Validating a drag to an NSCollectionView isn't reflected visually

Question

I have an NSCollectionView that I want to accept items dragged from elsewhere in my application.

I implement collectionView:validateDrop:proposedIndex:dropOperation: and collectionView:acceptDrop:index:dropOperation: in the collectionview's delegate and register for the appropriate dragged types. Both methods get called fine when I drag the appropriate types, but I don't get a blue focus ring over the collectionview indicating a valid drag.

Have tried both the collection view and its containing scroll view on Default and External settings for the focus ring. Both are just the standard non-derived Cocoa classes. Wondered if there was anything else I should try. Surely it isn't necessary to subclass NSCollectionView for this?

Thanks
Chris

Answer 1

Focus rings are not typically the correct way to provide feedback about drag destinations. Every view does it slightly differently. NSTextView shows the insertion bar. NSTableView shows a blue line in between rows for Before drop operations, and shows a bezel around the row for On drop operations. (See NSTableViewDropOperation)

NSCollectionView shows a "gap" between existing subviews to show where the items will be dropped for Before drop operations, and it will set the selected property on NSCollectionViewItem to YES for On drop operations. (Note: NSCollectionViewItem doesn't do anything by default to visibly represent the selected property. You must implement that yourself.)

Since NSCollectionView's feedback uses existing subviews only, it appears there isn't any feedback at all for empty NSCollectionView's. You would need to subclass to provide this behavior yourself. You could also file a bug to request that NSCollectionView do this itself.