MainMenu (wfxMainMenu)

Properties

Methods

Events

MenuItems Collection (wfxMenuItemsCollection)

Item (wfxMenuItem)

Working with a MainMenu

Creating the MainMenu

   this.MainMenu.Parent = @this

   dim mnuFile   as wfxMenuItem = wfxMenuItem("File", "mnuFile")
   dim mnuNew    as wfxMenuItem = wfxMenuItem("New",  "mnuNew", "Ctrl+DEL")
   DIM mnuOpen   as wfxMenuItem = wfxMenuItem("Open", "mnuOpen")
   DIM mnuSave   as wfxMenuItem = wfxMenuItem("Save", "mnuSave", "Ctrl+S")
   DIM mnuSaveAs as wfxMenuItem = wfxMenuItem("Save As", "mnuSaveAs", "F12")
   DIM mnuSep1   as wfxMenuItem = wfxMenuItem("-",    "mnuSep1")
   DIM mnuExit   as wfxMenuItem = wfxMenuItem("Exit", "mnuExit")
   mnuFile.MenuItems.Add(mnuNew)
   mnuFile.MenuItems.Add(mnuOpen)
   mnuFile.MenuItems.Add(mnuSave)
   mnuFile.MenuItems.Add(mnuSaveAs)
   mnuFile.MenuItems.Add(mnuSep1)
   mnuFile.MenuItems.Add(mnuExit)
   this.MainMenu.MenuItems.Add(mnuFile)
   
   DIM mnuEdit  as wfxMenuItem = wfxMenuItem("Edit", "mnuEdit")
   DIM mnuCut   as wfxMenuItem = wfxMenuItem("Cut",  "mnuCut")
   DIM mnuCopy  as wfxMenuItem = wfxMenuItem("Copy", "mnuCopy")
   DIM mnuPaste as wfxMenuItem = wfxMenuItem("Paste", "mnuPaste")
   mnuEdit.MenuItems.Add(mnuCut)
   mnuEdit.MenuItems.Add(mnuCopy)
   mnuEdit.MenuItems.Add(mnuPaste)
   this.MainMenu.MenuItems.Add(mnuEdit)
   
   this.MainMenu.OnPopup = @Form1_MainMenu_Popup
   this.MainMenu.OnClick = @Form1_MainMenu_Click

   this.Controls.Add(ControlType.MainMenu, @this.MainMenu)

As you can see from the example above, you must create each individual MenuItem and then assign them to the parent MenuItem that is the parent for the specific MenuItem. Every MenuItem can have children MenuItems - these are the submenus that popup when a MenuItem is clicked.

In the example, the this identifier was used because the example was created in the constructor fo the Form that contained the MainMenu. If created elsewhere, you would use the specifically declared variable (eg. Form1, Form2, frmMain, etc).

Also, notice that the MenuItem constructor can be called using one or more values.

declare constructor( ByRef wszText     As WString = "", _
                     ByRef wszName     As WString = "", _ 
                     Byref wszShortcut As WString = "", _
                     ByVal bChecked    As boolean = false, _
                     ByVal bGrayed     As boolean = false )

Shortcuts

A shortcut is a keyboard accelerator key combination that will activate a specific menu entry. It can be any combination of the Ctrl, Alt, Shift keys and another key. The text of the shortcut key is displayed to the right of the menu text.

Retrieving Reference to a specific MenuItem

You can search for a specific MenuItem using several built in methods of the MainMenu class. The key is that you should declare your variable as ByRef so that the returned reference is assigned to it and points to the original MenuItem (much like a pointer does).

Dim ByRef iMenuItem = Form1.MainMenu.ByMenuName("mnuSave")
Dim ByRef iMenuItem = Form1.MainMenu.ByMenuID(110)
Dim ByRef iMenuItem = Form1.MainMenu.ByMenuID( GetMenuItemID(Form1.MainMenu.Handle, 5) )
Dim ByRef iMenuItem = Form1.MainMenu.ByPopupMenuHandle( GetSubMenu(Form1.MainMenu.Handle, 5) )

' Retrieve info on all top level MenuItems that show on the menu bar
Dim ByRef iMenuItem 
For i as long = 0 to Form1.MainMenu.MenuItems.Count – 1
   iMenuItem = Form1.MainMenu.Menutem(i)
   ? iMenuItem.Text, iMenuItem.Name
Next

' Rename all of the items in the File menu
Dim byref mnuFile as wfxMenuItem = Form1.MainMenu.ByMenuName("mnuFile")
for i as long = 0 to mnuFile.MenuItems.Count - 1
   mnuFile.MenuItem(i).Text = "Paul"
next

Iterate all MenuItems in the entire MainMenu

This is not as straightforward as you might expect because every MenuItem can itself have many children MenuItems. There is no one single collection that contains all of the MenuItem objects for the entire MainMenu. You need to look at each MenuItem and process that object individually. The best way to perform this type of operation is through the use of recursion.

The following example iterates over all MenuItems and disables every MenuItems that is not a root item that displays directly on the MainMenu's menu bar.

function IterateMenuItems( byref tMenuItem as wfxMenuItem ) as long
   
   ' Internal function that recursive processes all of the menu items. 
   ' It takes into account that submenus can exist for each MenuItem.

   select case ucase(tMenuItem.Name)
      CASE "MNUFILE", "MNUEDIT", "MNUVIEW", "MNUHELP"
         ' Do not modify these. These are on the MainMenu menu bar.
      CASE ELSE
         tMenuItem.Grayed = True
   end select

   ' Process any children MenuItems recursively
   For i As Long = 0 To tMenuItem.MenuItems.Count - 1
      if tMenuItem.MenuItem(i).IsParent then
         IterateMenuItems( tMenuItem.MenuItem(i) )
      end if   
   Next
   
   function = 0
end function


function Form1_Button1_Click( byref sender as wfxButton, byref e as EventArgs ) as LRESULT
   ' Iterate all MenuItems in the MainMenu and set each one to Grayed.
   ' We start at the root MenuItem that is dsplayed on the MainMenu's menu bar
   ' (eg. File, Edit, View, Help) and use recursion to visit every sub-MenuItem. 
   For i As Long = 0 To Form1.MainMenu.MenuItems.Count - 1
      IterateMenuItems( Form1.MainMenu.MenuItem(i) )
   Next

   function = 0
end function

Responding to a Menu Click

When a user clicks on a menu item in the main menu then a Click event is fired that the user can respond to.

function Form1_MainMenu_Click( byref sender as wfxMenuItem, byref e as EventArgs ) as LRESULT

   select case ucase(sender.Name)
      CASE "MNUFILE"
      CASE "MNUEDIT"
      CASE "MNUVIEW"
      CASE "MNUHELP"
   end select
   
   function = 0
end function

Initializing Menu Items before they are shown

Immediately prior to a popup menu being shown on the screen, a Popup event is fired that the user can respond to. This allows the user and opportunity to initialize MenuItems based on any state information for the application. For example, in a text editor application you may gray out items such as Cut, Copy, Paste if such operations are not valid at the time the menu is displayed.

function Form1_MainMenu_Popup( byref sender as wfxMenuItem, byref e as EventArgs ) as LRESULT

   select case ucase(sender.Name)
      CASE "MNUFILE"
      CASE "MNUEDIT"
         Form1.MainMenu.ByMenuName("mnuCut").Grayed = bCanCut
         Form1.MainMenu.ByMenuName("mnuCopy").Grayed = bCanCopy
         Form1.MainMenu.ByMenuName("mnuPaste").Grayed = bCanPaste
      CASE "MNUVIEW"
      CASE "MNUHELP"
   end select
   
   function = 0
end function