Swift Source List

Created By: Debasis Das (29-Mar-2015)

In this article we will create a sample application in Swift to display a Source List (view based NSOutlineView) with sample data.

The output of the sample code will have have the following UI

Steps to create a Swift Source List implementation

In this sample app, we will use a hierarchy of information for Department, Accounts in a Department  and Employees in an Account.

There can be multiple departments in a company and each department can have multiple accounts, each account can have multiple employees. Each Employee can only belong to one account and one account can only belong to one department

Step 1: Create the required models.

//  Model.swift
//  SwiftSourceList
//  Created by Debasis Das on 3/29/15.
//  Copyright (c) 2015 Knowstack. All rights reserved.

import Cocoa

class Department: NSObject {
    let name:String
    var accounts: [Account] = []
    let icon:NSImage?
    
    init (name:String,icon:NSImage?){
        self.name = name
        self.icon = icon
    }
}

class Account: NSObject {
    let name:String
    var employees: [Employee] = []
    let icon:NSImage?
    
    init (name:String,icon:NSImage?){
        self.name = name
        self.icon = icon
    }
}

class Employee: NSObject {
    let firstName:String
    let lastName:String
    let icon:NSImage?
    let email:String
    
    init (firstName:String, lastName:String, icon:NSImage?, email:String){
        self.firstName = firstName
        self.lastName = lastName
        self.icon = icon
        self.email = email
    }
}

//  ViewController.swift
//  SwiftSourceList
//  Created by Debasis Das on 3/29/15.
//  Copyright (c) 2015 Knowstack. All rights reserved.

import Cocoa

class ViewController: NSViewController, NSOutlineViewDelegate, NSOutlineViewDataSource {

    @IBOutlet weak var firstNameTextField:NSTextField?
    @IBOutlet weak var lastNameTextField:NSTextField?
    @IBOutlet weak var emailIdTextField:NSTextField?
    @IBOutlet weak var sourceListView:NSOutlineView?
    
    var department1 = Department (name:"Department 1",icon:NSImage (named: "Department-50"))
    var department2 = Department (name:"Department 2",icon:NSImage (named: "Department-50"))
    
    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        
        let account1 = Account(name:"Account 1",icon:NSImage (named: "account"))
        let employee10 = Employee (firstName: "Debasis", lastName: "Das", icon: NSImage (named: "employee"), email: "debasis_das@knowstack.com")
        let employee11 = Employee (firstName: "Mary", lastName: "Jane", icon: NSImage (named: "employee"), email: "maryjane@knowstack.com")
        account1.employees.append(employee10)
        account1.employees.append(employee11)
        
        let account2 = Account(name:"Account 2",icon:NSImage (named: "account"))
        let employee20 = Employee (firstName: "John", lastName: "Doe", icon: NSImage (named: "employee"), email: "johndoe@knowstack.com")
        let employee21 = Employee (firstName: "Jane", lastName: "Doe", icon: NSImage (named: "employee"), email: "janedoe@knowstack.com")

        account2.employees.append(employee20)
        account2.employees.append(employee21)
        
        department1.accounts.append(account1)
        department1.accounts.append(account2)
        
        self.sourceListView?.expandItem(nil, expandChildren: true)
    }

    override var representedObject: AnyObject? {
        didSet {
        // Update the view, if already loaded.
        }
    }
   
    func outlineView(outlineView: NSOutlineView, child index: Int, ofItem item: AnyObject?) -> AnyObject {
        if let item: AnyObject = item {
            switch item {
            case let department as Department: 
                return department.accounts[index]
            case let account as Account:
                return account.employees[index]
            default:
                return self
            }
        } else {
            switch index {
            case 0:
                return department1
            default:
                return department2
            }
        }
    }
    
    func outlineView(outlineView: NSOutlineView, isItemExpandable item: AnyObject) -> Bool {
        switch item {
        case let department as Department:
            return (department.accounts.count > 0) ? true : false
        case let account as Account:
            return (account.employees.count > 0) ? true : false
        default:
            return false
        }
    }
    
    func outlineView(outlineView: NSOutlineView, numberOfChildrenOfItem item: AnyObject?) -> Int {
        if let item: AnyObject = item {
            switch item {
            case let department as Department:
                return department.accounts.count
            case let account as Account:
                return account.employees.count
            default:
                return 0
            }
        } else {
            return 2 //Department1 , Department 2
        }
    }
    
    
    // NSOutlineViewDelegate
    func outlineView(outlineView: NSOutlineView, viewForTableColumn: NSTableColumn?, item: AnyObject) -> NSView? {
        switch item {
        case let department as Department:
            let view = outlineView.makeViewWithIdentifier("HeaderCell", owner: self) as NSTableCellView
            if let textField = view.textField {
                textField.stringValue = department.name
            }
            return view
        case let account as Account:
            let view = outlineView.makeViewWithIdentifier("DataCell", owner: self) as NSTableCellView
            if let textField = view.textField {
                textField.stringValue = account.name
            }
            if let image = account.icon {
                view.imageView!.image = image
            }
            return view
        case let employee as Employee:
            let view = outlineView.makeViewWithIdentifier("DataCell", owner: self) as NSTableCellView
            if let textField = view.textField {
                textField.stringValue = employee.firstName + " " + employee.lastName
            }
            if let image = employee.icon {
                view.imageView!.image = image
            }
            return view
        default:
            return nil
        }
        
    }
    
    func outlineView(outlineView: NSOutlineView, isGroupItem item: AnyObject) -> Bool {
        switch item {
        case let department as Department:
            return true
        default:
            return false
        }
    }
    
    func outlineViewSelectionDidChange(notification: NSNotification){
        println(notification)
        var selectedIndex = notification.object?.selectedRow
        var object:AnyObject? = notification.object?.itemAtRow(selectedIndex!)
        println(object)
        
        if (object is Employee){
            println("selected Object is a Employee " +  (object as Employee).firstName);
            self.firstNameTextField?.stringValue = (object as Employee).firstName
            self.lastNameTextField?.stringValue = (object as Employee).lastName
            self.emailIdTextField?.stringValue = (object as Employee).email
        }
        else{
            println("Do nothing on Department or Account Selection")
        }
        
    }

}

Download the Source Code here SwiftSourceList