SFWidgets.Menu service
The Menu service can be used to create and remove menus from the menubar of a Office document window. Each menu entry can be associated with a script or with a UNO command. This service provides the following capabilities:
- Creation of menus with custom entries, checkboxes, radio buttons and separators.
- Decoration of menu items with icons and tooltips.
Menus created with this service are available only for a specified document window. They are not saved into the document or as application settings. Closing and opening the document will restore the default menubar settings.
When OLE objects such as Math formulas or Calc charts are edited from within a document, Office reconfigures the menubar according to the object. When this happens, the menus created with the Menu service are removed and are not be restored after editing the OLE object.
Service invocation
Before using the Menu service the ScriptForge library needs to be loaded or imported:
• Basic macros require to load ScriptForge library using the following statement:
GlobalScope.BasicLibraries.loadLibrary("ScriptForge")
• Python scripts require an import from scriptforge module:
from scriptforge import CreateScriptService
In Basic
The Menu service is instantiated by calling the CreateMenu method from the Document service. The code snippet below creates a menu named My Menu in the current document window with two entries Item A and Item B.
Sub CreateMenu()
GlobalScope.BasicLibraries.loadLibrary("ScriptForge")
Dim oDoc as Object, oMenu as Object
Set oDoc = CreateScriptService("Document")
Set oMenu = oDoc.CreateMenu("My Menu")
With oMenu
.AddItem("Item A", Command := "About")
.AddItem("Item B", Script := "vnd.sun.star.script:Standard.Module1.ItemB-Listener?language=Basic&location=application")
.Dispose()
End With
End Sub
After creating the menu, it is recommended to call the Dispose method to free the resources used by the Menu service instance.
In the example above, Item A is associated with the UNO command .uno:About whereas Item B is associated with the script ItemB-Listener defined in Module1 of the Standard library of the My Macros container.
The following example defines ItemB-Listener that will be called when Item B is clicked. This listener simply splits the argument string passed to the Sub and shows them in a message box.
Sub ItemB-Listener(args As String)
' Process the argument string passed to the listener
Dim sArgs as Object
sArgs = Split(args, ",")
MsgBox "Menu name: " & sArgs(0) & Chr(13) & -
"Menu item: " & sArgs(1) & Chr(13) & -
"Item ID: " & sArgs(2) & Chr(13) & -
"Item status: " & sArgs(3)
End Sub
As shown in the example above, menu entries associated with a script receive a comma-separated string argument with the following values:
- The toplevel name of the menu.
- The string ID of the selected menu entry.
- The numeric ID of the selected menu entry.
- The current state of the menu item. This is useful for checkboxes and radio buttons. If the item is checked, the value "1" is returned, otherwise "0" is returned.
In Python
The examples above can be written in Python as follows:
from scriptforge import CreateScriptService
def create-menu(args=None):
oDoc = CreateScriptService("Document")
oMenu = oDoc.CreateMenu("My Menu")
oMenu.AddItem("Item A", command="About")
oMenu.AddItem("Item B", script="vnd.sun.star.script:my-macros.py$item-b-listener?language=Python&location=user")
oMenu.Dispose()
def item-b-listener(args):
bas = CreateScriptService("Basic")
s-args = args.split(",")
msg = f"Menu name: {s-args[0]}\n"
msg += f"Menu item: {s-args[1]}\n"
msg += f"Item ID: {s-args[2]}\n"
msg += f"Item status: {s-args[3]}"
bas.MsgBox(msg)
Properties
| Name | Readonly | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| ShortcutCharacter | No | String | Character used to define the access key of a menu item. The default character is "~". |
| SubmenuCharacter | No | String | Character or string that defines how menu items are nested. The default character is ">". |
Menu and Submenus
To create a menu with submenus, use the character defined in the SubmenuCharacter property while creating the menu entry to define where it will be placed. For instance, consider the following menu/submenu hierarchy.
' Item A
' Item B > Item B.1
' Item B.2
' ------ (line separator)
' Item C > Item C.1 > Item C.1.1
' Item C.1.2
' Item C > Item C.2 > Item C.2.1
' Item C.2.2
' ------ (line separator)
' Item C.2.3
' Item C.2.4
The code below uses the default submenu character ">" to create the menu/submenu hierarchy defined above:
oMenu.AddItem("Item A")
oMenu.AddItem("Item B>Item B.1")
oMenu.AddItem("Item B>Item B.2")
oMenu.AddItem("---")
oMenu.AddItem("Item C>Item C.1>Item C.1.1")
oMenu.AddItem("Item C>Item C.1>Item C.1.2")
oMenu.AddItem("Item C>Item C.2>Item C.2.1")
oMenu.AddItem("Item C>Item C.2>Item C.2.2")
oMenu.AddItem("Item C>Item C.2>---")
oMenu.AddItem("Item C>Item C.2>Item C.2.3")
oMenu.AddItem("Item C>Item C.2>Item C.2.4")
The string "---" is used to define line separators in menus or submenus.
Using icons
Items in the menu can have icons, which are specified as arguments in the AddCheckBox, AddItem and AddRadioButton methods.
All icons available in Office can be used by specifying their path relative to the folder where icon files are located in the installation folder. Icons are located in the following folder:
INSTALLDIR/share/config
Use the InstallFolder property of the FileSystem service to determine where Office is installed in your system.
