Set NSTableCellView and subviews to have dynamic width programmatically

Question

I have an NSTableView with cells that contain various NSTextFields and NSProgressIndicators. I set the cells up programmatically and I control their behavior programmatically. The way I have implemented my cells basically prevents me from being able to use Interface Builder. Everything works great except when I resize the NSWindow, all the NSTableCells and their subviews within my NSTableView do not resize their width to be equal to the width of the table they are contained in.

Any advice on how to accomplish this dynamic change in width for all the NSTableView's subviews is greatly appreciated.

Here is my code for creating the cells:

func tableView(tableView: NSTableView, viewForTableColumn tableColumn: NSTableColumn?, row: Int) -> NSView? {

    var data = NSMutableDictionary()
    data = xloadData(data)
    if data.count == 0 {
        data.setObject((homeDir + "/Library/Messages/Attachments"), forKey: "Message Attachments")
        data.setObject((homeDir + "/Library/Caches"), forKey: "Application Caches")
        xsaveData(data)
    }
    let array: NSArray = data.allKeys.sorted(){($0 as! String) < ($1 as! String)}
    let mainview = NSTableCellView(frame: NSRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: tableView.frame.width, height: 48))
    mainview.identifier = "sx"
    let keyName = NSTextField(frame: NSRect(x: 0, y: 20, width: tableView.frame.width, height: 28))
        keyName.bezeled = false
        keyName.drawsBackground = false
        keyName.editable = false
        keyName.selectable = false
        keyName.font = NSFont(name: "HelveticaNeue-Thin", size: 17)
        keyName.textColor = NSColor(hexColorCode: "#F3F3F3")
        keyName.stringValue = array.objectAtIndex(row) as! String

    //Calculate sizes
    let val: String = valueFromKey(data, key: keyName.stringValue)
    let size: Double = sizeDict.objectForKey(val) as! Double
    let totalSize: Double = sizeDict.objectForKey("total") as! Double
    var progRatio: Double = 0
    if totalSize != 0 {
        progRatio = (size / totalSize) * 100
    }

    let sizeInfo = NSTextField(frame: NSRect(x: 0, y: 20, width: tableView.frame.width - 5, height: 28))
        sizeInfo.bezeled = false
        sizeInfo.drawsBackground = false
        sizeInfo.editable = false
        sizeInfo.selectable = false
        sizeInfo.font = NSFont(name: "HelveticaNeue-Thin", size: 16)
        sizeInfo.textColor = NSColor(hexColorCode: "#F3F3F3")
        sizeInfo.alignment = NSTextAlignment.RightTextAlignment
        sizeInfo.stringValue = "\(convertBytes(size)) / \(totalSize)"

    var progAsset = NSProgressIndicator(frame: NSRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: tableView.frame.width - 5, height: 20))
        progAsset.indeterminate = false
        progAsset.doubleValue = progRatio

    mainview.addSubview(keyName)
    mainview.addSubview(sizeInfo)
    mainview.addSubview(progAsset)

    return mainview
}

Answer 1

You have two basic options: use auto layout or use old-style springs and struts (autoresizing masks).

For auto layout, you would create constraints to relate the views inside the cell view to the cell view (their superview). They might also relate to each other.

For example, you have your text fields overlapping, one right-aligned. You should probably arrange for them to be side-by-side, instead. You could do something like:

keyName.setContentHuggingPriority(NSLayoutPriority(250),
                                  forOrientation:.Horizontal)
keyName.setContentCompressionResistancePriority(NSLayoutPriority(750),
                                                forOrientation:.Horizontal)
sizeInfo.setContentHuggingPriority(NSLayoutPriority(251),
                                   forOrientation:.Horizontal)
sizeInfo.setContentCompressionResistancePriority(NSLayoutPriority(751),
                                                 forOrientation:.Horizontal)
let views = ["keyName": keyName, "sizeInfo": sizeInfo]
var constraints = NSLayoutConstraint.constraintsWithVisualFormat("|[keyName][sizeInfo]-(5)-|",
                                                                 options:[.AlignAllBaseline],
                                                                 metrics:nil,
                                                                 views:views)
NSLayoutConstraint.activateConstraints(constraints)

Etc. You would need horizontal constraints for the progress indicator and vertical constraints, too.

The other approach would be to set the autoresizingMask for each view to control how each changes size and position as its superview changes.