How do I make an NSView move to the front of all NSViews

Question

I have a super view, which has 2 subviews. These subviews are overlapped.

Whenever i choose a view from a menu, corresponding view should become the front view and h

Answer 1

You can achieve this by just adding the view again; it will not create another instance of it.

[self addSubview:viewToBeMadeForemost];

You can Log the number of subviews before and after this line of code is executed.

Answer 2

using @Dalmazio's answer in a Swift 4 category that mimics the equivalent UIView method gives the following:

extension NSView {

    func bringSubviewToFront(_ view: NSView) {
            var theView = view
            self.sortSubviews({(viewA,viewB,rawPointer) in
                let view = rawPointer?.load(as: NSView.self)

                switch view {
                case viewA:
                    return ComparisonResult.orderedDescending
                case viewB:
                    return ComparisonResult.orderedAscending
                default:
                    return ComparisonResult.orderedSame
                }
            }, context: &theView)
    }

}

so, to bring subView to the front in containerView

containerView.bringSubviewToFront(subView)

unlike solutions which remove and re-add the view, this keeps constraints unchanged

Answer 3

Below given code should work fine..

    NSMutableArray *subvies = [NSMutableArray arrayWithArray:[self subviews]];//Get all subviews..

    [viewToBeMadeForemost retain]; //Retain the view to be made top view..

    [subvies removeObject:viewToBeMadeForemost];//remove it from array

    [subvies addObject:viewToBeMadeForemost];//add as last item

    [self setSubviews:subvies];//set the new array..

Answer 4

Here's another way to accomplish this that's a bit more clear and succinct:

[viewToBeMadeForemost removeFromSuperview];
[self addSubview:viewToBeMadeForemost positioned:NSWindowAbove relativeTo:nil];

Per the documentation for this method, when you use relativeTo:nil the view is added above (or below, with NSWindowBelow) all of its siblings.

Answer 5

I was able to get this to work without calling removeFromSuperView

// pop to top
[self addSubview:viewToBeMadeForemost positioned:NSWindowAbove relativeTo:nil];

Answer 6

You might try this:

[viewToBeMadeFirst.window makeKeyAndOrderFront:nil];