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I am planning to create a project-based Mac application. It has its own project file format and is currently able to read and handle it. That's already the problem of the whole story: I open the project file and not the files each by each/individually.

This means the NSDocument architecture thinks the user is editing the project file. He/She isn't. Currently my application takes over the reading part by opening the project files each by each manually but it's hard to implement anything else like Autosave or Versions for the files in the project because they just refer to the project file.

So my question is: How do I use NSDocument in this kind of project architecture so it actually knows I am editing just a part of the project or a completely different file? Or is there a different approach I should use?

Currently the options "Save" and "Revert to Saved" are disabled. Why does this happen? Normally the options should be enabled for the project file.

jscs
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Paul
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  • Are the individual files separate files, or are they inside the project file in some way? – Peter Hosey Nov 27 '11 at 06:50
  • I want users to be able to edit files somewhere else than in my App. So I do not embed them in the project file. The project file contains its name and path to load it. – Paul Nov 27 '11 at 10:36

1 Answers1

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You seem to be assuming that a document-based app can handle only one type of document. That is not the case, the document architecture can handle as many different types of document as you like.

Just create two different subclasses of NSDocument, one for your project file and one for your actual documents. You'd need to make edit your Info.plist to add the new document type and associate it with its own file extension/UTI.

Doing it this way makes it very straightforward for both types of document (project file and document file) to reap the benefits of the document architecture.

Things can get a little more complicated if you are handling the documents by loading them into a parent project window (à la Xcode). If that is the case then you would need to write custom NSDocumentController and NSWindowController subclasses.

Rob Keniger
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  • Hi Rob, thanks for your answer. I read this solution while I was searching with Google a bit. I know that you can open different types of files with different `NSDocuments`. But how can a "master" `NSDocument` (my project) contain/have some smaller `NSDocuments` in it (project files)? Do I need to read the project file and generate multiple `NSDocuments` for each document in the project and somehow bundle them in the `NSDocumentController`? – Paul Nov 27 '11 at 10:34
  • It seems like `NSDocumentController` is the way to go. But what is the exact workflow there? Will my project file be some kind of initialization "helper" for `NSDocumentController` or a dictionary of what is in the project? – Paul Nov 27 '11 at 11:02
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    @PaulEngstler: The project document doesn't need to create NSDocuments for all of the individual files up front. It should know about any that exist, so it can activate an existing document rather than create a new one when opening a file that's already open, but not be responsible for them. You'll want project documents to work with the document controller toward this end: Have the document controller post a notification when documents are opened and closed, so any project documents can check whether this is a document they'd be interested in. – Peter Hosey Nov 27 '11 at 17:31
  • Ah, now I get it. It doesn't match my logic but now I get it. Thank you guys really much! :) – Paul Nov 27 '11 at 17:33
  • Sorry, I have a little question again: If the user changes the document via the sidebar (it's a single-window app) how do I tell the `NSDocumentController` it should change the current `NSDocument`? – Paul Nov 27 '11 at 21:21
  • @PaulEngstler: That should be a separate question. – Peter Hosey Nov 27 '11 at 23:11