Problem adding menu items to MainMenuBar by code

PaulS

I have added "Open Recent" to the File menu of MainMenuBar.

Now I want to add items to the submenu of "Open Recent" using code.
I have tried using MenuItem and AddItem but I always get an error.

Var sjoin As String = arrfile[i] + "|" + arrPath[i] + "|" + arrFull[i]
Var sMenuString As String = arrFile[i] + " - " + Chr(128193) + " " + arrPath[i]

Var RecentMenuItem As New MenuItem(sMenuString)
RecentMenuItem.Name = "Recent_" + i.ToString("D2")
RecentMenuItem.Tag = sjoin
MainMenuBar.File.openrecentitem.AddItem(RecentMenuItem)

[Error] clsRecent.FillMenuRecent Line 28: RuntimeException: Class 'MainMenuBar' has no shared member 'File'.

Also tried:

MainMenuBar.openrecentitem.AddItem(RecentMenuItem)

Same error:

[Error] clsRecent.FillMenuRecent Line 30: RuntimeException: Class 'MainMenuBar' has no shared member 'openrecentitem'.

What am I doing wrong?

addmenuitems.objo

4kB

Garry

You’re not doing anything wrong with Menu.AddItem. The problem is how the existing menu is being accessed.

MainMenuBar is a generated module that creates menu-bar instances; it is not the menu bar currently attached to Window1. Its named menus are therefore not shared members such as MainMenuBar.openrecentitem.

Pass the window’s actual MenuBar instance to FillMenuRecent:

Event Opening()
  Var recent As New clsRecent

  If Not recent.FillMenuRecent(Self.MenuBar) Then
    # Something went wrong
  End If
End Event

Then find the submenu by its designer name:

Public Function FillMenuRecent(menuBar As MenuBar) As Boolean
  Me.FillArrayRecent()

  Var openRecent As Menu = menuBar.FindMenu("openrecentitem")
  If openRecent = Nothing Then
    Return False
  End If

  For i As Integer = 0 To arrFile.Count - 1
    Var joined As String = arrFile[i] + "|" + arrPath[i] + "|" + arrFull[i]
    Var menuText As String = arrFile[i] + " - " + Chr(128193) + " " + arrPath[i]

    Var recentItem As New MenuItem(menuText)
    recentItem.Name = "Recent_" + i.ToString("D2")
    recentItem.Tag = joined

    openRecent.AddItem(recentItem)
  Next

  Return True
End Function

FindMenu() searches the complete menu tree, including submenus.

Also, File is the displayed caption; the designer name of that menu is fileMenu. However, MainMenuBar.fileMenu would still not work because it is not a shared member.

Studio should have reported this invalid module-member access as a compile-time error rather than allowing it to become a runtime error. The runtime message also incorrectly calls MainMenuBar a class when it is a module. Those diagnostics need correcting - I'm addressing that now.

Garry

The compiler now emits a more helpful diagnostic: "Module 'MainMenuBar' has no member 'openrecentitem'."

https://feedback.objo.dev/bug/1208

PaulS

@Garry
Thank you for the explanation.
It works like a charm now.

PaulS

I still have one question though.
The menu is filled with all the recent items.

How do I know what the selected (pressed) item and tag is of the recent submenu?

Garry

Each dynamically created MenuItem has its own Pressed() event. Connect it to a handler when you create the item:

Var recentItem As New MenuItem(menuText)
recentItem.Name = "Recent_" + i.ToString("D2")
recentItem.Tag = joined

AddHandler recentItem.Pressed, AddressOf RecentItem_Pressed
openRecent.AddItem(recentItem)

Then use one handler for all the recent items:

Private Sub RecentItem_Pressed()
    Var selectedItem As MenuItem = MenuItem(Me)
    Var selectedTag As String = String(selectedItem.Tag)

    Print(selectedItem.Text)
    Print(selectedTag)
End Sub

Inside the handler, Me is the MenuItem that was selected. Self is the clsRecent instance that owns the handler.

The explicit MenuItem(Me) cast is necessary because this handler was connected manually rather than generated by the designer.

PaulS

Thank you again, @Garry.
I have it working now.