Menu¶

A menu is a popup (or pull down) list of items, one of which may be selected before the menu goes away (clicking elsewhere dismisses the menu).

Menus may be used to construct either menu bars or popup menus.

A menu item has an integer ID associated with it which can be used to identify the selection, or to change the menu item in some way. A menu item with a special identifier `ID_SEPARATOR` is a separator item and doesn’t have an associated command but just makes a separator line appear in the menu.

Menu items may be either normal items, check items or radio items. Normal items don’t have any special properties while the check items have a boolean flag associated to them and they show a checkmark in the menu when the flag is set. wxWidgets automatically toggles the flag value when the item is clicked and its value may be retrieved using either Menu.IsChecked method of Menu or MenuBar itself or by using Event.IsChecked when you get the menu notification for the item in question.

The radio items are similar to the check items except that all the other items in the same radio group are unchecked when a radio item is checked. The radio group is formed by a contiguous range of radio items, i.e. it starts at the first item of this kind and ends with the first item of a different kind (or the end of the menu). Notice that because the radio groups are defined in terms of the item positions inserting or removing the items in the menu containing the radio items risks to not work correctly.

Allocation strategy¶

All menus must be created on the heap because all menus attached to a menubar or to another menu will be deleted by their parent when it is deleted. The only exception to this rule are the popup menus (i.e. menus used with Window.PopupMenu ) as wxWidgets does not destroy them to allow reusing the same menu more than once. But the exception applies only to the menus themselves and not to any submenus of popup menus which are still destroyed by wxWidgets as usual and so must be heap-allocated. As the frame menubar is deleted by the frame itself, it means that normally all menus used are deleted automatically.

Event handling¶

If the menu is part of a menubar, then MenuBar event processing is used. With a popup menu (see Window.PopupMenu ), there is a variety of ways to handle a menu selection event ( wxEVT_COMMAND_MENU_SELECTED ):

Provide EVT_MENU handlers in the window which pops up the menu, or in an ancestor of that window (the simplest method);
Derive a new class from Menu and define event table entries using the EVT_MENU macro;
Set a new event handler for Menu, through EvtHandler.SetNextHandler , specifying an object whose class has EVT_MENU entries;

Note that instead of static EVT_MENU macros you can also use dynamic connection; see Dynamic Event Handling.

Note

Please note that `ID_ABOUT` and `ID_EXIT` are predefined by wxWidgets and have a special meaning since entries using these IDs will be taken out of the normal menus under MacOS X and will be inserted into the system menu (following the appropriate MacOS X interface guideline).

Inheritance Diagram¶

Inheritance diagram for class Menu

Methods Summary¶

`__init__`	Constructs a Menu object.
`Append`	Adds a menu item.
`AppendCheckItem`	Adds a checkable item to the end of the menu.
`AppendRadioItem`	Adds a radio item to the end of the menu.
`AppendSeparator`	Adds a separator to the end of the menu.
`AppendSubMenu`	Adds the given submenu to this menu.
`Attach`
`Break`	Inserts a break in a menu, causing the next appended item to appear in a new column.
`Check`	Checks or unchecks the menu item.
`Delete`	Deletes the menu item from the menu.
`DestroyItem`	Deletes the menu item from the menu.
`Detach`
`Enable`	Enables or disables (greys out) a menu item.
`FindChildItem`	Finds the menu item object associated with the given menu item identifier and, optionally, the position of the item in the menu.
`FindItem`	Finds the menu id for a menu item string.
`FindItemByPosition`	Returns the MenuItem given a position in the menu.
`GetHelpString`	Returns the help string associated with a menu item.
`GetInvokingWindow`
`GetLabel`	Returns a menu item label.
`GetLabelText`	Returns a menu item label, without any of the original mnemonics and accelerators.
`GetMenuItemCount`	Returns the number of items in the menu.
`GetMenuItems`	Returns the list of items in the menu.
`GetParent`
`GetStyle`
`GetTitle`	Returns the title of the menu.
`GetWindow`
`Insert`	Inserts the given item before the position pos.
`InsertCheckItem`	Inserts a checkable item at the given position.
`InsertRadioItem`	Inserts a radio item at the given position.
`InsertSeparator`	Inserts a separator at the given position.
`IsAttached`
`IsChecked`	Determines whether a menu item is checked.
`IsEnabled`	Determines whether a menu item is enabled.
`Prepend`	Inserts the given item at position 0, i.e.
`PrependCheckItem`	Inserts a checkable item at position 0.
`PrependRadioItem`	Inserts a radio item at position 0.
`PrependSeparator`	Inserts a separator at position 0.
`Remove`	Removes the menu item from the menu but doesn’t delete the associated `C++` object.
`SetHelpString`	Sets an item’s help string.
`SetInvokingWindow`
`SetLabel`	Sets the label of a menu item.
`SetParent`
`SetTitle`	Sets the title of the menu.
`UpdateUI`	Sends events to source (or owning window if `None`) to update the menu UI.

