On Jan 20, 2011, at 10:03 AM, Sherm Pendley wrote:
> On Thu, Jan 20, 2011 at 9:24 AM, Dave Reed <davel...@mac.com> wrote:
>> I'm working on a document-based application that has a couple tabs. Most of
>> the tabs contain NSTableViews, NSTextFields, etc.
>>
>> I want to provide a way for the user to print the data contained in them
>> (just text, possibly with some grid lines), but not the actual table view.
>> I've read through (admittedly fairly quickly) the "Printing Topics for
>> Cocoa" document from Apple but it is more geared towards printing what you
>> see on the screen.
>>
>> I also may want to print different data depending on which tab the user is
>> on.
>>
>> What is the appropriate way to do this? Do I override drawRect: for each tab
>> such as:
>>
>> - (void)drawRect:(NSRect)r {
>> if ( [NSGraphicsContext currentContextDrawingToScreen] ) {
>> [super drawRect:r]
>> }
>> else {
>> // somehow send drawing instructions for the text I want
>> }
>> }
>>
>> or do I somehow create an off screen view that I "draw" the text and grid
>> lines into?
>
> I would take the first approach if (as is mentioned in the docs this
> example is from) drawing the view is mostly the same for both print
> and screen, except for a few embellishments (crop marks, footnotes,
> etc.) added to the print version.
>
> In your case, it sounds like you want to print something entirely
> different than what appears on-screen. In that case, I would take the
> second approach, in one of two ways:
>
> If what you want to print can be expressed in HTML (and it sounds like
> that may be the case), I'd create an off screen instance of WebView,
> feed it some HTML, and send it a -print message. In many cases this
> can be easier to maintain; you can take a template-based approach
> where the layout information is contained in an external template,
> which your app loads & "fills in" to generate the HTML it prints. That
> gives you the ability to tweak the layout & appearance using tools
> that are designed for just that (such as iWeb or Dreamweaver), rather
> than having to modify a custom -drawRect: for each change.
>
> Alternatively, you can subclass NSView with your customized
> -drawRect:, create an off screen instance of your subclass, and send
> it a -print message.
>
> sherm--
>
> --
> Cocoa programming in Perl:
> http://camelbones.sourceforge.net
Thanks for the advice. Yes, what I want to display is fairly different than
what is displayed so the second approach is probably what I want. I hadn't
thought of doing it via HTML, but that may be simpler than creating my own
subclass of NSView. I just need to dust off my HTML skils that I haven't used
in 10+ years.
Thanks,
Dave
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