Accessing objects on one nib file from another nib file

Question

I have two nib files - Main.nib and Preference.nib In Main.nib file I have an instance of NSView class.Its window has a NSPopUpButton which on clicking shows a menu .In the menu I have show Preferences menu item. Menu item on clicking shows a preferences panel containing a color well item. On clicking color well a color panel is displayed to choose the color. The problem is how to apply that color to main application window.

My preference panel window is in Preference.nib file. So problem is accessing NSView from another Nib Window.

Is there a way so that I can make connection between preference panel and my main application window(NSView)

Answer 1

You're thinking about this at the wrong level. NSView and NSWindow are view objects in the Model-View-Controller pattern and shouldn't be used for holding application data. The color you select in your preference panel is application data and should be stored in an appropriate model object.

You could, for example, use bindings to bind the color well to the NSUserDefaultsController object to store that data (assuming this is an application-wide setting). You didn't say exactly what the color is used for in your main window, but if the object that uses it is bindings aware, you can bind that object to the same value on the NSUserDefaultsController and you're done.

Otherwise, you can respond to the color well's action message to store the color in an appropriate place and then send a notification using NSNotificationCenter to tell other objects that the color has changed. You'll need to sign up any object that needs to take action when the value changes for your notification message.

Here are some resources:

• Here's an overview of the model-view-controller pattern that explains how Cocoa programs are structured
• This is a high level explanation of how Cocoa bindings work
• Here's a bunch of documents about using notifications