In Project Builder’s Groups & Files pane, click on the disclosure triangle next to Resources to reveal the MainMenu.nib file.

Double-click on the nib file to open it in Interface Builder.

Move the window near the upper-left corner of the screen by dragging its titlebar.

Make the window smaller using the resize control at the bottom-right corner of the window, as shown in Figure 6-11.

Select the Views palette by clicking the second button from the left in the toolbar of the Cocoa Views window, as shown in Figure 6-12.

Figure 6-12. Interface Builder’s Views palette

Drag a text field object onto the window.

Resize the text field to make it wider, using the handles on the text field, as shown in Figure 6-13.

Figure 6-13. Resizing a text field

Click the Classes tab of the MainMenu.nib window.

Select NSObject from the list of classes.

Press Return to create a new subclass of NSObject, and rename it MyController.

Select the MyController class in the Classes window.

Open the Show Info window (Tools → Show Info, or Shift-

-I), and select Attributes in the pull-down menu.

In the Outlets tab, click the Add button, and add an outlet named textField (as shown in Figure 6-14); enter the name, and press Return.

Select MyController in the Classes pane of the MainMenu.nib window.

Choose instantiate from the Classes menu (Classes → Instantiate MyController, or Option-

-I).

In the Instances panel of the MainMenu.nib window, Control-drag a connection line from the MyController instance to the text field. When the text field is outlined, as shown in Figure 6-16, release the mouse button.

Figure 6-16. Connecting the instance to the text field

Interface Builder brings up the Connections pane of the Show Info window, as shown in Figure 6-17.

Select textField, and click the Connect button.

Figure 6-17. Connections pane of the Show Info window

Go to the Classes tab of the MainMenu.nib file window.

Select the MyController class.

Choose Create Files from the Classes menu (Classes → Create Files for MyController, or Option-

-F).

Verify that the checkboxes in the Create column next to the .h and .m files are selected.

Verify that the checkbox next to Simple Date is selected in the Insert into targets column.

Click on the Choose button.

Save the nib file (File → Save, or

-S).

In Project Builder, select MyController.h in the Other Sources folder in the left pane.

Change the declaration in MyController.h to match the code shown in Example 6-1. Don’t forget to add the pointer star!

/* MyController */

#import <Cocoa/Cocoa.h>

@interface MyController : NSObject
{
    IBOutlet NSTextField * textField;
}
@end

In the left pane, click on MyController.m in the Other Sources folder.

Edit the MyController.m file to match the code shown in Example 6-2.

#import "MyController.h"

@implementation MyController

- (void)awakeFromNib
                              {
                                  [textField setObjectValue:[NSCalendarDate date]];
                              }
@end

Save the project (File → Save, or

-S).

Build and run the application (

-R). You should see a window that resembles Figure 6-19.

Quit the application.

Drag a date formatter from the Views palette to the text field, as shown in Figure 6-20.

Figure 6-20. Adding a date formatter to a text field

While the text field is selected, bring up the Show Info window (Shift-

-I) if it isn’t open already.

In the Formatter pane of the Show Info window, specify the %c date format, as shown in Figure 6-21.

Figure 6-21. Formatter pane

Save the nib file (File → Save, or

-S).

Return to Project Builder, and build and run (

-R) the project. You should see something like Figure 6-22.

Quit the application (Simple Date → Quit NewApplication, or

-Q).

Figure 6-22. Simple Date application using a formatter

In the Cocoa-Views window, grab an NSButton object, and drag it to the main window.

Change the name of the button by double-clicking on the “Button” name to highlight it, typing “Refresh”, then hitting Return to accept the new name. The interface should now look similar to Figure 6-24.

Select the MyController class in the Classes pane of the MainMenu.nib window.

In the Attributes pane of the Show Info window, click on the Actions tab and then on the Add button.

Change myAction: to refresh: and hit Return to add the action, as shown in Figure 6-25.

Click on the Instances tab in the MainMenu.nib window.

Control-drag a connection from the Refresh button to the MyController instance in the MainMenu.nib window, as shown in Figure 6-26. When the instance is outlined, release the mouse button.

Figure 6-26. Creating a connection between the Refresh button and the controller

In the Connections pane of the Show Info window, make sure target is selected in the Outlets column.

Select refresh: in the right column, as shown in Figure 6-27.

Figure 6-27. Connecting to the refresh: method

Click the Connect button.

Save the MainMenu.nib file (File → Save, or

-S).

Go to the Classes tab of the MainMenu.nib file window.

Select the MyController class.

Choose Classes → Create Files for MyController (Option-

-F). Follow the dialog boxes to save the files into the project.

Interface Builder will warn you that the file MyController.h already exists. Click on the Merge button to bring up the FileMerge tool, as shown in Figure 6-28. If you don’t see the window shown in Figure 6-28, look for the FileMerge icon on your Dock, and click it to bring the FileMerge window to the top.

Figure 6-28. Merge tool in action

The FileMerge tool consists of three panes. The left pane is the newly generated file from Interface Builder, the right pane is the file in your project, and the bottom pane is the result of the merge. We want to keep our edits that were statically typed for the textField outlet. To do this, we select the #1 arrow, then “Choose right” from the Actions pop-up at the bottom-right corner of the window.

Save the MyController.h file from FileMerge (File → Save Merge ,or

-S) and then close the window.

Return to Interface Builder. You will be prompted to merge the MyController.m file; do so.

Merge the Files (as shown in Figure 6-29) by selecting “Choose both (left first)” for the first block of code and “Choose right” for the second block of code. Unfortunately, at the time of writing this book, FileMerge isn’t smart enough to handle this merge on its own. If you encounter this problem, you’ll need to add the curly braces after the refresh: method yourself.

Figure 6-29. Merging MyController.m

Save the resulting merged file (File → Save Merge, or

-S), and quit the FileMerge tool (

-Q).

Save the nib file (File → Save, or

-S).

Save the changes to the nib file (File → Save, or

-S).

Build and run the application (

-R).