NAME
menu - Create and manipulate menu widgets
SYNOPSIS
menu pathName ?options?
-activebackground -background -disabledforeground-relief -activeborderwidth -borderwidth -font-takefocus -activeforeground -cursor -foreground
See the options manual entry for details on the standard options.
Command-Line Name:-postcommand
Database Name: postCommand
Database Class: Command
If this option is specified then it provides a Tcl command to execute each time the menu is posted. The command is invoked by the post widget command before posting the menu.
Command-Line Name:-selectcolor
Database Name: selectColor
Database Class: Background
For menu entries that are check buttons or radio buttons, this option specifies the color to display in the indicator when the check button or radio button is selected.
Command-Line Name:-tearoff
Database Name: tearOff
Database Class: TearOff
This option must have a proper boolean value, which specifies whether or not the menu should include a tear-off entry at the top. If so, it will exist as entry 0 of the menu and the other entries will number starting at 1. The default menu bindings arrange for the menu to be torn off when the tear-off entry is invoked.
Command-Line Name:-tearoffcommand
Database Name: tearOffCommand
Database Class: TearOffCommand
If this option has a non-empty value, then it specifies a Tcl command to invoke whenever the menu is torn off. The actual command will consist of the value of this option, followed by a space, followed by the name of the menu window, followed by a space, followed by the name of the name of the torn off menu window. For example, if the option's is ``a b'' and menu .x.y is torn off to create a new menu .x.tearoff1, then the command ``a b .x.y .x.tearoff1'' will be invoked.
Command-Line Name:-transient
Database Name: transient
Database Class: Transient
This option must have a boolean value. True means that the menu is used on a transient basis, e.g. as a pop-up, pull-down, or cascaded menu. False means that the menu will be displayed on the screen continuously, for example as a torn-off menu. If the option is true, no window manager border will be displayed around the menu and redisplay will be optimized using X's ``save under'' facility.
Command-Line Name:-type
Database Name: type
Database Class: Type
The menu command creates a new top-level window (given by the pathName argument) and makes it into a menu widget. Additional options, described above, may be specified on the command line or in the option database to configure aspects of the menu such as its colors and font. The menu command returns its pathName argument. At the time this command is invoked, there must not exist a window named pathName, but pathName's parent must exist.
A menu is a widget that displays a collection of one-line entries arranged in a column. There exist several different types of entries, each with different properties. Entries of different types may be combined in a single menu. Menu entries are not the same as entry widgets. In fact, menu entries are not even distinct widgets; the entire menu is one widget.
Menu entries are displayed with up to three separate fields. The main field is a label in the form of a text string, a bitmap, or an image, controlled by the -label, -bitmap, and -image options for the entry. If the -accelerator option is specified for an entry then a second textual field is displayed to the right of the label. The accelerator typically describes a keystroke sequence that may be typed in the application to cause the same result as invoking the menu entry. The third field is an indicator. The indicator is present only for checkbutton or radiobutton entries. It indicates whether the entry is selected or not, and is displayed to the left of the entry's string.
In normal use, an entry becomes active (displays itself differently) whenever the mouse pointer is over the entry. If a mouse button is released over the entry then the entry is invoked. The effect of invocation is different for each type of entry; these effects are described below in the sections on individual entries.
Entries may be disabled, which causes their labels and accelerators to be displayed with dimmer colors. The default menu bindings will not allow a disabled entry to be activated or invoked. Disabled entries may be reenabled, at which point it becomes possible to activate and invoke them again.
The most common kind of menu entry is a command entry, which behaves much like a button widget. When a command entry is invoked, a Tcl command is executed. The Tcl command is specified with the -command option.
A separator is an entry that is displayed as a horizontal dividing line. A separator may not be activated or invoked, and it has no behavior other than its display appearance.
A checkbutton menu entry behaves much like a checkbutton widget. When it is invoked it toggles back and forth between the selected and deselected states. When the entry is selected, a particular value is stored in a particular global variable (as determined by the -onvalue and -variable options for the entry); when the entry is deselected another value (determined by the -offvalue option) is stored in the global variable. An indicator box is displayed to the left of the label in a checkbutton entry. If the entry is selected then the indicator's center is displayed in the color given by the -selectcolor option for the entry; otherwise the indicator's center is displayed in the background color for the menu. If a -command option is specified for a checkbutton entry, then its value is evaluated as a Tcl command each time the entry is invoked; this happens after toggling the entry's selected state.
A radiobutton menu entry behaves much like a radiobutton widget. Radiobutton entries are organized in groups of which only one entry may be selected at a time. Whenever a particular entry becomes selected it stores a particular value into a particular global variable (as determined by the -value and -variable options for the entry). This action causes any previously-selected entry in the same group to deselect itself. Once an entry has become selected, any change to the entry's associated variable will cause the entry to deselect itself. Grouping of radiobutton entries is determined by their associated variables: if two entries have the same associated variable then they are in the same group. An indicator diamond is displayed to the left of the label in each radiobutton entry. If the entry is selected then the indicator's center is displayed in the color given by the -selectcolor option for the entry; otherwise the indicator's center is displayed in the background color for the menu. If a -command option is specified for a radiobutton entry, then its value is evaluated as a Tcl command each time the entry is invoked; this happens after selecting the entry.
