Using CALayer as Background for Other NSViews

Question

I have an application with an NSTableView in the window. I want to use CALayer as the background for the whole window and table view. In all my experiments so far, CALayer always draws an NSTableView, and this is not the effect I'm looking for. Is there a way to make this work, or am I just out of luck due to the nature of the views on layer placement versus NSViews?

My test setup is a window with the usual NSScrollView / NSTableView list and the adjacent NSView behind it in the viewing order. NSView is set to the hosting level with my custom layer inside it (just a layer with a set of backgroundColor). I experimented with adjusting the presentation of window contents to a layer, as well as to a table view, as well as to wrap NSScrollView in NSView with layer support. The result is always the same.

Thanks for any information you could provide.

Answer 1

It's simple. all overlapping views or layers must be layer support or layered for proper ordering.

you can set [tableview setWantsLayer:YES]
or just check it on the layers tab when editing the interface.