Resizing window to view controller size in storyboard

Question

I am working on Xcode 6.1.1 on OSX 10.10. I am trying out storyboards for Mac apps. I have a NSTabViewController using the new NSTabViewControllerTabStyleToolbar tabStyle and it is set as the default view controller for the window controller. How do I make my window resize according to the current selected view controller?

Is it possible to do entirely in Interface Builder? Here is what my storyboard looks like:

Answer 1

The auto layout answer is half of it. You need to set the preferredContentSize in your ViewController for each tab to the fitting size (if you wanted the tab to size to the smallest size satisfying all constraints).

override func viewWillAppear() {
        super.viewWillAppear()
        preferredContentSize = view.fittingSize
}

If your constraints are causing an issue below try first with a fixed size, the example below sets this in the tab item's view controller's viewWillAppear function (Swift used here, but the Objective-C version works just as well).

override func viewWillAppear() {
        super.viewWillAppear()
        preferredContentSize = NSSize(width: 400, height: 280)
}

If that works, fiddle with your constraints to figure out what's going on

Answer 2

This solution for 'toolbar style' tab view controllers does animate and supports the nice crossfade effect. In the storyboard designer, add 'TabViewController' in the custom class name field of the NSTabViewController. Don't forget to assign a title to each viewController, this is used as a key value.

import Cocoa

class TabViewController: NSTabViewController {

    private lazy var tabViewSizes: [String : NSSize] = [:]

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        // Add size of first tab to tabViewSizes
        if let viewController = self.tabViewItems.first?.viewController, let title = viewController.title {
            tabViewSizes[title] = viewController.view.frame.size
        }
        super.viewDidLoad()
    }

    override func transition(from fromViewController: NSViewController, to toViewController: NSViewController, options: NSViewController.TransitionOptions, completionHandler completion: (() -> Void)?) {

        NSAnimationContext.runAnimationGroup({ context in
            context.duration = 0.5
            self.updateWindowFrameAnimated(viewController: toViewController)
            super.transition(from: fromViewController, to: toViewController, options: [.crossfade, .allowUserInteraction], completionHandler: completion)
        }, completionHandler: nil)
    }

    func updateWindowFrameAnimated(viewController: NSViewController) {

        guard let title = viewController.title, let window = view.window else {
            return
        }

        let contentSize: NSSize

        if tabViewSizes.keys.contains(title) {
            contentSize = tabViewSizes[title]!
        }
        else {
            contentSize = viewController.view.frame.size
            tabViewSizes[title] = contentSize
        }

        let newWindowSize = window.frameRect(forContentRect: NSRect(origin: NSPoint.zero, size: contentSize)).size

        var frame = window.frame
        frame.origin.y += frame.height
        frame.origin.y -= newWindowSize.height
        frame.size = newWindowSize
        window.animator().setFrame(frame, display: false)
    }
}

Answer 3

Use autolayout. Set explicit size constraints on you views. Or once you have entered the UI into each tab view item's view set up the internal constraints such that they force view to be the size you want.