Cannot seem to setEnabled:NO on NSMenuItem

Question

I have subclassed NSMenu and connected a bunch of NSMenuItem's via Interface Builder. I have tested via the debugger to see that they really get initialized.

The menu is set to not auto enable items. Still when I set any of my NSMenuItem's to [myMenuItem setEnabled:NO] they continue to be enabled. Even if I call [self update] from within the NSMenu subclass.

What am I missing?

Answer 1

Had the same issue, so I thought I'd post my solution. NSMenu auto enables NSMenuButtons, so we have to override that.

In IB:

Or programmatically:

// Disable auto enable
[myMenu setAutoenablesItems:NO];

// Test it
[myMenuButton setEnabled:NO];
[myMenuButton setEnabled:YES];

Answer 2

I solved it with the help of a colleague, so I post it here for others that experience the same issue.

You should set your NSMenu-sublass to auto-enable items (default behaviour) and then implement this method in the NSMenu-sublass.

- (BOOL)validateMenuItem:(NSMenuItem *)menuItem {
    return [menuItem isEnabled];
}

Answer 3

You should uncheck Auto Enables Items on the closest parent NSMenu