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DiscussLibraries:Gtk:Gtk:UIManager
Types
T
Inherits from:A T constructs a user interface (menus and toolbars) from one or more UI definitions, which reference actions from one or more action groups.
UI Definitions
The UI definitions are specified in an XML format which can be roughly described by the following DTD.
Do not confuse the GtkUIManager UI Definitions described here with the similarly named GtkBuilder UI Definitions.
<!ELEMENT ui (menubar|toolbar|popup|accelerator)* >
<!ELEMENT menubar (menuitem|separator|placeholder|menu)* >
<!ELEMENT menu (menuitem|separator|placeholder|menu)* >
<!ELEMENT popup (menuitem|separator|placeholder|menu)* >
<!ELEMENT toolbar (toolitem|separator|placeholder)* >
<!ELEMENT placeholder (menuitem|toolitem|separator|placeholder|menu)* >
<!ELEMENT menuitem EMPTY >
<!ELEMENT toolitem (menu?) >
<!ELEMENT separator EMPTY >
<!ELEMENT accelerator EMPTY >
<!ATTLIST menubar name #IMPLIED
action #IMPLIED >
<!ATTLIST toolbar name #IMPLIED
action #IMPLIED >
<!ATTLIST popup name #IMPLIED
action #IMPLIED
accelerators (true|false) #IMPLIED >
<!ATTLIST placeholder name #IMPLIED
action #IMPLIED >
<!ATTLIST separator name #IMPLIED
action #IMPLIED
expand (true|false) #IMPLIED >
<!ATTLIST menu name #IMPLIED
action #REQUIRED
position (top|bot) #IMPLIED >
<!ATTLIST menuitem name #IMPLIED
action #REQUIRED
position (top|bot) #IMPLIED
always-show-image (true|false) #IMPLIED >
<!ATTLIST toolitem name #IMPLIED
action #REQUIRED
position (top|bot) #IMPLIED >
<!ATTLIST accelerator name #IMPLIED
action #REQUIRED >
There are some additional restrictions beyond those specified in the DTD, e.g. every toolitem must have a toolbar in its anchestry and every menuitem must have a menubar or popup in its anchestry. Since a GMarkup parser is used to parse the UI description, it must not only be valid XML, but valid GMarkup.
If a name is not specified, it defaults to the action. If an action is not specified either, the element name is used. The name and action attributes must not contain '/' characters after parsing (since that would mess up path lookup) and must be usable as XML attributes when enclosed in doublequotes, thus they must not '"' characters or references to the " entity.
Example 36. A UI definition
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<ui> <menubar> <menu name="FileMenu" action="FileMenuAction"> <menuitem name="New" action="New2Action" /> <placeholder name="FileMenuAdditions" /> </menu> <menu name="JustifyMenu" action="JustifyMenuAction"> <menuitem name="Left" action="justify-left"/> <menuitem name="Centre" action="justify-center"/> <menuitem name="Right" action="justify-right"/> <menuitem name="Fill" action="justify-fill"/> </menu> </menubar> <toolbar action="toolbar1"> <placeholder name="JustifyToolItems"> <separator/> <toolitem name="Left" action="justify-left"/> <toolitem name="Centre" action="justify-center"/> <toolitem name="Right" action="justify-right"/> <toolitem name="Fill" action="justify-fill"/> <separator/> </placeholder> </toolbar> </ui> |
The constructed widget hierarchy is very similar to the element tree of the XML, with the exception that placeholders are merged into their parents. The correspondence of XML elements to widgets should be almost obvious:
| menubar | a Gtk.Gtk.MenuBar.T |
| toolbar | a Gtk.Gtk.Toolbar.T |
| popup | a toplevel Gtk.Gtk.Menu.T |
| menu | a Gtk.Gtk.Menu.T attached to a menuitem |
| menuitem | a Gtk.Gtk.MenuItem.T subclass, the exact type depends on the action |
| toolitem | a Gtk.Gtk.ToolItem.T subclass, the exact type depends on the action. Note that toolitem elements may contain a menu element, but only if their associated action specifies a Gtk.Gtk.MenuToolButton.T as proxy. |
| separator | a Gtk.Gtk.SeparatorMenuItem.T or Gtk.Gtk.SeparatorToolItem.T |
| accelerator | a keyboard accelerator |
The "position" attribute determines where a constructed widget is positioned wrt. to its siblings in the partially constructed tree. If it is "top", the widget is prepended, otherwise it is appended.
