How to make inspector panels for custom Quartz Composer patches

…in thirteen easy steps or your money back.

1. Start up Interface Builder:
2. Make a new NIB, with a “Cocoa / Empty” starting point:
3. Make a subclass of NSObject called QCInspector. Then make a subclass of QCInspector with the class name of your patch, followed by “UI”. P5GloveUI in this case:
4. Drag a “CustomView” into the project:
5. Select “File’s Owner” and set its “Custom Class” to the UI subclass you created above (P5GloveUI in this case):
6. Control-drag from “File’s Owner” to “View”, then “Connect” the view to the UI subclass’s “view” outlet:
7. Throw a few controls onto the View if you’d like:
8. Save the NIB in your patch’s English.lproj folder, and add it to the project:
9. Add the QCInspector interface to your patch’s qcplugin.h:

   @interface QCInspector : NSObject
   {
       NSView *view;
       QCPatch *_patch;
       void *_unused2[4];
   }
   + (id)viewNibName;
   + (id)viewTitle;
   - (id)init;
   - (void)didLoadNib;
   - (id)patch;
   - (void)setupViewForPatch:(id)fp8;
   - (void)resetView;
   - (id)view;
   @end
   

10. Add inspectorClassWithIdentifier to your patch’s interface: P5Glove.h:

    @interface P5Glove : QCPatch
    
    ...
    
    + (Class)inspectorClassWithIdentifier:(id)fp8;
    @end
    

11. Implement inspectorClassWithIdentifier: P5Glove.m:

    @implementation P5Glove : QCPatch
    
    ...
    
    + (Class)inspectorClassWithIdentifier:(id)fp8
    {
        return [P5GloveUI class];
    }
    @end
    

12. Add the P5GloveUI class interface and implementation to your patch’s project: P5GloveUI.h:

    @interface P5GloveUI : QCInspector
    + (id)viewNibName;  // IMP=0x97b89415
    @end
    

    P5GloveUI.m:

    @implementation P5GloveUI : QCInspector
    + (id)viewNibName
    {
        return @"P5GloveUI";
    }
    

13. Build and launch Quartz Composer. You’ve got an inspector:
14. Enjoy.

Steve Mokris is a developer at Kosada, Inc.