How to avoid deallocating a NSPanel when closed by the user

Question

I am developing a small and simple status menu application.
There is a menu and when the user clicks on it, a HUD window (NSPanel) should appear. This is how I show the panel:

[hudWindow makeKeyAndOrderFront: self]; 

This is how I dismiss the window:

[hudWindow orderOut: nil];

So that's the events chain:

1. When the app starts I dismiss the window;
2. Then the user (that's me :-)) clicks on the menu item and makes the panel appear;
3. Then I click on the x and close the panel;
4. Then I click again on the menu item and the window doesn't appear again.

It doesn't appear again probably because it gets deallocated, and I have put a weak storage, otherwise with __unsafe_unretained it would crash at the second launch.
So I'm guessing if there's a way to avoid deallocating the window when the user clicks on it.
I have tried with a strong storage but this case at the second launch I'm unable to close it again and that's a problem.
There are many menu status applications that are able to display a window without that the user can "kill" it, I would make something of similar.

Answer 1

You should uncheck the "Release When Closed" checkbox in IB (or done the equivalent in code). That box is checked by default for panels.

Using a strong pointer probably doesn't work because the releasedWhenClosed setting overrides that. Having a strong pointer just means that the retain count will be at least one, but that doesn't prevent the system from explicitly sending a release message to the panel.

Answer 2

Can't you just change your property from weak to strong?