DMPreferencesWindow

A preferences window suitable for a macOS app. Its user experience adheres to the macOS Human Interface Guidelines.

Requires Swift 5.3+. Tested on macOS 11. MIT license.

User Features

• Toolbar for switching between preference panes.
• Safari-like animation when switching between preference panes.
• Automatic window title updates based on the selected preference pane.
• Restores the last viewed preference pane.
• Automatically hides the toolbar if there is only one preference pane.

Developer Features

• Fully written in Swift. Higher confidence in code correctness.
• Implement your preference panes using view controllers.
• Use Auto Layout in your preference pane view controllers.
• Optionally pre-select a preference pane before showing the preferences window (e.g. when linking to a preference pane).
• Easy to develop a new interaction mechanism for selecting preference panes (e.g. segmented control instead of toolbar).
• Easy localization.

Usage

class GeneralPreferencePaneViewController: NSViewController, PreferencePane, ToolbarItemImageProvider {
   init() {
      // …

      title = NSLocalizedString("General",
                                comment: "The title of the General preference pane.")
   }

   let preferencePaneIdentifier = PreferencePaneIdentifier(rawValue: "general")
   let toolbarItemImage = NSImage(named: NSImage.preferencesGeneralName)!
}

@NSApplicationMain
class AppDelegate: NSObject, NSApplicationDelegate {
   private let preferencesWindowController: PreferencesWindowController = {
      let preferencePaneViewControllers: [NSViewController & PreferencePane & ToolbarItemImageProvider] = [
         GeneralPreferencePaneViewController(),
         // …
      ]
      return PreferencesWindowController(preferencePaneViewControllers: preferencePaneViewControllers)
   }()

   @IBAction
   private func showPreferencesWindow(_ sender: Any) {
      preferencesWindowController.showWindow(self)
   }
}

Important: Ensure that each of your preference panes has an unambiguous and fixed width and height, explicitly via width/height constraints and/or implicitly via the constraints of the subviews.