cocoamacosunixsave-asnssavepanel

"Save As" in non-document based application Cocoa


I'm working on a project that essentially creates files via a shell script using "sox". The application is not document-based, all its doing is calling a script that creates files, and doesn't internally save any data. However, I need to prompt users where to save the file, and what file name to use before the script is run. What would be the best way to have a "save as.." dialog box to get a filepath/filename from a user to pass to the shell script?


Solution

  • This is pretty straightforward. You tagged this question with NSSavePanel and that's exactly what you want to use.

    - (IBAction)showSavePanel:(id)sender
    {
        NSSavePanel * savePanel = [NSSavePanel savePanel];
        // Restrict the file type to whatever you like
        [savePanel setAllowedFileTypes:@[@"txt"]];
        // Set the starting directory
        [savePanel setDirectoryURL:someURL];
        // Perform other setup
        // Use a completion handler -- this is a block which takes one argument
        // which corresponds to the button that was clicked
        [savePanel beginSheetModalForWindow:someWindow completionHandler:^(NSInteger result){
            if (result == NSFileHandlingPanelOKButton) {
                // Close panel before handling errors
                [savePanel orderOut:self];
                // Do what you need to do with the selected path
            }
        }];
    }
    

    See also "The Save Panel" in the File System Programming Guide.