The concept of file's owner,first responder, and application delegate in iPhone.

Question

Possible Duplicate:
iPhone Interface Builder and Delegates

What is the relationship between these three component in the Objective C / iPhone world? I found that the App Delegate have some relationship with the UI and the variable in code. It match the variable and related UI object on the view. But I found that the File's owner have the outlet called delegate that related to the Application delegate, what is their relationship. Also, the first responder, it seems it just receive some effect only. What's going on between there stuff?

Answer 1

One at a time:

• File's Owner: This is the object that loads the xib file. In a completely generic sense, this is the object passed as the owner parameter to -[NSBundle loadNibNamed:owner:]. When working with a nib for a UIViewController subclass, this is usually the UIViewController subclass itself. Further reading: Resource Programming Guide: Nib Files
• First Responder: This is the view that receives untargeted events (i.e. those sent with a target of nil) first. The useful part of this is that it's connected to the idea of the responder chain, which is a mechanism by which things higher up in the view hierarchy can capture unhandled and deal with them. This concept originated on the Mac, and is particularly useful for implementing something like the "Copy" menu item. The first responder is the target of the "Copy" menu item, meaning that the selected text field gets a chance to handle the copy event first, then its superview, and so on. Further reading: iPhone Application Programming Guide: Event Handling
• Application Delegate: This is simply the delegate of the application's UIApplication object. It typically receives general status messages about the application, such as when it starts, ends and what not. It's a good spot to kick off things that need to happen when your app starts or shuts down. Further reading: Cocoa Fundamentals Guide: Delegates and Data Sources

Hope that helps.