NSButton NSTrackingArea - tracking doesn't work

Question

I'm trying to complete button highlighted on mouse over event. So I subclassed NSButton , where is put NSTrackingArea and methods - (void)mouseEntered:(NSEvent *)event and - (void)updateTrackingAreas .

Creation of the button looks so (it's in loop so I use array to collect):

        CalendarTile *button = [[CalendarTile alloc] init];

        [button setFrame:CGRectMake(point_x, point_y, button_frame_width, button_frame_height)];
        [button setBordered:NO];
        [button setBezelStyle:NSRegularSquareBezelStyle];
        [button setButtonType:NSMomentaryChangeButton];
        [button setFont:[NSFont fontWithName:@"Avenir Next" size:40]];
        [button setAlignment:NSCenterTextAlignment];

        [button setTitle:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i", i]];
        [button setTextColor:[NSColor colorWithCalibratedRed:(float)62/255 green:(float)62/255 blue:(float)62/255 alpha:1.0]];

        [arrayWithButtons addObject:button];

        ...

        for (CalendarTile *btn in arrayWithButton) {
        [self addSubview:btn];
        }

And this is a subclass - CalendarTile.m:

@implementation CalendarTile
- (void)updateTrackingAreas
{
    [super updateTrackingAreas];

    if (trackingArea)
    {
        [self removeTrackingArea:trackingArea];
    }

    NSTrackingAreaOptions options = NSTrackingInVisibleRect | NSTrackingMouseEnteredAndExited | NSTrackingActiveInKeyWindow;
    trackingArea = [[NSTrackingArea alloc] initWithRect:NSZeroRect options:options owner:self userInfo:nil];
    [self addTrackingArea:trackingArea];
}

- (void)mouseEntered:(NSEvent *)event
{
    [self setImage:[NSImage imageNamed:@"highlight.png"]];
    NSLog(@"HIGHLIGHT");
}

It should say in logs "HIGHLIGHT" when I have mouse over - it sadly doesn't.

Could you help me? What do I wrong?

Answer 1

Here is i have created and worked for me perfectly...

Step 1: Create the Button with tracking area

 NSButton *myButton = [[NSButton alloc] initWithFrame:NSMakeRect(100, 7, 100, 50)];
[myButton setTitle:@"sample"];

[self.window.contentView addSubview:myButton];
// Insert code here to initialize your application
NSTrackingArea* trackingArea = [[NSTrackingArea alloc]
                                initWithRect:[myButton bounds]
                                options:NSTrackingMouseEnteredAndExited | NSTrackingActiveAlways
                                owner:self userInfo:nil];
[myButton addTrackingArea:trackingArea];

Step: 2 Implement the following methods

- (void)mouseEntered:(NSEvent *)theEvent{
NSLog(@"entered");
[[myButton cell] setBackgroundColor:[NSColor blueColor]];


}

- (void)mouseExited:(NSEvent *)theEvent{
[[myButton cell] setBackgroundColor:[NSColor redColor]];
NSLog(@"exited");

}

Answer 2

Try

trackingArea = [[NSTrackingArea alloc] initWithRect:NSZeroRect options:options owner:self userInfo:nil];

instead of

NSTrackingAreaOptions options = NSTrackingMouseEnteredAndExited | NSTrackingActiveAlways;
    trackingArea = [[NSTrackingArea alloc] initWithRect:self.frame options:options owner:self userInfo:nil];