Learning Cocoa

Implement a Document-Based Application

It is possible to put together a document-based application without having to write very much code. If your requirements are minimal, the Application Kit provides you with a default NSWindowController instance and a default NSDocumentController instance. You just have to create a multidocument project, compose the human interface, implement a subclass of NSDocument, and add any other custom classes or behavior required by your application.

The following procedures step you through the creation of a very simple rich text (RTF) editor. In a few minutes, and with only a few lines of code, you’ll have an application that—without Cocoa’s help—would have taken days or weeks to construct and debug.

The Document-Based Application Package

Project Builder provides a Document-Based Application project template to expedite the development of these kinds of applications. This project type provides the following things:

• The application’s main nib file. This nib file contains a standard Cocoa application menu bar. The menu items in the File and Edit menus are already connected to appropriate first responder action methods.

• A nib file for the application’s document. This nib file contains a single window to which other UI items can be added. A subclass of NSDocument named MyDocument has been made File’s Owner of the nib file. It (and therefore the MyDocument subclass) has an outlet to its window.

• A skeletal NSDocument subclass implementation. The project ...