How do I create a Cocoa window programmatically?

Question

My Cocoa app needs some small dynamically generated windows. How can I programmatically create Cocoa windows at runtime?

This is my non-working attempt so far. I see no result whatsoever.

NSRect frame = NSMakeRect(0, 0, 200, 200);
NSUInteger styleMask =    NSBorderlessWindowMask;
NSRect rect = [NSWindow contentRectForFrameRect:frame styleMask:styleMask];

NSWindow * window =  [[NSWindow alloc] initWithContentRect:rect styleMask:styleMask backing: NSBackingStoreRetained    defer:false];
[window setBackgroundColor:[NSColor blueColor]];
[window display];

Answer 1

This is what I've come up with myself:

NSRect frame = NSMakeRect(100, 100, 200, 200);
NSUInteger styleMask =    NSBorderlessWindowMask;
NSRect rect = [NSWindow contentRectForFrameRect:frame styleMask:styleMask];
NSWindow * window =  [[NSWindow alloc] initWithContentRect:rect styleMask:styleMask backing: NSBackingStoreBuffered    defer:false];
[window setBackgroundColor:[NSColor blueColor]];
[window makeKeyAndOrderFront: window];

This displays a blue window. I hope this is the optimal approach.

Answer 2

Try

[window makeKeyAndOrderFront:self];

instead of

[window display];

Is that what you're aiming for?

Answer 3

The problem is that you don't want to call display, you want to call either makeKeyAndOrderFront or orderFront depending on whether or not you want the window to become the key window. You should also probably use NSBackingStoreBuffered.

This code will create your borderless, blue window at the bottom left of the screen:

NSRect frame = NSMakeRect(0, 0, 200, 200);
NSWindow* window  = [[NSWindow alloc] initWithContentRect:winRect
     styleMask:NSBorderlessWindowMask
     backing:NSBackingStoreBuffered
     defer:NO];
[window setBackgroundColor:[NSColor blueColor]];
[window makeKeyAndOrderFront:NSApp];

You can make the sender for makeKeyAndOrderFront or orderFront whatever is appropriate for your situation.

Answer 4

I think the simplest way is to create a new NIB for your window and load that whenever you need to display a window:

if (![NSBundle loadNibNamed:@"NibName" owner:self])

You can enjoy the benefits of Interface Builder when editing your window's attributes.