Learning Cocoa

Chapter 13. To Do: Extended

In Chapter 11, you learned the basics of Cocoa’s multiple-document architecture, and in Chapter 12, you used the architecture to build the core functionality of the To Do application. In this chapter you will add features and functionality to the To Do application. These features include:

• A custom button for each item that displays the item’s due time, which users can also click to change the item’s status

• An Info window that you can use to inspect and modify the properties of a ToDo item

• Timers that allow the application to notify you with an alert before an item is due

• The ability to save To Do documents to disk

Finally, in Chapter 14, you’ll add polish with features such as application and document icons, as well as document typing that will allow users to automatically launch the application by double-clicking a To Do document in the Finder.

Create and Manage an Info Window

An Info window contains a set of fields and controls that enables users to examine and set an object’s attributes. Because objects often have many attributes and because you want to make it easy for users to set those attributes, Info windows usually have more than one display; users typically access these multiple displays using a pop-up menu. These displays allow users to:

• Specify the times those items are due

• Request that they be notified at a specified interval before the due time

• Associate notes with items

• Mark items as complete or deferred

• Reschedule uncompleted items