Menu | .NET Windows Forms in a Nutshell

Menu

marshal by reference, disposable

System. Windows .Forms (system. windows .forms.dll)

abstract class

This System.ComponentModel.Component is the abstract base for ContextMenu , MainMenu , and MenuItem classes. It provides most of the functionality of each of these classes but cannot be instantiated itself.

You can add MenuItem objects to the menu through the MenuItems collection. A MenuItem itself can contain further MenuItem objects, to allow for cascading child menus . You can determine if the menu has any children through the IsParent property.

You can also determine which menu item is a special MdiListItem an item that will display a list of MDI child forms as a child menu. This is a read-only propertyyou set it through the MenuItem.MdiList property.

The Menu may be hosted in either a ContextMenu or a MainMenu , and you can determine which through the GetContextMenu() and GetMainMenu() methods .

Finally, there is a MergeMenu() method. This merges two menus together (performed automatically for MDI child menus). There is nothing to stop you from using it for your own menu management, however. It is particularly useful where you have a UI plug-in architecture, where various components provide their own little bit of menu structure that you can merge in to the overall menu hierarchy. To control the merge, specify the MenuItem.MergeOrder and MenuItem.MergeType properties (see MenuItem for more information on this).

 public abstract class  Menu  : System.ComponentModel.Component {  // Protected Constructors  protected  Menu  (MenuItem[ ]  items  );  // Public Static Fields  public const int  FindHandle  ;  // =0  public const int  FindShortcut  ;  // =1   // Public Instance Properties  public IntPtr  Handle  {get; }    public virtual bool  IsParent  {get; }    public MenuItem  MdiListItem  {get; }    public MenuItemCollection  MenuItems  {get; }  // Public Instance Methods  public MenuItem  FindMenuItem  (int  type  , IntPtr  value  );    public ContextMenu  GetContextMenu  ();    public MainMenu  GetMainMenu  ();    public virtual void  MergeMenu  (Menu  menuSrc  );    public override string  ToString  ();  // overrides System.ComponentModel.Component   // Protected Instance Methods  protected void  CloneMenu  (Menu  menuSrc  );    protected virtual IntPtr  CreateMenuHandle  ();    protected override void  Dispose  (bool  disposing  );  // overrides System.ComponentModel.Component  protected int  FindMergePosition  (int  mergeOrder  );    protected internal virtual bool  ProcessCmdKey  (ref Message  msg  , Keys  keyData  ); }

Hierarchy

System.Object System.MarshalByRefObject System.ComponentModel.Component(System.ComponentModel.IComponen, System.IDisposable) Menu

Subclasses

ContextMenu , MainMenu , MenuItem

Returned By

System.Windows.Forms.Design.IMenuEditorService.GetMenu() , MenuItem.Parent , ToolBarButton.DropDownMenu

Passed To

System.Windows.Forms.Design.IMenuEditorService.SetMenu() , MenuItemCollection.MenuItemCollection() , ToolBarButton.DropDownMenu