UIManager

Object Hierarchy:

Description:

[ CCode ( type_id = "gtk_ui_manager_get_type ()" ) ]
[ Version ( deprecated = true , deprecated_since = "3.10" ) ]
public class UIManager : Object, Buildable

Warning: UIManager is deprecated since 3.10.

A UIManager constructs a user interface (menus and toolbars) from one or more UI definitions, which reference actions from one or more action groups.

Note:

GtkUIManager is deprecated since GTK+ 3.10. To construct user interfaces from XML definitions, you should use Builder, MenuModel, et al. To work with actions, use Action, Actionable et al. These newer classes support richer functionality and integration with various desktop shells. It should be possible to migrate most/all functionality from GtkUIManager.

UI Definitions

The UI definitions are specified in an XML format which can be roughly described by the following DTD.

Note:

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 MarkupParser is used to parse the UI description, it must not only be valid XML, but valid markup.

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.

A UI definition

<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 MenuBar
toolbar
a Toolbar
popup
a toplevel Menu
menu
a Menu attached to a menuitem
menuitem
a MenuItem subclass, the exact type depends on the action
toolitem
a ToolItem 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 MenuToolButton as proxy.
separator
a SeparatorMenuItem or SeparatorToolItem
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 UIManager 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 UIManager 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. UIManager 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.

An embedded GtkUIManager UI definition

<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>

Namespace: Gtk

Package: gtk+-3.0

Content:

Properties:

public bool add_tearoffs { get; set; }
The "add-tearoffs" property controls whether generated menus have tearoff menu items.
public string ui { owned get; }

Creation methods:

public UIManager ()
Creates a new ui manager object.

Methods:

public void add_ui (uint merge_id, string path, string name, string? action, UIManagerItemType type, bool top)
Adds a UI element to the current contents of this .
public uint add_ui_from_file (string filename) throws Error
Parses a file containing a UI definition and merges it with the current contents of this.
public uint add_ui_from_resource (string resource_path) throws Error
Parses a resource file containing a UI definition and merges it with the current contents of this.
public uint add_ui_from_string (string buffer, ssize_t length) throws Error
Parses a string containing a UI definition and merges it with the current contents of this.
public void ensure_update ()
Makes sure that all pending updates to the UI have been completed.
public unowned AccelGroup get_accel_group ()
Returns the AccelGroup associated with this.
public virtual unowned Action get_action (string path)
Looks up an action by following a path.
public unowned List<ActionGroup> get_action_groups ()
Returns the list of action groups associated with this.
public bool get_add_tearoffs ()
Returns whether menus generated by this UIManager will have tearoff menu items.
public SList<unowned Widget> get_toplevels (UIManagerItemType types)
Obtains a list of all toplevel widgets of the requested types.
public string get_ui ()
Creates a UI definition of the merged UI.
public virtual unowned Widget get_widget (string path)
Looks up a widget by following a path.
public void insert_action_group (ActionGroup action_group, int pos)
Inserts an action group into the list of action groups associated with this.
public uint new_merge_id ()
Returns an unused merge id, suitable for use with add_ui.
public void remove_action_group (ActionGroup action_group)
Removes an action group from the list of action groups associated with this.
public void remove_ui (uint merge_id)
Unmerges the part of this's content identified by merge_id.
public void set_add_tearoffs (bool add_tearoffs)
Sets the “add_tearoffs” property, which controls whether menus generated by this UIManager will have tearoff menu items.

Signals:

public virtual signal void actions_changed ()
The actions_changed signal is emitted whenever the set of actions changes.
public virtual signal void add_widget (Widget widget)
The add_widget signal is emitted for each generated menubar and toolbar.
public virtual signal void connect_proxy (Action action, Widget proxy)
The connect_proxy signal is emitted after connecting a proxy to an action in the group.
public virtual signal void disconnect_proxy (Action action, Widget proxy)
The disconnect_proxy signal is emitted after disconnecting a proxy from an action in the group.
public virtual signal void post_activate (Action action)
The post_activate signal is emitted just after the action is activated.
public virtual signal void pre_activate (Action action)
The pre_activate signal is emitted just before the action is activated.

Inherited Members:

All known members inherited from class GLib.Object

All known members inherited from interface Gtk.Buildable