Using NSPopUpButtonCell with NSTableView

Question

Hello I am trying to use a NSPopUpButtonCell inside an NSTableView. Basically when you select an item in the pop up I want it displayed in the table view column/row. When an item in the popup cell is pressed I store it inside the data source using "tableView:setObject:forTableColumn:row", then when the table requests data I retrieve and and set the state of the popup cell in "tableView:objectValueForTableColumn:row:". Please find attached my code. I am completely stuck right now. I hope someone can make sense of it. Thank you in advance.

This is inside the controller:

  //Create the table columns
  NSTableColumn *nameColumn = [[NSTableColumn alloc] initWithIdentifier:LXDetailItemName];
  NSTableColumn *dataTypeColumn = [[NSTableColumn alloc] initWithIdentifier:LXDetailItemDataType];
  NSTableColumn *deviceColumn = [[NSTableColumn alloc] initWithIdentifier:LXDetailItemDevice];

  //Data type column drop down
  NSPopUpButtonCell *dataTypeDropDownCell = [[NSPopUpButtonCell alloc] initTextCell:@"" pullsDown:YES];
  [dataTypeDropDownCell setBordered:NO];
  [dataTypeDropDownCell setEditable:YES];

  NSArray *dataTypeNames = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:@"NULL", @"String", @"Money", @"Date", @"Int", nil];
  [dataTypeDropDownCell addItemsWithTitles:dataTypeNames];
  [dataTypeColumn setDataCell:dataTypeDropDownCell];

  //Add the columns to the table
  [tableView addTableColumn:nameColumn];
  [tableView addTableColumn:dataTypeColumn];
  [tableView addTableColumn:deviceColumn]; 
    enter code here

This is inside the datasource/delegate class.

enter code here

@implementation LXTestDataSource

- (id)init
{
 self = [super init];

 if (self)
 { 
  tableContents = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];

  //Setup test data
  NSMutableArray *keys = [NSMutableArray arrayWithObjects:LXDetailItemName, LXDetailItemDataType, LXDetailItemDevice, nil];
  NSMutableArray *objects = [NSMutableArray arrayWithObjects:@"one", @"NULL", @"NULL", nil];

  for (int i = 0; i < 4; i++)
  {
   NSMutableDictionary *dictionary = [[NSMutableDictionary alloc] initWithObjects:objects forKeys:keys];
   [tableContents addObject:dictionary];
   [dictionary release];
  }
 }

 return self;
}

- (NSInteger)numberOfRowsInTableView:(NSTableView *)aTableView
{
 return [tableContents count];
}


- (id)tableView:(NSTableView *)aTableView objectValueForTableColumn:(NSTableColumn *)aTableColumn row:(NSInteger)rowIndex
{ 
 if ([[aTableColumn identifier] isEqualToString:LXDetailItemDataType])
 {
  NSMutableDictionary *rowDictionary = [tableContents objectAtIndex:rowIndex];
  NSString *title = [rowDictionary objectForKey:LXDetailItemDataType];

  NSLog(@"objectValueForTableColumn: %@", title); //DEBUG

  return [NSNumber numberWithInt:[[aTableColumn dataCell] indexOfItemWithTitle:title]];
 }
 else if ([[aTableColumn identifier] isEqualToString:LXDetailItemDevice])
 {
  NSMutableDictionary *rowDictionary = [tableContents objectAtIndex:rowIndex];
  NSString *title = [rowDictionary objectForKey:LXDetailItemDevice];

  NSLog(@"objectValueForTableColumn: %@", title); //DEBUG

  return [NSNumber numberWithInt:[[aTableColumn dataCell] indexOfItemWithTitle:title]];
 }
 else
 {
  NSMutableDictionary *rowDictionary = [tableContents objectAtIndex:rowIndex];
  return [rowDictionary objectForKey:[aTableColumn identifier]]; 
 }
}


- (void)tableView:(NSTableView *)aTableView setObjectValue:(id)anObject forTableColumn:(NSTableColumn *)aTableColumn row:(NSInteger)rowIndex
{ 
 if ([[aTableColumn identifier] isEqualToString:LXDetailItemDataType])
 {  
  NSMenuItem *menuItem = [[aTableColumn dataCell] itemAtIndex:[anObject integerValue]];

  NSMutableDictionary *rowDictionary = [tableContents objectAtIndex:rowIndex];

  NSLog(@"%@", [menuItem title]); //DEBUG

  //Update the object value at the column index
  [rowDictionary setObject:[menuItem title] forKey:LXDetailItemDataType];
 }
 else if ([[aTableColumn identifier] isEqualToString:LXDetailItemDevice])
 {
  NSMenuItem *menuItem = [[aTableColumn dataCell] itemAtIndex:[anObject integerValue]];

  NSMutableDictionary *rowDictionary = [tableContents objectAtIndex:rowIndex];

  NSLog(@"%@", [menuItem title]); //DEBUG

  //Update the object value at the column index
  [rowDictionary setObject:[menuItem title] forKey:LXDetailItemDevice]; 
 }
 else
 {
  //Get the row
  NSMutableDictionary *rowDictionary = [tableContents objectAtIndex:rowIndex];

  //Update the object value at the column index
  [rowDictionary setObject:anObject forKey:[aTableColumn identifier]];
 }
}

@end

Answer 1

I think I've figured it out. I use the method "setTitle:" of the pop up cell to update the text of the cell after the menu item is clicked. Here is the table view delegate method that I used.

- (void)tableView:(NSTableView *)aTableView willDisplayCell:(id)aCell forTableColumn:(NSTableColumn *)aTableColumn row:(NSInteger)rowIndex
{
    if ([[aTableColumn identifier] isEqualToString:LXDetailItemDataType])
    {
        NSMutableDictionary *rowDictionary = [tableContents objectAtIndex:rowIndex];
        NSString *title = [rowDictionary objectForKey:LXDetailItemDataType];

        [aCell setTitle:title];
    }
    else if ([[aTableColumn identifier] isEqualToString:LXDetailItemDevice])
    {
        NSMutableDictionary *rowDictionary = [tableContents objectAtIndex:rowIndex];
        NSString *title = [rowDictionary objectForKey:LXDetailItemDevice];

        [aCell setTitle:title];
    }
}

Answer 2

I think all you should need to do after setting the value in tableView:setObjectValue:forTableColumn:row: is to call reloadData on the table view to force it to update itself with the changes you made to the data model. NSPopUpButtonCell does use the item index as its object value, so that part of things should work correctly without that code in the willDisplayCell delegate method.

As an aside, I would recommend using the representedObject property of a menu item to tell the items part rather than the title. Menu item titles can potentially be localized, and using titles to store data values is very susceptible to breakage.