NSSearchField and ArrayController removeObjects issue

Scripting Forums AppleScriptObjC and Xcode
#1

I created a Artist/Genre table based on the File table example given in Chapter 5- Extra Columns in Shane Stanley’s book. I’m loading data from a plist. The plist stores artist name and genre and other info. I have two buttons “Rock”, “Blues”. When user clicks a button, data corresponding to that genre is loaded in the table. This part works fine. I then added a NSSearchField described on Page 44 of the book which filters based on Artist Names. The issue is that when I click either the Rock or Blues button when the table is displaying filtered data, the removeObjects method of ArrayController removes only the filtered entries, not all objects . As a result I see duplicate data in my table

here is my code :


property thePlistData : {}
property PLIST_PATH : ""

on awakeFromNib()
        set plistFileString to (path to desktop as string) &  "artist_genre.plist"
        set PLIST_PATH to POSIX path of plistFileString
        set thePlistData to NSMutableDictionary's alloc()'s initWithContentsOfFile_(PLIST_PATH)
   end awakeFromNib

on loadArtists_(sender)
        set tagNumber to sender's tag() as string
        if tagNumber is equal to "1" then
            set artistsGenre to "Rock"
        else
            set artistsGenre to "Blues"
        end if
        -- build list of records
        set tempList to {}
        set theKeys to thePlistData's allKeys() as list
        repeat with key in theKeys
                set theDictObj to thePlistData's valueForKey_(key)
                set genreType to (theDictObj's valueForKey_("theGenre")) as string
                if genreType is equal to artistsGenre then
                    set end of tempList to {theArtist:key,theGenre: genreType}
                end if
        end repeat
        theArtistArrayController's removeObjects:(theArtistArrayController's arrangedObjects())
        theArtistArrayController's addObjects:tempList

    end loadArtists_

Is there a way to handle this issue? Is there another method to remove all objects and not just the filtered objects from the ArrayController?

#2

The problem is that arrangedObjects() returns only visible objects. In this case you need to talk to the property itself. Probably like this:

set my thePlistData to NSMutableDictionary's dictionaryWithDictionary_(tempList)
#3

Thanks for the suggestion Shane. But where would this statement go?

set my thePlistData to NSMutableDictionary's dictionaryWithDictionary_(tempList)
#4

It would replace the last two lines of your handler.

#5

I think I got it to work by clearing the Search field text and making objects visible before calling removeObjects

on loadArtists_(sender)
set tagNumber to sender's tag() as string
set currentSearchStr to searchField's stringValue() as string
-- Code....


if currentSearchStr is not equal to "" then
            searchFieldCell's setStringValue_("")
            theArtistArrayController's addObjects:tempList
end if

theArtistArrayController's removeObjects:(theArtistArrayController's arrangedObjects())
theArtistArrayController's addObjects:tempList

end loadArtists_

One last thing, I can clear the Search Field text, but the Cursor is still in the Search field along with the X button of the Search Field. Is there a way to programmatically click the X button of search field?
I did find a piece of code which is in objective-c, but I couldn’t convert it to ASOC.

[[[searchField cell] cancelButtonCell] performClick:self];
#6

There’s an array controller setting, Clear Filter Predicate On Insert. That checkbox should do the trick.