A cascade entry is one with an associated menu (determined by the -menu option). Cascade entries allow the construction of cascading menus. The postcascade widget command can be used to post and unpost the associated menu just next to of the cascade entry. The associated menu must be a child of the menu containing the cascade entry (this is needed in order for menu traversal to work correctly).
A cascade entry posts its associated menu by invoking a Tcl command of the form
menu post x y
where menu is the path name of the associated menu, and x and y are the root-window coordinates of the upper-right corner of the cascade entry. The lower-level menu is unposted by executing a Tcl command with the form menu unpost
where menu is the name of the associated menu.
If a -command option is specified for a cascade entry then it is evaluated as a Tcl command whenever the entry is invoked.
A tear-off entry appears at the top of the menu if enabled with the tearOff option. It is not like other menu entries in that it cannot be created with the add widget command and cannot be deleted with the delete widget command. When a tear-off entry is created it appears as a dashed line at the top of the menu. Under the default bindings, invoking the tear-off entry causes a torn-off copy to be made of the menu and all of its submenus.
Any menu can be set as a menubar for a toplevel window (see toplevel command for syntax). On the Macintosh, whenever the toplevel is in front, this menu's cascade items will appear in the menubar across the top of the main monitor. On Windows and Unix, this menu's items will be displayed in a menubar accross the top of the window. These menus will behave according to the interface guidelines of their platforms. For every menu set as a menubar, a clone menu is made. See the CLONES section for more information.
When a menu is set as a menubar for a toplevel window, or when a menu is torn off, a clone of the menu is made. This clone is a menu widget in its own right, but it is a child of the original. Changes in the configuration of the original are reflected in the clone. Additionally, any cascades that are pointed to are also cloned so that menu traversal will work right. Clones are destroyed when either the tearoff or menubar goes away, or when the original menu is destroyed.
The menu command creates a new Tcl command whose name is pathName. This command may be used to invoke various operations on the widget. It has the following general form:
pathName option ?arg arg ...?
Option and the args determine the exact behavior of the command.
Many of the widget commands for a menu take as one argument an indicator of which entry of the menu to operate on. These indicators are called indexes and may be specified in any of the following forms:
number Specifies the entry numerically, where 0 corresponds to the top-most entry of the menu, 1 to the entry below it, and so on.
active Indicates the entry that is currently active. If no entry is active then this form is equivalent to none. This form may not be abbreviated.
end Indicates the bottommost entry in the menu. If there are no entries in the menu then this form is equivalent to none. This form may not be abbreviated.
last Same as end.
none Indicates ``no entry at all''; this is used most commonly with the activate option to deactivate all the entries in the menu. In most cases the specification of none causes nothing to happen in the widget command. This form may not be abbreviated.
@number In this form, number is treated as a y-coordinate in the menu's window; the entry closest to that y-coordinate is used. For example, ``@0'' indicates the top-most entry in the window.
pattern If the index doesn't satisfy one of the above forms then this form is used. Pattern is pattern-matched against the label of each entry in the menu, in order from the top down, until a matching entry is found. The rules of Tcl_StringMatch are used.
The following widget commands are possible for menu widgets:
pathName activate index
Change the state of the entry indicated by index to active and redisplay it using its active colors. Any previously-active entry is deactivated. If index is specified as none, or if the specified entry is disabled, then the menu ends up with no active entry. Returns an empty string.
pathName add type ?option value option value ...? Add a new entry to the bottom of the menu. The new entry's type is given by type and must be one of cascade, checkbutton, command, radiobutton, or separator, or a unique abbreviation of one of the above. If additional arguments are present, they specify any of the following options:
pathName cget option
Returns the current value of the configuration option given by option. Option may have any of the values accepted by the menu command.
pathName clone newPathname ?cloneType?
Makes a clone of the current menu named newPathName. This clone is a menu in its own right, but any changes to the clone are propogated to the original menu and vice versa. cloneType can be normal, menubar, or tearoff. Should not normally be called outside of the Tk library. See the CLONES section for more information.
pathName configure ?option? ?value option value ...? Query or modify the configuration options of the widget. If no option is specified, returns a list describing all of the available options for pathName (see Tk_ConfigureInfo for information on the format of this list). If option is specified with no value, then the command returns a list describing the one named option (this list will be identical to the corresponding sublist of the value returned if no option is specified). If one or more option-value pairs are specified, then the command modifies the given widget option(s) to have the given value(s); in this case the command returns an empty string. Option may have any of the values accepted by the menu command.
pathName delete index1 ?index2?
Delete all of the menu entries between index1 and index2 inclusive. If index2 is omitted then it defaults to index1. Attempts to delete a tear-off menu entry are ignored (instead, you should change the tearOff option to remove the tear-off entry).
pathName entrycget index option
Returns the current value of a configuration option for the entry given by index. Option may have any of the values accepted by the add widget command.
pathName entryconfigure index ?options?
