CODEWITHSUNDEEP
objective-ccocoa
Miek
Miek

Reputation: 1137

Cocoa Message with no action required

I'm trying to figure out a way to give a user feedback when they have saved settings. similar to Microsoft's "File Saved" dialog Is there a class for this type of dialog? I do not want to require any action by the user. Just "Your setting have been saved" then disappears after a short delay. Maybe a better way to describe would be like a jQuery message box with a fade in fade out type thing

Upvotes: 0

Views: 263

Answers (4)

James Williams
James Williams

Reputation: 1891

The other answers about timers and such cover that aspect of it pretty well. I just wanted to jump in and suggest you take a look at the Growl framework. This seems to be the preferred way to do this sort of passive notification until Apple builds it into the OS.

Among other things, it gives the user a lot of control over how the notifications look, where they live on the screen, how long they stay up, and which apps are even allowed to display them. And they do this without you having to write any code. The downside is that it's another thing for your users to have to install, which could be a deal breaker for your app.

They also recently moved into the App Store and started charging a nominal fee ($2 or $3, I think) which could be seen as a downside but I think of it as a more positive thing: users will have a much easier time installing it now.

Some apps that make use of Growl notifications include BBEdit, Transmission, Scrivener, Twitteriffic, etc. Which is to say that it's not a fly-by-night thing.

As a user, I hate it when apps try to roll their own notifications since I lose all of the control that I get with Growl.

Just a thought, anyway.

Upvotes: 0

markhunte
markhunte

Reputation: 6932

It is simple to fade a window in and out using the NSViewAnimation see also NSAnimation Class

An example I use something like this.

- (void)fadeWindowIn{

    //--make sure the window starts from 0 alpha. Or you may get it jumping in view then try and fade in.
  [theWindow setAlphaValue:0.0];



    //-- set up the dictionary for the animation options
    NSDictionary *dictIn = [NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys:
                          theWindow,NSViewAnimationTargetKey,
                           NSViewAnimationFadeInEffect,NSViewAnimationEffectKey,nil];

    NSViewAnimation * fadeWindowIntAnim = [[[NSViewAnimation alloc] initWithViewAnimations:[NSArray arrayWithObject:dictIn]] autorelease];

    [fadeWindowIntAnim setAnimationCurve:NSAnimationLinear];
    [fadeWindowIntAnim setDuration:2];
    [fadeWindowIntAnim setFrameRate:20.0];


    //--start the animation
    [fadeWindowIntAnim startAnimation];
    //--set the timer for the fade out animation
    [NSTimer scheduledTimerWithTimeInterval:4.8 target:self selector:@selector(fadeWindowOut) userInfo:nil repeats:NO];

}



-(void)fadeWindowOut{
    //--  fade the   window.
    NSDictionary *dictOut = [NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys:
                          theWindow,NSViewAnimationTargetKey,
                          NSViewAnimationFadeOutEffect,NSViewAnimationEffectKey,nil];

    NSViewAnimation * fadeOutAnim = [[[NSViewAnimation alloc] initWithViewAnimations:[NSArray arrayWithObject:dictOut]] autorelease];

    [fadeOutAnim setAnimationCurve:NSAnimationLinear];
    [fadeOutAnim setDuration:1.2];
    [fadeOutAnim setFrameRate:20.0];

    [fadeOutAnim startAnimation];

}

theWindow is the NSWindow or NSView you want to fade in and out. Read the references to understand the options.

Upvotes: 1

jscs
jscs

Reputation: 64002

Is there a class for this type of dialog?

That isn't a "dialog", because you're not accepting input from the user. At best, it's an alert, and you could therefore use NSAlert (see also "Dialogs and Special Panels") however, what you are contemplating is contrary to the recommendations given in the HIG for "Alerts":

Avoid using an alert merely to give users information. Although it’s important to tell users about serious problems, such as the potential for data loss, users don’t appreciate being interrupted by alerts that are informative but not actionable. Instead of displaying an alert that merely informs, give users the information in another way, such as in an altered status indicator.

In other words, this probably wouldn't be considered a good user experience by the OS X-using population.

You can still do this, if you absolutely must, by creating a sheet or alert window and setting a timer to dismiss it.

A much better plan would be to have a label somewhere in your interface whose text could display this information, again using a timer to clear the notice after an appropriate duration.

Yet another option (possibly the best) would be to put this notice somewhere that the user only sees it upon request. The HIG mentions Mail.app's information area at the bottom of its sidebar, for example.

Upvotes: 2

Mike Fahy
Mike Fahy

Reputation: 5707

You can create your own such popup (using NSTimer to dismiss as needed), but perhaps an easier way would be to use the existing third-party library at http://code.google.com/p/toast-notifications-ios/. This library emulates Android's "toast" functionality.

Note that this library is for iOS development (not OSX), but wasn't sure which platform you were planning to target. Regardless, it should be adaptable with a little work.

Upvotes: 0

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