Cocoa: What NSTextView the insertion point is currently blinking in?

Question

Hi!

Given an NSApp object (aka [NSApplication sharedApplication]), how can I get the currently active NSTextView, where the insertion point is blinking right now (if there is one)? :-)

I can go [[NSApp keyWindow] contentView] and try traversing the whole view hierarchy, but that seems too hard. Ideal code would be: [NSApp focusedTextView].

I tryed firstResponder for an app and a window, and also fieldEditor:forObject:, but this does not return anything interesting (at least, to me).

By the way, if anybody knows how to get the system wide current text view, that would be even cooler (Accessibility APIs won’t work: it won’t return a Cocoa NSTextView).

Thanks

Answer 1

The -firstResponder function returns the field editor. So if you want the real view you might need to check the first responder's delegate to get to it. Also see field editor for details.

There is probably no way to get it system wide as a NSTextViews since that object is in general in a different process space.

Answer 2

By the way, if anybody knows how to get the system wide current text view, that would be even cooler (Accessibility APIs won’t work: it won’t return a Cocoa NSTextView).

Not possible. NSTextViews are per-process; you can't get a proxy to an NSTextView from another process without that other process serving it up through an NSConnection. You're just going to have to use Accessibility.

On the bright side, using Accessibility means your app should (in theory) also work with Carbon apps that use MLTE/HITextView.