Gradiated Background in Window and Custom Split View

Scripting Forums AppleScript Studio & Xcode
#1

Hi,

I’m trying to re-create the look of apps such as Mail and iTunes where the entire background of the window has a nice gradient of grey. I can get pretty close to this by enabling the ‘has texture’ checkbox in interface builder and using the following code:

on will open theObject
		set background color of window "main" to {53199, 53199, 53199}
		tell window "main" to update
end will open

… but I really want to get that gradient…

I’m also trying to customise a vertical split view so the handle is embedded in an image at the bottom and the split itself is more of a hairline. For a better representation; in Mail.app, it’s the part between the mailboxes (left hand column) and the mail viewer (right hand side) that I’m trying to mimick.

Anyone got any tips for getting this to work?

Many thanks,

Dave.

#2

Hi Dave,

for a convenient gradient window solution you can try matt gemmel’s open source NSWindow subclass (TunesWindow);
http://mattgemmell.com/source/

for a custom split view also use a subclass …
in your NSSplitView subclass you should at least overwrite ‘- (float)dividerThickness’ and return a small value. Probably it’s necessary to overwrite a second method ‘- (void) drawDividerInRect:(NSRect)aRect’ and modify thumbRect/add some custom drawing there.

for example:

[code]#import <Cocoa/Cocoa.h>
@interface SmallSplitView : NSSplitView{}
@end

@implementation SmallSplitView

  • (float)dividerThickness{
    return 1.0;
    }
  • (void) drawDividerInRect:(NSRect)aRect{
    // if you want different behaviour for vert/hor you can test: if ([self isVertical]) {
    NSRect thumbRect = aRect;
    NSBezierPath *thumb = [NSBezierPath bezierPathWithRect:thumbRect];
    [[NSColor blackColor] set];
    [thumb fill];
    }

@end[/code]
hope that helps …

D.

#3

Hi Dominik,

you can try matt gemmel’s open source NSWindow subclass (TunesWindow);
That’s brilliant, thanks very much.

in your NSSplitView subclass you should at least overwrite…
I don’t fully understand Cocoa, but I appreciate the answer. I guess I need to get stuck into Cocoa, then apply your thinking.

Thanks,

Dave.

#4

the example I posted above should be working and give something similar to the iTunes version:

add two files to your project: “SmallSplitView.h” and “SmallSplitView.m”:

in “SmallSplitView.h” paste:

[code]#import <Cocoa/Cocoa.h>

@interface SmallSplitView : NSSplitView{}
@end[/code]
in “SmallSplitView.m” paste:

[code]#import “SmallSplitView.h”

@implementation SmallSplitView

  • (float)dividerThickness{
    return 1.0;
    }

  • (void) drawDividerInRect:(NSRect)aRect{
    NSRect thumbRect = aRect;
    NSBezierPath *thumb = [NSBezierPath bezierPathWithRect:thumbRect];
    [[NSColor clearColor] set]; // clearColor or some grey is probably closer to iTunes than black
    [thumb fill];
    }

@end[/code]
Then save and drop “SmallSplitView.h” on your nib in interface builder, select the split view and set the subclass as custom class (Apple + 5).
Now you can try it …

D.