How do I change the color or a NSTableCellView for each cell of an NSOutlineView

Question

I've looked at a number of questions but can't find a good solution for a View-Based NSOutlineView

Coloring NSTableView Text per row

Change color of NSTableViewCell

Custom background colors for NSTableCellView

I'm trying to set each row to whatever color I want. I've read somewhere that I need to subclass NSTableRowView which I've now done.

According to the AppleDocs , I see the following methods:

– drawBackgroundInRect:
– drawDraggingDestinationFeedbackInRect:
– drawSelectionInRect:
– drawSeparatorInRect:

How would I go about setting the background color for the individual rows? Am I going the wrong route above?

Edit: below (also edited title)

Since i'm using an NSOutlineView and not a NSTableView, when i change the background color of the cells the image looks like the following. The disclosure arrows to the left is not colored. Is there any way to change the color of the whole row for the NSOutlineView?

Answer 1

You could subclass NSTableViewCell, and add a method to it which sets its color.

NSTableViewCell is already a subclass of NSView, so in your subclass, you would add the following method:

- (void)setBackgroundColor {
    self.layer.backgroundColor = CGColorCreateGenericRGB(0, 0, 0, 1.0f); // or whatever color
}

Or something like that. You'll probably want to have the color be a param to the method. Then, in your table view delegate, you can set the color depending on the row index passed to the delegate method. For example:

- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)table cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {
    UITableViewCell *cell = [table dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:@"Cell"];
    if (cell == nil)
        cell = [[UITableViewCell alloc] initWithStyle:UITableViewCellStyleDefault reuseIdentifier:@"Cell"];

    if (indexPath.row % 2) {
        [cell setBackgroundColor:[UIColor redColor]]; // or something like that
    }
}

Answer 2

Came up with a solution. Implemented the following.

-(void)outlineView:(NSOutlineView *)outlineView didAddRowView:(NSTableRowView *)rowView forRow:(NSInteger)row {
    [self updateRowViewBackColorforItem:[outlineView itemAtRow:row]];
}

-(void)updateRowViewBackColorforStep:(myCustomItem *)customItem {
    static NSColor *color1;
    static NSColor *color2;
    static NSColor *color3;

    if (color1 == nil) {
        sharedcolorHeader = [NSColor colorWithCalibratedRed:(r/255.0f) green:(g/255.0f) blue:(b/255.0f) alpha:1.0];
    }
    if (color2 == nil) {
        sharedcolorChildren = [NSColor colorWithCalibratedRed:(x/255.0f) green:(y/255.0f) blue:(z/255.0f) alpha:1.0];
    }
    if (color3 == nil) {
        normalColor = [NSColor colorWithCalibratedRed:(255/255.0f) green:(255/255.0f) blue:(255/255.0f) alpha:1.0];
    }

    NSInteger row = [stepOutlineView rowForItem:step];
    if (row < 0) return;

    NSTableRowView *view = [myOutlineView rowViewAtRow:row makeIfNecessary:NO];

   if ([customItem type] == 1) {
        [view setBackgroundColor:sharedcolorHeader];
    } else if([customItem type] == 2) {
        [view setBackgroundColor:sharedcolorChildren];
    } else {
        [view setBackgroundColor:normalColor];
    }
}

Answer 3

This is really something that should rely on properties or ivars in your data model. If you use view based outline views, you can simply have custom views for your row views and or cell views. Have the custom views draw whatever you want based in the data in your represented object.