSTableViewDataSource
{
public TableViewDataSource ()
{
}
// This method will be called by the
NSTableView control to learn the number of rows to display.
[Export ("numberOfRowsInTableView:")]
public int NumberOfRowsInTableView(NSTableView
table)
{
Console.WriteLine("numberOfRowsInTableView:");
// We just return a static
2. We will have two rows.
return 2;
}
// This method will be called by the control
for each column and each row.
[Export
("tableView:objectValueForTableColumn:row:")]
public NSObject
ObjectValueForTableColumn(NSTableView table, NSTableColumn col,
int row)
{
Console.WriteLine("tableView:objectValueForTableColumn:row:");
switch (row)
{
case 0:
// We
will write "Hello" in the first row...
return
new NSString("Hello");
case 1:
// ...and
"World" in the second.
return
new NSString("World");
// Note
that NSTableView requires an NSString, which we create with new
NSString("bla").
default:
// We
need a default value.
return
null;
}
}
}//class }//namespace
10. Modify MainWindow.cs to include the following.
// This method will be called automatically when the main window
"wakes up".
[Export ("awakeFromNib:")]
public override void AwakeFromNib()
{
Console.WriteLine("awakeFromNib:");
tblTable.DataSource = new
TableViewDataSource();
}
MainWindow.cs knows about tblTable. All we have to do to connect our
NSTableView control to our data source is to tell tblTable that its
data source is a new instance of TableViewDataSource.
11. Run the application and see that "Hello" and "World" are being
displayed in the NSTableView.
Picture 7: Result!
(c) Andrew J. Brehm
Feel free to copy/translate/whatever but keep a pointer to the
original location in case I find one of my many, many mistakes and
update the document.
Zurich, January 23rd 2012
