Release 10.1A: OpenEdge Development:
Progress 4GL Handbook

Defining a menu bar

You define a menu bar from the bottom up, by defining first the submenus that make up a menu and then the menu itself. In this way, the submenus are already defined when you reference them in the menu bar definition. This is the general syntax for defining a submenu:

DEFINE SUB-MENU submenu-name     { LIKE other-menu | menu-element-descriptor ... }

Every submenu has a name like any other object, which can be used to identify it.

There are other keywords you can use in menu, submenu, and menu item definitions to define colors, fonts, and other details. Check the online Help for details on these attributes.

If two or more menus share the same elements, you can define one to be LIKE the other. This would more likely be the case for a pop-up menu rather than a menu bar, if multiple visual objects share many of the same pop-up menu options.

Otherwise, a submenu definition has one or more menu element descriptors. Each of these can be one of the following:

{  RULE    SKIP    SUB-MENU submenu-name [ DISABLED ] [ LABEL label ] menu-item-phrase }

A RULE inserts a line in the submenu to separate groups of related items. A SKIP simply leaves an empty line, which can serve the same purpose.

If one submenu contains another, you nest one within the other. You must define the innermost submenu first, so that as each submenu is referenced within another submenu or within the main menu bar itself, its name and definition are already identified.

A nested submenu can be initially disabled. Submenus and menu items have a SENSITIVE attribute just like other objects, which you can set to true or false at run time to enable or disable the submenu or menu item.

If you specify a LABEL, then that string appears as a header for the submenu. Otherwise, the submenu name is used as the default label.

Each menu-item-phrase identifies a single item that the user can choose from the menu, and has this general syntax:

MENU-ITEM menu-item-name   [ ACCELERATOR keylabel ]   [ DISABLED ]   [ LABEL label ]   [ READ-ONLY ]   [ TOGGLE-BOX ]   { [ trigger-phrase ] }

Each menu item is an object in its own right, with its own name. The ACCELERATOR provides a shortcut key for selecting the menu item. Like a submenu, it can be initially disabled and can have its own label.

If a menu item is marked READ-ONLY, then it appears in the menu but cannot be chosen. You could use such a menu item as a kind of title for a group of selectable menu items that appear after it.

A menu item designated as a TOGGLE-BOX represents a logical value. Each time you select it its logical true/false value is reversed and a check box appears or disappears in front of the label to indicate this. The CHECKED attribute tells you at run time whether the item is currently checked or not.

You can define a CHOOSE event trigger phrase in place of a menu item or you can define an ON CHOOSE block in the procedure following the menu definition.

Once you’ve defined all the submenus your menu bar needs, you define the menu bar itself:

DEFINE MENU menu-name MENUBAR     [ { LIKE other-menu } | menu-element-descriptor ... ]

Use the MENUBAR keyword to identify that this is a menu bar for a window and not a pop-up menu. The menu element descriptors for the menu itself can be submenus and menu items, but not rules or skips.

Assigning a menu bar to a window

To assign a menu bar to a window, you set the MENUBAR attribute of the window to the menu bar’s handle:

window-name-or-handle:MENUBAR = MENU menu-name:HANDLE.

Typically, you have to identify a menu name by preceding it with the MENU keyword as in this example. You identify a submenu using the MENU or SUB-MENU keyword. You identify a menu item by preceding it with the MENU-ITEM keyword.