NSNotification

NSNotification Mac OS X 10.0

Notifications provide a mechanism for objects that have no other way to communicate with each other. The model used is a multicast model, in which client objects register themselves with a notification center to be notified in response to a certain event, which is encapsulated in an NSNotification object. NSNotification represents both notifications to the notification center, and the notifications that are sent out to the observers of a particular notification.

Clients generally interact with notifications as receivers; that is, they don't create notifications, but extract key bits of information out of received notifications. To obtain information about a notification we use the three methods name, userInfo, and object, which return the notification name, userInfo dictionary, and the notification's associated object, respectively.

figs/cocn_1367.gif

@interface NSNotification : NSObject <NSCoding, NSCopying>
 // Convenience Constructors
   + (id)notificationWithName:(NSString *)aName object:(id)anObject;
   + (id)notificationWithName:(NSString *)aName object:(id)anObject userInfo:(NSDictionary *)aUserInfo;
 // Instance Methods
   - (NSString *)name;
   - (id)object;
   - (NSDictionary *)userInfo;
 // Methods Implementing NSCoding
   - (void)encodeWithCoder:(NSCoder *)aCoder;
   - (id)initWithCoder:(NSCoder *)aDecoder;
 // Methods Implementing NSCopying
   - (id)copyWithZone:(NSZone *)zone;



    Part II: API Quick Reference
    Chapter 13. Foundation Classes