NSTextField And AutoLayout: Autogrow height -> Programmatically

Question

If I create a label in interface builder and set a string through code that does not fit its current size, the label will grow vertically to fit its size, great!. Besides th

Answer 1

I think a better way to do this, is to override NSTextField, and update the intrinsicContentSize.

public class DynamicTextField: NSTextField {
   public override var intrinsicContentSize: NSSize {
      if cell!.wraps {
         let fictionalBounds = NSRect(x: bounds.minX, y: bounds.minY, width: bounds.width, height: CGFloat.greatestFiniteMagnitude)
         return cell!.cellSize(forBounds: fictionalBounds)
      } else {
         return super.intrinsicContentSize
      }
   }

   public override func textDidChange(_ notification: Notification) {
      super.textDidChange(notification)

      if cell!.wraps {
         validateEditing()
         invalidateIntrinsicContentSize()
      }
   }
}

Afterwards the constraints works as expected. Note that it only works when you set the Layout to Wraps in Interface Builder or code.

Answer 2

Set the text field's preferredMaxLayoutWidth. I think you then don't want or need the explicit width constraint.

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In my testing, I find that this works:

self.label = [[NSTextField alloc] initWithFrame:NSMakeRect(0, 0, 100, 18)];
self.label.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = NO;
[self.label.cell setLineBreakMode:NSLineBreakByWordWrapping];
self.label.stringValue = @"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.";
self.label.preferredMaxLayoutWidth = 100;
self.label.editable = NO;

[self.window.contentView addSubview:self.label];

NSDictionary* views = @{ @"label" : self.label };
[self.label.superview addConstraints:[NSLayoutConstraint constraintsWithVisualFormat:@"H:|-[label]" options:0 metrics:nil views:views]];
[self.label.superview addConstraints:[NSLayoutConstraint constraintsWithVisualFormat:@"V:|-[label]" options:0 metrics:nil views:views]];

Basically, the main difference from yours is that I set editable to NO. I also leave out the width and height constraints and setting the compression resistance.