Properties Summary¶

`InvokingWindow`	See `GetInvokingWindow` and `SetInvokingWindow`
`MenuItemCount`	See `GetMenuItemCount`
`MenuItems`	See `GetMenuItems`
`Parent`	See `GetParent` and `SetParent`
`Style`	See `GetStyle`
`Title`	See `GetTitle` and `SetTitle`
`Window`	See `GetWindow`

Class API¶

class Menu(EvtHandler)¶

A menu is a popup (or pull down) list of items, one of which may be selected before the menu goes away (clicking elsewhere dismisses the menu).

Possible constructors:

Menu()

Menu(style)

Menu(title, style=0)

Methods¶

__init__(self, *args, **kw)¶

Overloaded Implementations:

__init__ (self)

Constructs a Menu object.

__init__ (self, style)

Constructs a Menu object.

Parameters:	style (long) – If set to `MENU_TEAROFF`, the menu will be detachable (wxGTK only).

__init__ (self, title, style=0)

Constructs a Menu object with a title.

Parameters:	title (string) – Title at the top of the menu (not always supported). style (long) – If set to `MENU_TEAROFF`, the menu will be detachable (wxGTK only).

Append(self, *args, **kw)¶

Overloaded Implementations:

Append (self, id, item=’‘, helpString=’‘, kind=ITEM_NORMAL)

Adds a menu item.

Parameters:

id (int) – The menu command identifier.
item (string) – The string to appear on the menu item. See MenuItem.SetItemLabel for more details.
helpString (string) – An optional help string associated with the item. By default, the handler for the wxEVT_MENU_HIGHLIGHT event displays this string in the status line.
kind (ItemKind) – May be ITEM_SEPARATOR , ITEM_NORMAL , ITEM_CHECK or ITEM_RADIO .

Return type:

MenuItem

self.fileMenu.Append(ID_NEW_FILE, "&New file\tCTRL+N", "Creates a XYZ document")

or even better for stock menu items (see MenuItem.__init__ ):

self.fileMenu.Append(wx.ID_NEW, "", "Creates a XYZ document")

Note

This command can be used after the menu has been shown, as well as on initial creation of a menu or menubar.

Append (self, id, item, subMenu, helpString=’‘)

Adds a submenu.

Parameters:	id (int) – The menu command identifier. item (string) – The string to appear on the menu item. subMenu (Menu) – Pull-right submenu. helpString (string) – An optional help string associated with the item. By default, the handler for the `wxEVT_MENU_HIGHLIGHT` event displays this string in the status line.
Return type:	MenuItem

Deprecated since version 2.9.4: This function is deprecated, use AppendSubMenu instead.

Append (self, menuItem)

Adds a menu item object.

This is the most generic variant of Append method because it may be used for both items (including separators) and submenus and because you can also specify various extra properties of a menu item this way, such as bitmaps and fonts.

Parameters:	menuItem (MenuItem) – A menuitem object. It will be owned by the Menu object after this function is called, so do not delete it yourself.
Return type:	MenuItem

Note

See the remarks for the other Append overloads.

AppendCheckItem(self, id, item, help='')¶

Adds a checkable item to the end of the menu.

Parameters:	id (int) – item (string) – help (string) –
Return type:	MenuItem

See also

Append , InsertCheckItem

AppendRadioItem(self, id, item, help='')¶

Adds a radio item to the end of the menu.

All consequent radio items form a group and when an item in the group is checked, all the others are automatically unchecked.

Parameters:	id (int) – item (string) – help (string) –
Return type:	MenuItem

Note

Radio items are not supported under Motif.

See also

Append , InsertRadioItem

AppendSeparator(self)¶

Adds a separator to the end of the menu.

Return type:	MenuItem

See also

Append , InsertSeparator

AppendSubMenu(self, submenu, text, help='')¶

Adds the given submenu to this menu.

text is the text shown in the menu for it and help is the help string shown in the status bar when the submenu item is selected.

Parameters:	submenu (Menu) – text (string) – help (string) –
Return type:	MenuItem

Attach(self, menubar)¶

Parameters:	menubar (MenuBar) –

Break(self)¶: Inserts a break in a menu, causing the next appended item to appear in a new column.