This folder contains a series of ZIP files containing the image files of each available icon set. The images inside these ZIP files are organised into folders. To use an icon, specify the icon file with the path to its location inside the ZIP file.
The example below uses the icon "sc-newdoc.svg" that is located inside the "cmd" folder. The forward slash "/" character is used as the path separator regardless of the operating system.
In Basic
myMenu.AddItem("Item A", Icon := "cmd/sc-newdoc.svg")
In Python
myMenu.AddItem("Item A", icon="cmd/sc-newdoc.svg")
All icon sets have the same internal structure. The actual icon displayed depends on the icon set currently in use.
Methods
| List of Methods in the Menu Service | ||
|---|---|---|
| AddCheckBox | AddItem | AddRadioButton |
AddCheckBox
Inserts a check box in the menu. Returns an integer value that identifies the inserted item.
Syntax:
svc.AddCheckBox(menuitem: str, opt name: str, opt status: bool, opt icon: str, opt tooltip: str, opt command: str, opt script: str): int
Parameters:
menuitem: Defines the text to be displayed in the menu. This argument also defines the hierarchy of the item inside the menu by using the submenu character.
name: String value used to identify the menu item. By default, the last component of the menu hierarchy is used.
status: Defines whether the item is selected when the menu is created (Default = False).
icon: Path and name of the icon to be displayed without the leading path separator. The actual icon shown depends on the icon set being used.
tooltip: Text to be displayed as tooltip.
command: The name of a UNO command without the .uno: prefix. If the command name does not exist, nothing happens.
script: The URI for a Basic or Python script that will be executed when the item is clicked.
The arguments command and script are mutually exclusive, hence only one of them can be set for each menu item.
Read Scripting Framework URI Specification to learn more about the URI syntax used in the script argument.
Example:
In Basic
' Menu entry associated with the .uno:Paste command
oMenu.AddCheckBox("Item A", Status := True, ToolTip := "Paste values", Command := "Paste")
' Runs the Basic script Standard.Module1.MyListener stored in the document
oMenu.AddCheckBox("Item B", Status := False, Script := "vnd.sun.star.script:Standard.Module1.MyListener?language=Basic&location=document")
' Runs the Python script MyListener located in file myScripts.py in the user scripts folder
oMenu.AddCheckBox("Item C", Status := True, Script := "vnd.sun.star.script:myScripts.py$MyListener?language=Python&location=user")
In Python
oMenu.AddCheckBox("Item A", status=True, tooltip="Paste values", command="Paste")
oMenu.AddCheckBox("Item B", status=False, script="vnd.sun.star.script:Standard.Module1.MyListener?language=Basic&location=document")
oMenu.AddCheckBox("Item C", Status=True, Script="vnd.sun.star.script:myScripts.py$MyListener?language=Python&location=user")
AddItem
Inserts a label entry in the menu. Returns an integer value that identifies the inserted item.
Syntax:
svc.AddItem(menuitem: str, opt name: str, opt icon: str, opt tooltip: str, opt command: str, opt script: str): int
Parameters:
menuitem: Defines the text to be displayed in the menu. This argument also defines the hierarchy of the item inside the menu by using the submenu character.
name: String value to be returned when the item is clicked. By default, the last component of the menu hierarchy is used.
icon: Path and name of the icon to be displayed without the leading path separator. The actual icon shown depends on the icon set being used.
tooltip: Text to be displayed as tooltip.
command: The name of a UNO command without the .uno: prefix. If the command name does not exist, nothing happens.
script: The URI for a Basic or Python script that will be executed when the item is clicked.
The arguments command and script are mutually exclusive, hence only one of them can be set for each menu item.
Read Scripting Framework URI Specification to learn more about the URI syntax used in the script argument.
Example:
In Basic
oMenu.AddItem("Item A", Tooltip := "A descriptive message")
In Python
oMenu.AddItem("Item A", tooltip = "A descriptive message")
AddRadioButton
Inserts a radio button entry in the menu. Returns an integer value that identifies the inserted item.
Syntax:
svc.AddRadioButton(menuitem: str, opt name: str, opt status: str, opt icon: str, opt tooltip: str, opt command: str, opt script: str): int
Parameters:
menuitem: Defines the text to be displayed in the menu. This argument also defines the hierarchy of the item inside the menu by using the submenu character.
name: String value to be returned when the item is clicked. By default, the last component of the menu hierarchy is used.
status: Defines whether the item is selected when the menu is created (Default = False).
icon: Path and name of the icon to be displayed without the leading path separator. The actual icon shown depends on the icon set being used.
tooltip: Text to be displayed as tooltip.
command: The name of a UNO command without the .uno: prefix. If the command name does not exist, nothing happens.
script: The URI for a Basic or Python script that will be executed when the item is clicked.
The arguments command and script are mutually exclusive, hence only one of them can be set for each menu item.
Read Scripting Framework URI Specification to learn more about the URI syntax used in the script argument.
Example:
In Basic
oMenu.AddRadioButton("Item A", Name := "A", Status := True)
In Python
oMenu.AddRadioButton("Item A", name="A", status=True)
All ScriptForge Basic routines or identifiers that are prefixed with an underscore character "-" are reserved for internal use. They are not meant be used in Basic macros or Python scripts.