Contents

openDocument(withContentsOf:display:completionHandler:)

Opens a document located by a URL, optionally presents its user interface, and calls the passed-in completion handler.

Declaration

func openDocument(withContentsOf url: URL, display displayDocument: Bool, completionHandler: @escaping (NSDocument?, Bool, (any Error)?) -> Void)
func openDocument(withContentsOf url: URL, display displayDocument: Bool) async throws -> (NSDocument, Bool)

Parameters

  • url:

    The URL locating the document to open.

  • displayDocument:

    If True, displays the document’s user interface.

  • completionHandler:

    The completion handler block object passed in to be called at some point in the future, perhaps after the method invocation has returned. The completion handler must be called on the main thread.

    The block takes three arguments:

    document

    The document that was opened, if successful. Otherwise, nil.

    documentWasAlreadyOpen

    Whether the document was already open or being opened when this method was called.

    error

    If not successful, an NSError object that encapsulates the reason why the document could not be opened.

Discussion

The default implementation of this method checks to see if the document is already open or being opened, and if it is not determines the type of the document, calls makeDocument(withContentsOf:ofType:) to instantiate it, and calls addDocument(_:) to record its opening. If displayDocument is true and the document is not already open, the default implementation calls makeWindowControllers() and showWindows(). If the document is already open, the implementation just calls showWindows() if displayDocument is true. If the relevant document class returns true when sent canConcurrentlyReadDocuments(ofType:) then the invocation of makeDocument(withContentsOf:ofType:) is done on a thread other than the main one, and when that has returned, the rest of the operation is done on the main thread.

The default implementation of this method uses the file coordination mechanism that was added to the Foundation framework in OS X v10.7. All of the work it does is one big coordinated read, and it passes the document to the NSFileCoordinator method addFilePresenter(_:) right after calling addDocument(_:). (The balancing invocation of the NSFileCoordinator method removeFilePresenter(_:) is in the NSDocument method close().)

You can override this method to customize how documents are opened. Its implementation, however, is somewhat complex, so you should generally investigate overriding one of the methods that it calls instead. However, you can override this method to do additional work before calling the underlying method on super. You can also call the underlying method on super with a custom completion handler that performs additional work before calling the original completion handler. If you do override this method you should investigate whether you should also override reopenDocument(for:withContentsOf:display:completionHandler:) to apply the same customization. In either case, take care to always call the completion handler on the main thread.

You can call this method to open a document.

Special Considerations

For backward binary compatibility with OS X v10.6 and earlier, the default implementation of this method calls [self openDocumentWithContentsOfURL:url display:displayDocument error:&anError] if that method or the even older openDocumentWithContentsOfFile:display: method is overridden and this one is not, instead of calling makeDocument(withContentsOf:ofType:) and all the rest.

See Also

Creating and Opening Documents