Check(self, id, check)¶

Checks or unchecks the menu item.

Parameters:	id (int) – The menu item identifier. check (bool) – If `True`, the item will be checked, otherwise it will be unchecked.

See also

IsChecked

Delete(self, *args, **kw)¶

Overloaded Implementations:

Delete (self, id)

Deletes the menu item from the menu.

If the item is a submenu, it will not be deleted. Use Destroy if you want to delete a submenu.

Parameters:	id (int) – Id of the menu item to be deleted.
Return type:	bool

See also

FindItem , Destroy , Remove

Delete (self, item)

Deletes the menu item from the menu.

If the item is a submenu, it will not be deleted. Use Destroy if you want to delete a submenu.

Parameters:	item (MenuItem) – Menu item to be deleted.
Return type:	bool

See also

FindItem , Destroy , Remove

DestroyItem(self, *args, **kw)¶

Overloaded Implementations:

DestroyItem (self, id)

Deletes the menu item from the menu.

If the item is a submenu, it will be deleted. Use Remove if you want to keep the submenu (for example, to reuse it later).

Parameters:	id (int) – Id of the menu item to be deleted.
Return type:	bool

See also

FindItem , Delete , Remove

DestroyItem (self, item)

Deletes the menu item from the menu.

If the item is a submenu, it will be deleted. Use Remove if you want to keep the submenu (for example, to reuse it later).

Parameters:	item (MenuItem) – Menu item to be deleted.
Return type:	bool

See also

FindItem , Delete , Remove

Detach(self)¶

Enable(self, id, enable)¶

Enables or disables (greys out) a menu item.

Parameters:	id (int) – The menu item identifier. enable (bool) – `True` to enable the menu item, `False` to disable it.

See also

IsEnabled

FindChildItem(self, id, pos=None)¶

Finds the menu item object associated with the given menu item identifier and, optionally, the position of the item in the menu.

Unlike FindItem , this function doesn’t recurse but only looks at the direct children of this menu.

Parameters:	id (int) – The identifier of the menu item to find. pos (int) – If the pointer is not `None`, it is filled with the item’s position if it was found or
Return type:	MenuItem
Returns:	Menu item object or `None` if not found.

FindItem(self, *args, **kw)¶

Overloaded Implementations:

FindItem (self, itemString)

Finds the menu id for a menu item string.

Parameters:	itemString (string) – Menu item string to find.
Return type:	int
Returns:	Menu item identifier, or `NOT_FOUND` if none is found.

Note

Any special menu codes are stripped out of source and target strings before matching.

FindItem (self, id, menu=None)

Finds the menu item object associated with the given menu item identifier and, optionally, the (sub)menu it belongs to.

Parameters:	id (int) – Menu item identifier. menu (Menu) – If the pointer is not `None`, it will be filled with the item’s parent menu (if the item was found)
Return type:	MenuItem
Returns:	Menu item object or `None` if none is found.

FindItemByPosition(self, position)¶

Returns the MenuItem given a position in the menu.

Parameters:	position (int) –
Return type:	MenuItem

GetHelpString(self, id)¶

Returns the help string associated with a menu item.

Parameters:	id (int) – The menu item identifier.
Return type:	`string`
Returns:	The help string, or the empty string if there is no help string or the item was not found.

See also

SetHelpString , Append

GetInvokingWindow(self)¶

Return type:	Window

GetLabel(self, id)¶

Returns a menu item label.

Parameters:	id (int) – The menu item identifier.
Return type:	`string`
Returns:	The item label, or the empty string if the item was not found.

See also

GetLabelText , SetLabel

GetLabelText(self, id)¶

Returns a menu item label, without any of the original mnemonics and accelerators.

Parameters:	id (int) – The menu item identifier.
Return type:	`string`
Returns:	The item label, or the empty string if the item was not found.

See also

GetLabel , SetLabel

GetMenuItemCount(self)¶

Returns the number of items in the menu.

Return type:	int

GetMenuItems(self, *args, **kw)¶

Returns the list of items in the menu.

MenuItemList is a pseudo-template list class containing MenuItem pointers, see List.

GetParent(self)¶

Return type:	Menu

GetStyle(self)¶

Return type:	long

GetTitle(self)¶

Returns the title of the menu.

Return type:	`string`

See also

SetTitle

GetWindow(self)¶

Return type:	Window

Insert(self, *args, **kw)¶

Inserts the given item before the position pos.

Inserting the item at position GetMenuItemCount is the same as appending it.