This command is similar to the configure command, except that it applies to the options for an individual entry, whereas configure applies to the options for the menu as a whole. Options may have any of the values accepted by the add widget command. If options are specified, options are modified as indicated in the command and the command returns an empty string. If no options are specified, returns a list describing the current options for entry index (see Tk_ConfigureInfo for information on the format of this list).
pathName index index
Returns the numerical index corresponding to index, or none if index was specified as none.
pathName insert index type ?option value option value ...? Same as the add widget command except that it inserts the new entry just before the entry given by index, instead of appending to the end of the menu. The type, option, and value arguments have the same interpretation as for the add widget command. It is not possible to insert new menu entries before the tear-off entry, if the menu has one.
pathName invoke index
Invoke the action of the menu entry. See the sections on the individual entries above for details on what happens. If the menu entry is disabled then nothing happens. If the entry has a command associated with it then the result of that command is returned as the result of the invoke widget command. Otherwise the result is an empty string. Note: invoking a menu entry does not automatically unpost the menu; the default bindings normally take care of this before invoking the invoke widget command.
pathName post x y
Arrange for the menu to be displayed on the screen at the root-window coordinates given by x and y. These coordinates are adjusted if necessary to guarantee that the entire menu is visible on the screen. This command normally returns an empty string. If the postCommand option has been specified, then its value is executed as a Tcl script before posting the menu and the result of that script is returned as the result of the post widget command. If an error returns while executing the command, then the error is returned without posting the menu.
pathName postcascade index
Posts the submenu associated with the cascade entry given by index, and unposts any previously posted submenu. If index doesn't correspond to a cascade entry, or if pathName isn't posted, the command has no effect except to unpost any currently posted submenu.
pathName type index
Returns the type of the menu entry given by index. This is the type argument passed to the add widget command when the entry was created, such as command or separator, or tearoff for a tear-off entry.
pathName unpost
Unmap the window so that it is no longer displayed. If a lower-level cascaded menu is posted, unpost that menu. Returns an empty string.
pathName yposition index
Returns a decimal string giving the y-coordinate within the menu window of the topmost pixel in the entry specified by index.
The default bindings support four different ways of using menus:
Pulldown Menus in Menubar
This is the most command case. You create a menu widget that will become the menu bar. You then add cascade entries to this menu, specifying the pull down menus you wish to use in your menu bar. You then create all of the pulldowns. Once you have done this, specify the menu using the -menu option of the toplevel's widget command. See the toplevel manual entry for details.
Pulldown Menus in Menu Buttons
This is the compatable way to do menu bars. You create one menubutton widget for each top-level menu, and typically you arrange a series of menubuttons in a row in a menubar window. You also create the toplevel menus and any cascaded submenus, and tie them together with
Option Menus
An option menu consists of a menubutton with an associated menu that allows you to select one of several values. The current value is displayed in the menubutton and is also stored in a global variable. Use the tk_optionMenu procedure to create option menubuttons and their menus.
Torn-off Menus
You create a torn-off menu by invoking the tear-off entry at the top of an existing menu. The default bindings will create a new menu that is a copy of the original menu and leave it permanently posted as a top-level window. The torn-off menu behaves just the same as the original menu.
Tk automatically creates class bindings for menus that give them the following default behavior:
[1] When the mouse enters a menu, the entry underneath the mouse cursor activates; as the mouse moves around the menu, the active entry changes to track the mouse.
[2] When the mouse leaves a menu all of the entries in the menu deactivate, except in the special case where the mouse moves from a menu to a cascaded submenu.
[3] When a button is released over a menu, the active entry (if any) is invoked. The menu also unposts unless it is a torn-off menu.
[4] The Space and Return keys invoke the active entry and unpost the menu.
[5] If any of the entries in a menu have letters underlined with with
[7] The Up and Down keys activate the next higher or lower entry in the menu. When one end of the menu is reached, the active entry wraps around to the other end.
[8] The Left key moves to the next menu to the left. If the current menu is a cascaded submenu, then the submenu is unposted and the current menu entry becomes the cascade entry in the parent. If the current menu is a top-level menu posted from a menubutton, then the current menubutton is unposted and the next menubutton to the left is posted. Otherwise the key has no effect. The left-right order of menubuttons is determined by their stacking order: Tk assumes that the lowest menubutton (which by default is the first one created) is on the left.
[9] The Right key moves to the next menu to the right. If the current entry is a cascade entry, then the submenu is posted and the current menu entry becomes the first entry in the submenu. Otherwise, if the current menu was posted from a menubutton, then the current menubutton is unposted and the next menubutton to the right is posted.
Disabled menu entries are non-responsive: they don't activate and they ignore mouse button presses and releases.
The behavior of menus can be changed by defining new bindings for individual widgets or by redefining the class bindings.
At present it isn't possible to use the option database to specify values for the options to individual entries.
KEYWORDS
menu, widget