Open-Source: NSBegin*AlertSheet(…) with ^Blocks

There’s NSBeginAlertSheet, NSBeginInformationalAlertSheet and NSBeginCriticalAlertSheet, so the * is a wild-card for all those functions.

picture credit: Apple, Inc.

What is this?

I’ve been growing more and more tired of always having to set up a callback-method (in the worst case, two, for didDismiss and didEnd) for NSBegin*AlertSheet(…) calls, like

– (void)alertSheet:(NSPanel *)panel endedWithCode:(NSInteger)returnCode contextInfo:(void *)info
{
 …code here…
} 

Especially, since we have such a great thing like blocks where you can pass blocks of code as arguments to methods and functions, just like an Objective-C object.

So instead of having to set up callback methods for NSBegin*AlertSheet(…), I created ESSBegin*AlertSheet(…). Instead of callback @selectors, it takes blocks for didEnd and didDismiss callbacks.

I find it also makes for cleaner code having the callbacks right in the ESSBegin*AlertSheet(…) calls as you don’t lose the context of what’s happening before the call in my code.

Available for OS X Snow Leopard and up

Blocks were introduced with OS X Snow Leopard, so I assume (yes, I assume since I’ve only tested this on OS X Mountain Lion) it should run on Snow Leopard as well.

Download and Usage

NSApplication+ESSApplicationCategory Github Repository (refer to the read me for how to implement it in your projects)
Eternal Storms Software Open Source Projects

Enjoy! And let me know what you think 🙂

Take care,
Matthias

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