## VDSTools — native macOS controls for Xojo, in pure Xojo

Extras
1

VDSTools 1.0 — native macOS controls for Xojo, in pure Xojo

I have been building a set of AppKit wrappers for my own apps, and it grew
into something worth releasing: 100 classes, written entirely in Xojo
Declares. No plugin, no external framework, no compiled Objective-C to ship
or sign — just code you drop into your project.

27 of them are controls you drop in the IDE and configure in the
Inspector: table and outline views with rich cells, token field, path bar,
combo button, date picker, colour well, switch, level indicator, and the rest.
Fifteen inherit from a Xojo control; twelve host an AppKit object.

Some of what it covers that Xojo does not expose:

  • NSToolbar, including the customisation sheet
  • NSSplitViewController window chrome, and source-list sidebars
  • View-based tables and outlines: checkboxes, two-line cells, progress bars,
    pop-up menus in cells, row reordering with a Numbers-like drag ghost
  • Window tabs and the system Window menu
  • QuickLook thumbnails, the Dock tile, popovers, NSGridView, NSStackView
  • The macOS 26/27 glass effect, and menu image visibility

Documentation: a developer reference in French and English, covering every
class and enumeration — and 56 traps, each with the symptom that sent me
looking in the wrong place first. That part may be the most useful bit.

Demo application: 34 pages, each showing one subject with its code in an
inspector, plus a second window with a page per placeable control and every
option adjustable live. Signed and notarised.

→ VDSTools — macOS natif pour Xojo

Requirements: macOS 15 or later, Xojo 2021r3 or later.

Pricing: €60 incl. VAT for the compiled library, €240 incl. VAT with the
source code — per developer, unlimited applications, royalty-free
distribution. Businesses in the EU outside France are invoiced net of tax.
Running from the IDE is free; a built application without a licence runs, but
carries a small watermark.

Happy to answer questions here, and to hear what is missing.

2

Wow! Let’s see a sample project.

3

Wow! Super impressive stuff.

I love the tables. It’s the smoothest implementation that I’ve seen.

4

1.1 is out.

New: NativeIconButtonControl, the 28th control you drop in the IDE — a
button with an SF Symbol beside its title. Symbol, icon position, hugging,
bezel and control size in the Inspector; a file image or a Picture from code.

It had to be a hosted control rather than a property on the inherited one.
Measured: setImage: on a DesktopButton is accepted, then wiped on the next
pass — image gone, imagePosition back to 0. Xojo reconfigures its own buttons
after Opening and keeps doing it; there is no hook before an inherited
control draws.

Also: ImagePosition and ImageHugsTitle on NativeButton, and a second trap
— with the Push bezel, an Above icon draws the title outside the frame.

101 classes, 58 traps.
Download: https://github.com/Valdemar-VDSC/VDSTools-dist/releases/latest
Documentation: VDSTools — macOS natif pour Xojo