Creating an attribute editor like panel from Interface Builder

Question

The Attributes Inspector from Interface Builder presents the user with a great set of options that are neatly organized in folding panels. I really want to do something like this for a project I'm working on to help organize a large set of options that I plan on presenting to the end user.
Only problem is I have no idea what this widget is called or even if its available from Cocoa. I thought it was a NSRuleEditor but I've seen no examples so I'm not sure. So if someone could help point me in the right direction that would be awesome. If you know of an example project in the Examples folder that would be even better. Thanks a lot.

Answer 1

The IB toolpanel is just built out of stock IB parts but there are quite a few of them. As far as I can tell it's just an NSPanel with a toolbar at the top and then at least one NSSplitView with an NSScrollView inserted into it.
To add something like this to your project - although I would recommend starting simpler for learning - simply drag an NSPanel into your IB window and then drag an NSScrollView on top of it and it will fill the NSPanel and you can modify it from there. You can also drag an NSScrollView directly into your nib and work on it and then drop it on the NSPanel if you want. This might make the process easier/more clear for you. If you put an NSTextView into the window it will automatically show and hide scrollbars depending on content unless you tell it otherwise.
Custom views can be confusing but since NSPanels can be made to show themselves as soon as a program launches (I think this is their default state) your content should show up automatically which makes it easier than creating regular windows and then worrying about showing their contents.
Do this help?
=Tod