See also

Append , Prepend

Overloaded Implementations:

Insert (self, pos, menuItem)

Parameters:	pos (int) – menuItem (MenuItem) –
Return type:	MenuItem

Insert (self, pos, id, item=’‘, helpString=’‘, kind=ITEM_NORMAL)

Parameters:	pos (int) – id (int) – item (string) – helpString (string) – kind (ItemKind) –
Return type:	MenuItem

InsertCheckItem(self, pos, id, item, helpString='')¶

Inserts a checkable item at the given position.

Parameters:	pos (int) – id (int) – item (string) – helpString (string) –
Return type:	MenuItem

See also

Insert , AppendCheckItem

InsertRadioItem(self, pos, id, item, helpString='')¶

Inserts a radio item at the given position.

Parameters:	pos (int) – id (int) – item (string) – helpString (string) –
Return type:	MenuItem

See also

Insert , AppendRadioItem

InsertSeparator(self, pos)¶

Inserts a separator at the given position.

Parameters:	pos (int) –
Return type:	MenuItem

See also

Insert , AppendSeparator

IsAttached(self)¶

Return type:	bool

IsChecked(self, id)¶

Determines whether a menu item is checked.

Parameters:	id (int) – The menu item identifier.
Return type:	bool
Returns:	`True` if the menu item is checked, `False` otherwise.

See also

Check

IsEnabled(self, id)¶

Determines whether a menu item is enabled.

Parameters:	id (int) – The menu item identifier.
Return type:	bool
Returns:	`True` if the menu item is enabled, `False` otherwise.

See also

Enable

Prepend(self, *args, **kw)¶

Inserts the given item at position 0, i.e.

before all the other existing items.

See also

Append , Insert

Overloaded Implementations:

Prepend (self, item)

Parameters:	item (MenuItem) –
Return type:	MenuItem

Prepend (self, id, item=’‘, helpString=’‘, kind=ITEM_NORMAL)

Parameters:	id (int) – item (string) – helpString (string) – kind (ItemKind) –
Return type:	MenuItem

PrependCheckItem(self, id, item, helpString='')¶

Inserts a checkable item at position 0.

Parameters:	id (int) – item (string) – helpString (string) –
Return type:	MenuItem

See also

Prepend , AppendCheckItem

PrependRadioItem(self, id, item, helpString='')¶

Inserts a radio item at position 0.

Parameters:	id (int) – item (string) – helpString (string) –
Return type:	MenuItem

See also

Prepend , AppendRadioItem

PrependSeparator(self)¶

Inserts a separator at position 0.

Return type:	MenuItem

See also

Prepend , AppendSeparator

Remove(self, *args, **kw)¶

Overloaded Implementations:

Remove (self, id)

Removes the menu item from the menu but doesn’t delete the associated C++ object.

This allows you to reuse the same item later by adding it back to the menu (especially useful with submenus).

Parameters:	id (int) – The identifier of the menu item to remove.
Return type:	MenuItem
Returns:	A pointer to the item which was detached from the menu.

Remove (self, item)

Removes the menu item from the menu but doesn’t delete the associated C++ object.

This allows you to reuse the same item later by adding it back to the menu (especially useful with submenus).

Parameters:	item (MenuItem) – The menu item to remove.
Return type:	MenuItem
Returns:	A pointer to the item which was detached from the menu.

SetHelpString(self, id, helpString)¶

Sets an item’s help string.

Parameters:	id (int) – The menu item identifier. helpString (string) – The help string to set.

See also

GetHelpString

SetInvokingWindow(self, win)¶

Parameters:	win (Window) –

SetLabel(self, id, label)¶

Sets the label of a menu item.

Parameters:	id (int) – The menu item identifier. label (string) – The menu item label to set.

See also

Append , GetLabel

SetParent(self, parent)¶

Parameters:	parent (Menu) –

SetTitle(self, title)¶

Sets the title of the menu.

Parameters:	title (string) – The title to set.

Note

Notice that you can only call this method directly for the popup menus, to change the title of a menu that is part of a menu bar you need to use MenuBar.SetLabelTop .

See also

GetTitle

UpdateUI(self, source=None)¶

Sends events to source (or owning window if None) to update the menu UI.

This is called just before the menu is popped up with Window.PopupMenu , but the application may call it at other times if required.

Parameters:	source (EvtHandler) –

Properties¶

InvokingWindow¶: See GetInvokingWindow and SetInvokingWindow

MenuItemCount¶: See GetMenuItemCount

MenuItems¶: See GetMenuItems

Parent¶: See GetParent and SetParent

Style¶: See GetStyle

Title¶: See GetTitle and SetTitle

Window¶: See GetWindow

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