Add a Menu to Studio Pro

Last modified: August 19, 2024

Introduction

This how-to describes how you can add a menu that contains submenus, some of which also contain submenus of their own. Before you start this how-to, it is recommended to create a menu extension first.

You can download the example in this how-to in this GitHub repository.

Open the project that you previously created when you created the menu extension.
Add a new class to the project and name it MyMenuExtension.cs.

Replace the code in the file with the following code:

using Mendix.StudioPro.ExtensionsAPI.UI.Menu;
using Mendix.StudioPro.ExtensionsAPI.UI.Services;
using System.ComponentModel.Composition;

namespace MyCompany.MyProject.MendixExtension;

[Export(typeof(MenuExtension))]
public class MyMenuExtension : MenuExtension
{
    readonly IMessageBoxService messageBoxService;

    [ImportingConstructor]
    public MyMenuExtension(IMessageBoxService messageBoxService)
    {
        this.messageBoxService = messageBoxService;
    }

    public override IEnumerable<MenuViewModel> GetMenus()
    {
        var ristretto = new MenuViewModel("Ristretto", () => messageBoxService.ShowInformation("Ristretto"));
        var regularExpresso = new MenuViewModel("Regular Espresso", () => messageBoxService.ShowInformation("Regular Espresso"));
        var espresso = new MenuViewModel("Espresso", [regularExpresso, ristretto]);
        var blackCoffee = new MenuViewModel("Black Coffee", () => messageBoxService.ShowInformation("Black Coffee"));
        var decaf = new MenuViewModel("Decaf", () => messageBoxService.ShowInformation("Decaf")) { Separator = MenuSeparator.After };
        var coffee = new MenuViewModel("Coffee", [blackCoffee, decaf, espresso]);

        var tea = new MenuViewModel("Tea", () => messageBoxService.ShowInformation("Tea"));

        var hot = new MenuViewModel("Hot", [coffee, tea]);

        var soda = new MenuViewModel("Soda", () => messageBoxService.ShowInformation("Soda"));
        var cold = new MenuViewModel("Cold", [soda]);

        var beverages = new MenuViewModel("Beverages", [hot, cold]);
        yield return beverages;
    }
}

The code above creates a single menu, Beverages, which contains the submenus Hot and Cold, both of which contain some submenus. Note that when you are creating this menu structure, you only return the main parent menu (in this example, the Beverages menu) from the GetMenus method. You should only return the topmost parents in your list, so only the ones that do not have a parent should be returned. In the example above, there is only one.

If an app contains one or more extensions, a top-level menu named Extensions will appear in the main menu bar of Studio Pro. Menus that are created from MenuExtension implementations will be grouped by their extension entry point name (in this example, MyCompany), and then placed under their own dedicated submenu under the main Extensions top-level menu. For example, the MyMenuExtension above will be placed as follows: Extensions > MyCompany > MyMenuExtension.

A menu can only be a parent (namely, a menu that contains submenus) or have an action. You cannot create a menu with an action which also contains submenus.

You can add a MenuSeparator to a menu, via the Separator property. Options are After, Before or None. The default value is None. You can also disable a menu by setting its IsEnabled property to false. Menus are enabled by default.

Add a Menu to Studio Pro

Introduction

Creating Menu Extension Class

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