Comments on: NIBs or code? Why not both? Here’s nib2objc.

By: alan duncan

alan duncan — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 14:09:57 +0000

oops… ignore last comment – just noticed UIKit only – not AppKit

By: Adrian Kosmaczewski

Adrian Kosmaczewski — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 14:09:04 +0000

Thanks for the comments Alan! I’m working on the next version, with the integration of the next [REDACTED] SDK stay tuned.

By: alan duncan

alan duncan — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 14:07:25 +0000

Seems that IB 3.2.2 breaks nib2obj. I’m getting only:
[view90 addSubview:view93]; [view90 addSubview:view98]; [view90 addSubview:view99];
etc. Great app, though!

By: Adrian

Adrian — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 19:17:28 +0000

Hi Cesar, thanks for your comment! Actually no, I just inspected the XIB file by hand, and it has a fairly simple structure, not really hard to understand. And ibtool exposes most of the data for you, at least what I needed for this project.

By: Cesar Miquel

Cesar Miquel — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 19:04:36 +0000

Hey! Just found out about your nib2objc. I was wondering if you know of any documentation online about the nib file format. I understand that its basically an XML file but couldn’t find any spec for it.

By: Joe

Joe — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 19:28:27 +0000

You bet! Meanwhile, I have two subtle edits: Remove the curly braces around $FILE, and add an extra/blank line before the EOT on a line by itself.

Chalk it up to cosmetics.

By: Adrian

Adrian — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 16:33:28 +0000

Hey thanks! That’s great. I’ll try that asap.

By: Joe

Joe — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:39:05 +0000

A followup to my previous comment: I decided to “Create a User Script” via the Xcode script menu (next to Help) … except I haven’t found a way to obtain the currently selected file (vs. the contents of the currently open file). NIB/XIB files don’t open within Xcode, so here’s the next best thing. Create a User Script with Input and Directory both set to “Selection”, and Output/Errors set to taste. I called my script “Convert NIB/XIB to Objective-C”. (My apologies in advance if this isn’t formatted well in the comments!)

#! /bin/sh
#
# Converts a NIB or XIB to Objective-C

FILE=`%%%{PBXUtilityScriptsPath}%%%/AskUserForExistingFileDialog “Choose a NIB or XIB to convert to Objective-C”`
cat < /*
* nib2objc – NIB/XIB to Objective-C Converter
* http://kosmaczewski.net/2009/03/17/nib2objc/
* Source: {$FILE}
*/
EOT
/path/to/nib2objc “$FILE”

By: Adrian

Adrian — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:22:13 +0000

Glad that you like the project
As for the integration with Xcode, maybe using AppleScript? I admit I haven’t tried, it’s a good idea though.

By: Joe

Joe — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:04:53 +0000

Bravo! I am tired of the back-and-forth between “Use IB” and “Use Xcode”. I appreciate both methods, and this utility bridges the two nicely.

Q: Is there a graceful, easy way to incorporate this into Xcode? For instance, I can imagine wanting to control-click on a NIB/XIB file and selecting “Generate Objective-C” … with the results appearing in a new window or even via one’s preferred text editor.