Modifing grid of buttons

Scripting Forums AppleScriptObjC and Xcode
#1

I am building a small app that will display a grid of buttons.
I would like to load these buttons with a random values for there names (later to be images).

(In this scenario let’s assume I have 9 buttons. 3 rows of 3.)
I can get the buttons to load individually. However, I need to have the names on the buttons display randomly. Getting the random data is not the issue. I can load these into an array and pass them the “old school” way through delegate, or a this new way (since I just learned this) through an Array Controller.

Approach 1:
These 9 buttons are displayed on a tab. I have created my own custom NSButton that contains its own values and methods for handling displaying the data.
How can I loop through all of the buttons on the tab, and what if there are multiple tabs?

Approach 2:
I also recently placed these 9 buttons onto a NSMatrix. I noticed the buttons now have a class of NSButtonCell? How can loop through all of the buttons in the matrix and access the button class itself.

I can get the count of cells here:


on awakeFromNib()
     try
        set cellArray to testMatrix's cells
        set cellCount to count of cellArray
     on error e
        display dialog e
     end try
end awakeFromNib

Before I had just looped through all of the buttons in applescript, now I am trying to move to ApplescriptObjC

Thanks

#2

What do you mean exactly by “loop through all of the buttons”? What are you doing with them exactly?

#3

To make it easier here was the original code that would load the data into each button on a tab.

on LoadButtons(tabIndex)
	
	set oldDelimiters to AppleScript's text item delimiters
	set AppleScript's text item delimiters to rowSeparator & return
	set buttonCount to count of buttonData ---delimited data Loaded previously
	
	repeat with i from 1 to buttonCount
		set b to item i of buttonData
		set AppleScript's text item delimiters to columnSeparator
		try
			set buttonName to "Button" & tabIndex & "_" & (text item 3 of b)
			set buttonID to (text item 1 of b)
			set currentTab to tabIndex as text
			set title of button buttonName of view of tab view item currentTab of tab view "MatchTabs" of window "MatchGame" to (text item 2 of b)
			
			set imageName to WORKINGFOLDER & buttonID & ".png"
			set imageFile to POSIX file imageName
			
			if f_exists(imageFile) is true then
				set thumbImage to (load image imageName)
				set image of button buttonName of view of tab view item currentTab of tab view "MatchTabs" of window "MatchGame" to thumbImage
			end if
		on error e
			display dialog e
		end try
		
		set AppleScript's text item delimiters to rowSeparator & return
	end repeat
	set AppleScript's text item delimiters to oldDelimiters
	
end LoadButtons

I wanted to avoid creating a delegate (or reference?) to each button in ApplescriptObjC.
In the old code I could generate the buttonName on the fly and then reference it.

#4

Just to be clear, delegates and references are entirely different things. The term you’re looking for is outlets.

If you don’t want an outlet for each button, you can make an outlet for the tab view, use subviews() to get a list of its subviews, and iterate through that list.

#5

Thanks Shane.

Here is what I just tested using the Matrix and it worked perfectly.



repeat with x from 0 to 3
    repeat with y from 0 to 3
				
    set myCell to current application's NSButtonCell's alloc()'s init()
    set button to (testMatrix's cellAtRow_column_(x, y))			
    set newTitle to GetTitleRowX_ColumnY_(x,y)
    button's setTitle_(newTitle)

    end repeat
end repeat

Thanks for the clarity on Outlets. (I have ventured into ObjC and Applescript from the .net realm)