I have subclassed NSTableColumn and NSTextFielCell
(my NSTextFieldCell display on line of text and 2 icons using binding and coredata)

in NSTableColumn i subclassed:
dataCellForRow like this:

-(id)dataCellForRow:(int)row
{
OOCell *cell = [self dataCell];
if(row >= 0)
{
[cell setFolderImageName:[folderImageName objectAtIndex:row]];
if(badgeImageCount!=nil)
{

 [cell setBadgeImageCount:[[badgeImageCount objectAtIndex:row]intValue]];

 }
 else
 {
 [cell setBadgeImageCount:0];
 }
 }

return cell;
}

In fact the tableColumn use the arrangedObjects array to send data to the cell as i suppose the cells are displayed in the same order as the arrangedObjects array

I also implemented

• (void)observeValueForKeyPath:(NSString *)keyPath
  ofObject:(id)object
  change:(NSDictionary *)change
  context:(void *)context
  in the tableColumn

Graphics Bindings and Clock Control from mmalc web page are very good example on what to do to subclass a NSCell and use binding

I hope i will have the time to post my solution in a blog in sometimes

I am trying to develop a custom NSTextfieldCell to display in a tableview, the cell will be used to show one string and two icons.

I bind my tablecolumn to the arrangedObjects.key keypath.

I allways get the same problem: the cell receive the array (of icon name) of the arranged objects and not a single value. I am unable to display my cell

I believe my custom cell (and custom tablecolumn) are KVO compliant.

I did have a look at mmalc samples, and also RMTextFieldCell and i still don’t succeed to get the value for each cell.

Can someone have an answer to this problem. I would like to avoid to have to use the old way to populate a tableview.
Thanks !!

That sounds very promising and I gave it a try but unfortunatley I couldn’t make it work.
The problem is that for each line of the table I have a specific object. In order to get the right data I have to create a binding to these objects.
So I would have to rebind during the loop that fills the table.
The only thing I could imagine is to bind to the cell’s object-value and to rebind each time the cell value is being changed.

Am I missing something?

NSTableColumn *aCol;

[[aCol dataCell] bind:@”myImage” toObject:… withKeyPath:@”data.image” options:…];
[[aCol dataCell] bind:@”myMainText” toObject:… withKeyPath:@”data.mainText” options:…];
[[aCol dataCell] bind:@”mySubtext” toObject:… withKeyPath:@”data.subText” options:…];

myMainText could be the cell’s objectValue, to avoid adding that ivar.
In your cell subclass, your setters need to tell the controlView to refresh itself whenever new value is different from old one.
Look here for such an example: http://wonder.cvs.sourceforge.net/wonder/Wonder/Utilities/RuleModeler/ - see RMTextFieldCell, which is used as a tableView data cell that highlights some parts of its string value according to a search filter.

In my particular case I’m doing more stuff in the delegate (adjust colors….) and therefore I’m also sending the cell itself to the delegate.
So in this case it would would not work with the key path.

I think the difference is similar to the bindings vs. datasource stuff. Bindings are great and easy to use, but you could get to the limits and are stuck. Datasources are flexible but you have to code a lot.

Your idea reminds me to not forget the power of the dynamics of Objective-C. I must get out this (static) Java stuff from my head.

• (id)initWithPathsForMainText:(NSString *)p1 subText:(NSString *)p2 image:(NSString *)p3

So you can reuse your custom cell with nearly every kind of data-object (at least with such ones hat can provide an image and two strings)…