Using layer backed NSView as NSDockTile contentView

Question

Is there a way to use layer backed NSView as the contentView of a NSDockTile? Tried all sorts of tricks, but all I get is transparent area. Also tried going different route and get an image out of the CALayer and use that for [NSApp setApplicationIconImage:], but no luck either - I think the issue here is creating image representation for offscreen image.

Answer 1

As usual, I got my answer soon after posting the question :) I'll post it here for future reference: I solved it by creating NSImage out of the layer as described in Cocoa is my girlfriend blog post here http://www.cimgf.com/2009/02/03/record-your-core-animation-animation/

The only missing piece is that in order to have anything rendered, a view must be added to a window, so using example code from the post, my solution is:

NSView *myView = ...
NSWindow *window = [[NSWindow alloc] initWithContentRect:NSMakeRect(-1000.0, -1000.0, 256.0, 256.0) styleMask:0 backing:NSBackingStoreNonretained defer:NO];
[window setContentView:myView];

NSUInteger pixelsHigh = myView.bounds.size.height;
NSUInteger pixelsWide = myView.bounds.size.width;
NSUInteger bitmapBytesPerRow = pixelsWide * 4;
CGColorSpaceRef colorSpace = CGColorSpaceCreateWithName(kCGColorSpaceGenericRGB);
CGContextRef context = CGBitmapContextCreate(NULL, pixelsWide, pixelsHigh, 8, bitmapBytesPerRow, colorSpace, kCGImageAlphaPremultipliedLast);
CGColorSpaceRelease(colorSpace);

[myView.layer.presentationLayer renderInContext:context];
CGImageRef image = CGBitmapContextCreateImage(context);
NSBitmapImageRep *bitmap = [[NSBitmapImageRep alloc] initWithCGImage:image];
CFRelease(image);

NSImage *img = [[NSImage alloc] initWithData:[bitmap TIFFRepresentation]];
[NSApp setApplicationIconImage:img];