Cocoa - NSSearchFieldDelegate methods is not called

Question

I have simple NSSearchField on view of NSVIewConroller. and connected the NSSearchFIeld's delegate to the view controller. And I have implemented the NSSearcHFieldDelegate Methods as follows:

- (void)searchFieldDidStartSearching:(NSSearchField *)sender NS_AVAILABLE_MAC(10_11);
{
    NSLog(@"search field did start: %@", sender.stringValue);
}
- (void)searchFieldDidEndSearching:(NSSearchField *)sender NS_AVAILABLE_MAC(10_11);
{
    NSLog(@"search field did end: %@", sender.stringValue);

}

These methods are not getting called on start editing and end editing. But If I implement the NSControl default delegates like controlTextDidChange: and control:textShouldBeginEditing: are called on respective events.

Why the NSSearchFieldDelegate methods are not called?..

Answer 1

Step 1: Your controller class needs to inherit from NSSearchFieldDelegate

Step 2: Implement the below 2 methods

    func searchFieldDidStartSearching(sender: NSSearchField){
        print("searchFieldDidStartSearching \(sender.stringValue)")
    }
    func searchFieldDidEndSearching(sender: NSSearchField){
        print("searchFieldDidEndSearching \(sender.stringValue)")
    }

Step 3: in the viewDidLoad, windowDidLoad, awakeFromNib etc set the delegate for the search field as the view controller/ window controller etc

 self.searchField.delegate = self

A working sample is as below

//  AppDelegate.swift
//  NSSearchFieldDelegateSampleCode
//  Created by Debasis Das on 27/05/16.
//  Copyright © 2016 Knowstack. All rights reserved.

import Cocoa

@NSApplicationMain
class AppDelegate: NSObject, NSApplicationDelegate, NSSearchFieldDelegate {

    @IBOutlet weak var window: NSWindow!
    @IBOutlet weak var searchField:NSSearchField!

    func searchFieldDidStartSearching(sender: NSSearchField){
        print("searchFieldDidStartSearching \(sender.stringValue)")
    }
    func searchFieldDidEndSearching(sender: NSSearchField){
        print("searchFieldDidEndSearching \(sender.stringValue)")
    }

    func applicationDidFinishLaunching(aNotification: NSNotification) {
        // Insert code here to initialize your application
        self.searchField.delegate = self
    }

    func applicationWillTerminate(aNotification: NSNotification) {
        // Insert code here to tear down your application
    }


}