Disable Autolayout for NSSplitView in Interface Builder

By using a NSSplitViewController inside my Storyboard, I wanted to override the behaviour of the contained split view.

By implementing some of the the NSSplitViewDelegate method regarding the max constraint for the slider, I got this exception raised:

2017-01-12 11:05:45.873814 iCache[3399:659731] [General] SplitViewController's splitView is unable to use autolayout because the SplitViewController overrides an incompatible delegate method.
2017-01-12 11:05:45.874089 iCache[3399:659731] [General] (
    0   CoreFoundation                      0x00007fffb5d9ee7b __exceptionPreprocess + 171
    1   libobjc.A.dylib                     0x00007fffca989cad objc_exception_throw + 48
    2   CoreFoundation                      0x00007fffb5da3b82 +[NSException raise:format:arguments:] + 98
    3   Foundation                          0x00007fffb77edd50 -[NSAssertionHandler handleFailureInMethod:object:file:lineNumber:description:] + 195
    4   AppKit                              0x00007fffb389ca29 -[NSSplitView _splitViewUseConstraintBasedLayout] + 355
    5   AppKit                              0x00007fffb389c894 -[NSSplitView(NSSplitViewDividerViews) _canUseDividerViewsAsSubviews] + 74
    6   AppKit                              0x00007fffb389c0f7 -[NSSplitView(NSSplitViewDividerViews) _updateDividerViews] + 36
    7   AppKit                              0x00007fffb389dd41 -[NSSplitViewController _updateSplitView:withBlock:] + 51
    8   AppKit                              0x00007fffb389dc89 -[NSSplitViewController viewDidLoad] + 144
    9   AppKit                              0x00007fffb3896283 -[NSViewController _sendViewDidLoad] + 97
    10  CoreFoundation                      0x00007fffb5d17889 -[NSSet makeObjectsPerformSelector:] + 217
    11  AppKit                              0x00007fffb3814902 -[NSIBObjectData nibInstantiateWithOwner:options:topLevelObjects:] + 1389
    12  AppKit                              0x00007fffb391d436 -[NSNib _instantiateNibWithExternalNameTable:options:] + 696
    13  AppKit                              0x00007fffb391d06a -[NSNib _instantiateWithOwner:options:topLevelObjects:] + 143
    14  AppKit                              0x00007fffb403f34a -[NSStoryboard instantiateControllerWithIdentifier:] + 234
    15  AppKit                              0x00007fffb3805bb7 NSApplicationMain + 780
    16  iCache                              0x00000001000127f4 main + 84
    17  libdyld.dylib                       0x00007fffcb26d255 start + 1
)

Apparently this is due to to Autolayout used for the split view. Is there a way to disable Autolayout for this NSSplitView inside Interface Builder?

Enable/disable Auto Layout

You can disable Auto Layout per XIB file in the Interface Builder under File Inspector.

You should be able to control autolayout per view through the views translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints.

Why it doesn't work

According to OS X 10.11 release notes there are some methods you cannot use in combination with autolayout.

Please see this excerption from the notes.

Auto Layout NSSplitView improvements

In 10.8, NSSplitView properly respects constraints applied to its subviews, such as their minimum view widths. There are also new APIs for controlling the holding priorities, which determine both the NSLayoutPriority at which a split view holds its sizes and also which views change size if the split view itself grows or shrinks.

• (NSLayoutPriority)holdingPriorityForSubviewAtIndex:(NSInteger)subviewIndex;
• (void)setHoldingPriority:(NSLayoutPriority)priority forSubviewAtIndex:(NSInteger)subviewIndex;

In order to take advantage of these improvements, you must NOT implement any of the following NSSplitViewDelegate methods:

• splitView:constrainMinCoordinate:ofSubviewAt:
• splitView:constrainMaxCoordinate:ofSubviewAt:
• splitView:resizeSubviewsWithOldSize:
• splitView:shouldAdjustSizeOfSubview:

These methods are incompatible with auto layout. You can typically achieve their effects and more with auto layout.