How to get the source lists selection highlight to use the Dark Vibrancy appearance in OS X 10.10?

Question

In OS X 10.10 source lists seem to use the light vibrancy appearance. In the Finder (and in some other third party applications, Things.app for example) the selecte

Answer 1

After playing around for a while I found a way to accomplish this. It turned out that I would get the "Finder highlight" style when using NSTableViewSelectionHighlightStyleSourceList and clicking outside my NSOutlineView. So I figured it would stay that way if you refuse making it first responder.

Simply make your NSOutlineView a subclass and override this method:

-(BOOL)acceptsFirstResponder{
    return NO;
}

It works, but with some downsides. For example, using arrow keys in the NSOutlineView will no longer work. I downloaded the Things app, and it does not allow use of arrow keys either, so it's very likely that this is how they are doing it. If anyone finds a better way, please post it.

Answer 2

I am not sure, this is "Dark Vibrancy".

I would rather try setting the background color to something like "Alternate Selected Control Text Color"

Have a look at an NSTextField in InterfaceBuilder. there are many "Control Text" colors, which have a special appearance on visual effect views.

and for setting the selection color see this answer (untested): NSTableview Change the highlight colour

Answer 3

If you would like to keep arrow keys working, you can subclass NSTableRowView and override the following method:

- (BOOL)isEmphasized
{
    return NO;
}

Answer 4

Here is the Swift equivalent :

func outlineView(_ outlineView: NSOutlineView, rowViewForItem item: Any) -> NSTableRowView? {
    return CustomTableRowView(frame: NSZeroRect);
}

And the subclass of NSTableRowView

import Cocoa

class CustomTableRowView: NSTableRowView {

    override var isEmphasized: Bool {
        set {}
        get {
            return false;
        }
    }

}