Question

I have a project that needs to disable/enable some NSToolbarItems depends on different options. I checked and found no parameter for this.

Is there a way to enable/disable a given NSToolbarItem?

Answer 1

Implement NSToolbarItemValidation Protocol in your window, view or document controller. The documentation gives the following sample code:

-(BOOL)validateToolbarItem:(NSToolbarItem *)toolbarItem {

    BOOL enable = NO;
    if ([[toolbarItem itemIdentifier] isEqual:SaveDocToolbarItemIdentifier]) {

        // We will return YES (enable the save item)
        // only when the document is dirty and needs saving
        enable = [self isDocumentEdited];

    } else if ([[toolbarItem itemIdentifier] isEqual:NSToolbarPrintItemIdentifier]) {

        // always enable print for this window
        enable = YES;
    }
    return enable;
}

You can also use action or tag to determine what toolbar item is being validated. Items are validated frequently, whenever your app is activated or events are dispatched, so they will always be in a valid state.