Question

I have a text field in my Objective-C Mac app.

This is what I want: when I stop writing in the text field for more than 5 seconds, it runs something. Is this possible?

If so, can someone explain how?

Answer 1

1. Make sure your text field’s continuous option is turned on.
2. Connect the text field’s delegate to your controller.
3. Implement controlTextDidChange: in your controller.
4. Start a timer (and invalidate the old one) each time you receive controlTextDidChange:.

Here’s an example:

- (void)controlTextDidChange:(NSNotification *)notification
{
   if (timeoutTimer != nil) {
      [timeoutTimer invalidate];
      [timeoutTimer release];
      timeoutTimer = nil;
   }

   timeoutTimer = [[NSTimer 
      scheduledTimerWithTimeInterval:5.0
      target:self
      selector:@selector(doSomething)
      userInfo:nil
      repeats:NO] retain];
}