Question

I’m creating a shareware Cocoa app and I wanted to know what is the best way to put in a “nag screen”. Basically before the main window of the app shows, I want to have a window with some text, a register button, and a “Not Yet” button (which is disabled at first). There will be a timer on the Not Yet button so the button title will change according to the number of seconds , so like:

“Not Yet…10”
“Not Yet…9”

etc. and at the end of the 10 seconds the Not Yet button will become enabled allowing the user to proceed and use the app. What’s the best way to do something like this? Can I use NSAlert?

I’ve seen this being done well in Pacifist, any help would be appreciated. Thanks

Answer 1

I personally would only have your Shareware App do this after a few days, let them evaluate it for a couple of days “nag free”… but that’s just my opinion! Try this:

add these to the interface:

IBOutlet NSTextField *countdownLabel;
IBOutlet NSButton *continueButton;
NSTimer *timer;

.m:

- (id)init{
    self = [super init];
    [countdownLabel setStringValue:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"%d",10]];
    timer = [NSTimer scheduledTimerWithTimeInterval:1 target:self  selector:@selector(nagTimer:) userInfo:nil repeats:YES];
    return self;
}


- (void)nagTimer:(id)sender{
    if ([countdownLabel intValue] == 0){
        [timer invalidate];
        [continueButton setEnabled:YES];
        return;
    }
    [countdownLabel setStringValue:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"%d",[countdownLabel intValue] - 1]];
}

Something like that would work. Good Luck!