UI Merging
The most remarkable feature of T is that it can overlay a set of menuitems and toolitems over another one, and demerge them later.
Merging is done based on the names of the XML elements. Each element is identified by a path which consists of the names of its anchestors, separated by slashes. For example, the menuitem named "Left" in the example above has the path /ui/menubar/JustifyMenu/Left and the toolitem with the same name has path /ui/toolbar1/JustifyToolItems/Left.
Accelerators
Every action has an accelerator path. Accelerators are installed together with menuitem proxies, but they can also be explicitly added with <accelerator> elements in the UI definition. This makes it possible to have accelerators for actions even if they have no visible proxies.
Smart Separators
The separators created by T are "smart", i.e. they do not show up in the UI unless they end up between two visible menu or tool items. Separators which are located at the very beginning or end of the menu or toolbar containing them, or multiple separators next to each other, are hidden. This is a useful feature, since the merging of UI elements from multiple sources can make it hard or impossible to determine in advance whether a separator will end up in such an unfortunate position.
For separators in toolbars, you can set expand="true" to turn them from a small, visible separator to an expanding, invisible one. Toolitems following an expanding separator are effectively right-aligned.
Empty Menus
Submenus pose similar problems to separators inconnection with merging. It is impossible to know in advance whether they will end up empty after merging. T offers two ways to treat empty submenus:
-
make them disappear by hiding the menu item they're attached to
-
add an insensitive "Empty" item
The behaviour is chosen based on the "hide_if_empty" property of the action to which the submenu is associated.
GtkUIManager as GtkBuildable
The GtkUIManager implementation of the GtkBuildable interface accepts GtkActionGroup objects as <child> elements in UI definitions.
A GtkUIManager UI definition as described above can be embedded in an GtkUIManager <object> element in a GtkBuilder UI definition.
The widgets that are constructed by a GtkUIManager can be embedded in other parts of the constructed user interface with the help of the "constructor" attribute. See the example below.
Example 37. An embedded GtkUIManager UI definition
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<object class="GtkUIManager" id="uiman"> <child> <object class="GtkActionGroup" id="actiongroup"> <child> <object class="GtkAction" id="file"> <property name="label">_File</property> </object> </child> </object> </child> <ui> <menubar name="menubar1"> <menu action="file"> </menu> </menubar> </ui> </object> <object class="GtkWindow" id="main-window"> <child> <object class="GtkMenuBar" id="menubar1" constructor="uiman"/> </child> </object> |
Constants
Nil : T
Functions
GetType() : Gtk.GObject.Type.T
RNew() : Gtk.Gtk.UIManager.T
Creates a new ui manager object.
| Returns | a new ui manager object. |
RNewMergeId(self @ Gtk.Gtk.UIManager.T) : Gtk.Gtk.UIManager.T
Methods
:AddUi(self @ T, merge_id @ Std.Integer.SmallT, path @ Std.String.T, name @ Std.String.T, action @ Std.String.T, type @ Std.Integer.SmallT, top @ Std.Symbol.T) : Std.Object.T
Adds a UI element to the current contents of self.
If type is Gtk.Gtk.UIManagerItemType.Auto, GTK+ inserts a menuitem, toolitem or separator if such an element can be inserted at the place determined by path. Otherwise type must indicate an element that can be inserted at the place determined by path.
If path points to a menuitem or toolitem, the new element will be inserted before or after this item, depending on top.
| self | a T |
| merge_id | the merge id for the merged UI, see gtk_ui_manager_new_merge_id() |
| path | a path |
| name | the name for the added UI element |
| action | the name of the action to be proxied, or NULL to add a separator. [allow-none] |
| type | the type of UI element to add. |
| top | if TRUE, the UI element is added before its siblings, otherwise it is added after its siblings. |
:AddUiFromFile(self @ T, filename @ Std.String.T, error @ Std.Object.T) : Std.Integer.SmallT
:AddUiFromString(self @ T, buffer @ Std.String.T, length @ Std.Integer.SmallT, error @ Std.Object.T) : Std.Integer.SmallT
Parses a string containing a UI definition and merges it with the current contents of self. An enclosing <ui> element is added if it is missing.
| self | a T object |
| buffer | the string to parse |
| length | the length of buffer (may be -1 if buffer is nul-terminated) |
| error | return location for an error |
| Returns | The merge id for the merged UI. The merge id can be used to unmerge the UI with RemoveUi. If an error occurred, the return value is 0. |
:EnsureUpdate(self @ T) : Std.Object.T
Makes sure that all pending updates to the UI have been completed.
