UsefulThingsSwiftUI

A collection of SwiftUI components, view modifiers, and utilities for building macOS and iOS apps. Fills in gaps that SwiftUI doesn't cover out of the box — native popup buttons, async modal presentation, floating panels, text editors that don't update on every keystroke, and more.

Requirements

• iOS 14+ / macOS 13+
• Swift 5.9+

Installation

Add the package to your project via Swift Package Manager:

dependencies: [
    .package(url: "https://github.com/atacan/UsefulThingsSwiftUI.git", from: "1.0.0")
]

Or in Xcode: File > Add Package Dependencies and paste the repository URL.

Components

Async Modal Presenters

Present sheets, alerts, popovers, and dialogs using async/await instead of managing @State booleans. Each presenter type conforms to a shared ModalPresenter protocol and is driven by AsyncUIRunner.

let sheetPresenter = AnySheetPresenter()

var body: some View {
    Button("Show Sheet") {
        Task {
            let result = try await AsyncUIRunner(presenter: sheetPresenter)
                .runAny { handle in
                    VStack {
                        Text("Pick something")
                        Button("Done") { handle.finish("picked") }
                        Button("Cancel") { handle.cancel() }
                    }
                }
            print(result) // "picked"
        }
    }
    .sheetPresenter(sheetPresenter)
}

Available presenters:

Presenter	Platform	Description
SheetPresenter	iOS, macOS	Modal sheet
AlertPresenter	iOS 15+, macOS 12+	Alert dialog
DialogPresenter	iOS 15+, macOS 12+	Confirmation dialog
PopoverPresenter	iOS, macOS	Popover (macOS supports mouse-cursor anchoring)
FullScreenCoverPresenter	iOS	Full screen cover
MacWindowPresenter	macOS	Opens content in a new NSWindow

Each has an Any* typealias (e.g. AnySheetPresenter) for convenience with AnyView.

---

PopupButton

A native dropdown menu — wraps NSPopUpButton on macOS and UIButton with UIMenu on iOS. Works with any type conforming to the Nameable protocol.

struct Language: Nameable {
    let id = UUID()
    let displayName: String
}

@State var selected = Language(displayName: "Swift")

PopupButton(
    selectedKey: $selected,
    keys: [
        Language(displayName: "Swift"),
        Language(displayName: "Rust"),
        Language(displayName: "Go"),
    ]
)

---

PatientTextField / PatientTextEditor

Text inputs that only update their binding when editing ends, not on every keystroke. Useful when the binding triggers expensive work.

@State var query = ""

// Cross-platform
PatientTextField("Search...", text: $query)

// macOS only — full NSTextView with configurable spell checking,
// autocomplete, link detection, etc.
PatientTextEditor(text: $query)

// macOS only — rich text via NSAttributedString
PatientAttributedTextEditor(text: $attributedText)

---

FloatingPanel (macOS)

A floating NSPanel that stays on top, has no visible titlebar, and dismisses when it loses focus.

@State var showPanel = false

Button("Show Panel") { showPanel = true }
    .floatingPanel(isPresented: $showPanel) {
        Text("I'm floating")
            .padding()
    }

---

OpenInWindow (macOS)

Open any SwiftUI view in a new NSWindow.

Button("Detach") {
    MyDetailView()
        .openInNewWindow(
            title: "Detail",
            rect: CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: 600, height: 400),
            makeKey: true
        )
}

---

VisualEffectView

Translucent blur backgrounds — wraps NSVisualEffectView on macOS and UIVisualEffectView on iOS with a unified API.

VisualEffectView(
    material: .sidebar,
    blendingMode: .behindWindow,
    state: .active,
    emphasized: true
)

---

Dynamic Layout

Components that switch between horizontal and vertical layouts based on an Axis.Set value:

@State var axis: Axis.Set = .horizontal

// Switches between HStack / VStack
DynamicStack(axis: axis, spacing: 8) {
    Text("A")
    Text("B")
}

// Switches between LazyHGrid / LazyVGrid
DynamicLazyGrid(axis: axis, columns: [GridItem(.flexible())]) {
    ForEach(items) { item in
        ItemView(item)
    }
}

// Switches between horizontal / vertical ScrollView
DynamicScrollView(axis: axis) {
    // ...
}

---

View Modifiers

Corner radius with border

RoundedRectangle(cornerRadius: 0)
    .cornerRadiusWithBorder(radius: 12, borderLineWidth: 2, borderColor: .blue)

Glow and shadow effects

Circle().glow(color: .blue, radius: 20)
Text("Neon").multicolorGlow()
Rectangle().innerShadow(using: RoundedRectangle(cornerRadius: 8), color: .black, width: 4, blur: 4)

Rotation with corrected frame

Text("Sideways").rotated(.degrees(-90))

Cursor on hover (macOS)

Button("Click me") { }
    .cursor(.pointingHand)

Click detection (macOS)

Text("Click target")
    .onClick(
        onSingleClick: { /* ... */ },
        onDoubleClick: { /* ... */ },
        onTripleClick: { /* ... */ }
    )

---

Transitions

Pre-built asymmetric slide transitions:

MyView()
    .transition(.slideFromBottom)
    // also: .slideFromTop, .slideFromLeading, .slideFromTrailing

---

SplashingButton

An animated button with a splash effect. Requires macOS 14+ / iOS 17+.

SplashingButton(imageSystemName: "heart.fill") {
    // action
}

---

Color Utilities

// Hex colors
let color = Color.hex(0xFF5733)

// Brightness
Color.blue.brighter(by: 0.2)
Color.blue.darker(by: 0.3)

// Codable wrapper with contrast calculation
let (bg, fg) = CodableCGColor.randomBGFG()

// Dynamic colors (iOS)
Color(dynamicProvider: { traits in
    traits.userInterfaceStyle == .dark ? .white : .black
})

---

Binding Utilities

// Nil-coalescing for optional bindings
TextField("Name", text: $optionalName ?? "default")

// Numeric type conversion
Slider(value: Binding<Double>.convert($intValue), in: 0...100)

---

Other Utilities

Component	Description
SizePreferenceKey	Track a view's size via preference keys
MenuPicker	Dropdown picker for Nameable items
TextFile	FileDocument for text-based file import/export
Nameable	Protocol requiring id and displayName
NSPopoverHolderView	Direct NSPopover wrapper (macOS)
imageFrom(filePath:)	Load a SwiftUI Image from a file path

Platform Availability

Component	macOS	iOS
Async Modal Presenters	12+	15+
PopupButton	13+	14+
PatientTextField	13+	14+
PatientTextEditor	13+	—
FloatingPanel	13+	—
OpenInWindow	13+	—
VisualEffectView	13+	14+
Dynamic Layout	13+	14+
Click Detection	13+	—
Cursor on Hover	13+	—
SplashingButton	14+	17+
All other utilities	13+	14+

License

See LICENSE for details.