This may occasionally be necessary, since T updates the UI in an idle function. A typical example where this function is useful is to enforce that the menubar and toolbar have been added to the main window before showing it:
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gtk_container_add (GTK_CONTAINER (window), vbox); g_signal_connect (merge, "add-widget", G_CALLBACK (add_widget), vbox); gtk_ui_manager_add_ui_from_file (merge, "my-menus"); gtk_ui_manager_add_ui_from_file (merge, "my-toolbars"); gtk_ui_manager_ensure_update (merge); gtk_widget_show (window); |
:GetAccelGroup(self @ T) : Gtk.Gtk.AccelGroup.T
Returns the Gtk.Gtk.AccelGroup.T associated with self.
| self | a T object |
| Returns | the Gtk.Gtk.AccelGroup.T. [transfer none] |
:GetAction(self @ T, path @ Std.String.T) : Gtk.Gtk.Action.T
Looks up an action by following a path. See GetWidget for more information about paths.
| self | a T |
| path | a path |
| Returns | the action whose proxy widget is found by following the path, or NULL if no widget was found. [transfer none] |
:GetActionGroups(self @ T) : Std.Object.T
Returns the list of action groups associated with self.
| self | a T object |
| Returns | a GList of action groups. The list is owned by GTK+ and should not be modified. [element-type GtkActionGroup][transfer none] |
:GetAddTearoffs(self @ T) : Std.Symbol.T
Returns whether menus generated by this T will have tearoff menu items.
| self | a T |
| Returns | whether tearoff menu items are added |
:GetToplevels(self @ T, types @ Std.Integer.SmallT) : Std.Object.T
Obtains a list of all toplevel widgets of the requested types.
| self | a T |
| types | specifies the types of toplevel widgets to include. Allowed types are Gtk.Gtk.UIManagerItemType.Menubar, Gtk.Gtk.UIManagerItemType.Toolbar and Gtk.Gtk.UIManagerItemType.Popup. |
| Returns | a newly-allocated GSList of all toplevel widgets of the requested types. Free the returned list with g_slist_free(). [element-type GtkWidget][transfer container] |
:GetUi(self @ T) : Std.String.T
Creates a UI definition of the merged UI.
| self | a T |
| Returns | A newly allocated string containing an XML representation of the merged UI. |
:GetWidget(self @ T, path @ Std.String.T) : Gtk.Gtk.Widget.T
Looks up a widget by following a path. The path consists of the names specified in the XML description of the UI. separated by '/'. Elements which don't have a name or action attribute in the XML (e.g. <popup>) can be addressed by their XML element name (e.g. "popup"). The root element ("/ui") can be omitted in the path.
Note that the widget found by following a path that ends in a <menu> element is the menuitem to which the menu is attached, not the menu itself.
Also note that the widgets constructed by a ui manager are not tied to the lifecycle of the ui manager. If you add the widgets returned by this function to some container or explicitly ref them, they will survive the destruction of the ui manager.
| self | a T |
| path | a path |
| Returns | the widget found by following the path, or NULL if no widget was found. [transfer none] |
:InsertActionGroup(self @ T, action_group @ Gtk.Gtk.ActionGroup.T, pos @ Std.Integer.SmallT) : Std.Object.T
Inserts an action group into the list of action groups associated with self. Actions in earlier groups hide actions with the same name in later groups.
| self | a T object |
| action_group | the action group to be inserted |
| pos | the position at which the group will be inserted. |
:RemoveActionGroup(self @ T, action_group @ Gtk.Gtk.ActionGroup.T) : Std.Object.T
Removes an action group from the list of action groups associated with self.
| self | a T object |
| action_group | the action group to be removed |
:RemoveUi(self @ T, merge_id @ Std.Integer.SmallT) : Std.Object.T
Unmerges the part of selfs content identified by merge_id.
| self | a T object |
| merge_id | a merge id as returned by AddUiFromString |