Adding a Submenu to a Menu

[wolfnuka]

Hello everyone, so I am creating a menu, that has a submenu, the submenu, changes depending on the selected menu main item selected, so for example, if you select "games" , the submenu will show listed games, if you select "work, the submenu will change and show work related apps, etc, my problem is that I am not sure how to achieve this, as using:

Code: Select all

LeftMouseUpAction=[!ActivateConfig "folder\myfolder" "mysubmenu.ini"]

seems to be not to efficient, because every time an item is selected from main menu, I'd have to deactivate every single other submenu.ini, is there any way to have like a floating variable that gets assigned when you select an item with the "LeftMouseUpAction" or something? anyt ideas are much appreciated, thank you!

[balala]

my problem is that I am not sure how to achieve this, as using:

Code: Select all

LeftMouseUpAction=[!ActivateConfig "folder\myfolder" "mysubmenu.ini"]

seems to be not to efficient, because every time an item is selected from main menu, I'd have to deactivate every single other submenu.ini, is there any way to have like a floating variable that gets assigned when you select an item with the "LeftMouseUpAction" or something?

Please post the code you have so far. Otherwise it is extremely hard to describe what should you do.

[wolfnuka]

sure, no problem:

Code: Select all

[Bar2]
Meter=Bar
W=250
H=(#SCREENAREAHEIGHT#-400)
Y=320
SolidColor=241,241,241,90
DymamicVariables=1

[Bar1]
Meter=Bar
W=50
H=(#SCREENAREAHEIGHT#-400)
Y=320
SolidColor=333333
DymamicVariables=1


;===============SUB MENU============
[SUBMENU]
Meter=Image
ImageName=
H=250
X=60
Y=((#SCREENAREAHEIGHT#/2))
;===================================

;===================MAIN MENU ICON DOT ON HOVER================
[HoverDot-Item1]
Meter=Image
ImageName=DOT.png
x=35
y=((#SCREENAREAHEIGHT#/2)-134)
W=50
H=50
Hidden=1
DymamicVariables=1
;===============================================================

;================MAIN MENU ICON HIGHLIGHT ON HOVER==============
[Over1]
Meter=Bar
y=((#SCREENAREAHEIGHT#/2)-134)
W=50
H=50
SolidColor=5a5a5a
Hidden=1
DymamicVariables=1
;===============================================================

;================MAIN MENU ICON HIGHLIGHT ON SELECTED===========
[OVER1-SELECTED]
Meter=Bar
y=((#SCREENAREAHEIGHT#/2)-134)
W=50
H=50
SolidColor=5a5a5a
Hidden=1
DymamicVariables=1
[OVER2-SELECTED]
Meter=Bar
y=52r
W=50
H=50
SolidColor=5a5a5a
Hidden=1
DymamicVariables=1
;===============================================================

;================MAIN MENU ICON PATH & SHORTCUTS ADDRESSES======
[Image1]
Meter=Image
ImageName=Joystick
H=30
x=9
y=((#SCREENAREAHEIGHT#/2)-125)
DynamicVariables=1
LeftMouseUpAction=[!ActivateConfig "ULTIMATE-SIDEBAR\GAMING-MENU" "GAMING-MENU.ini"][!SetOption SUBMENU ImageName GAMING-MENU.png][!UpdateMeter SUBMENU][!RainmeterShowMeter Over1-SELECTED][!RainmeterShowMeter HoverDot-Item1][!RainmeterRedraw]
MouseOverAction=[!RainmeterShowMeter Over1][!RainmeterShowMeter HoverDot-Item1][!RainmeterRedraw]
MouseLeaveAction=[!RainmeterHideMeter Over1][!RainmeterHideMeter HoverDot-Item1][!RainmeterRedraw]
ToolTipText="Gaming"

what i am having issues with, is finding a way to hold the submenu items, and deactivate them and activate them as needed depending on the selected main menu icon, one way would be to put each submenu on a different .ini file, and activate them when the corresponding main menu icon is pressed, but then how to deactivate them as another main menu icon is pressed?

[Mor3bane]

By using the Group=GroupName | GroupName2 | GroupName3

The rub is that toggling Group can get messy fast with toggle being sort of indiscriminate.

However, there is !ToggleConfig bang and it can be utilised by this hierarchy method: Skins\Config\, Skins\Config2\. With each config having subfolders with your groups (not a literal reference for group - not Group), and the subfolders would have each skin in them for the associated set of menu items each.

Another way is !ActivateConfig / !DeactivateConfig

And... another way is using a control or parent Measure with either using !SetOption to change the parent's Group and having DynamicVariables=1 set in the parent and children - or alternatively !WriteKeyValue depending on how your folder hierarchy is set up.

So !Bang !Bang !Bang - just possible methods depending on your experimentation successes.

Apologies for not disseminating the code with specific examples, but with this many possibilities, your testing is likely more effective than my giving examples.

[balala]

sure, no problem:

what i am having issues with, is finding a way to hold the submenu items, and deactivate them and activate them as needed depending on the selected main menu icon, one way would be to put each submenu on a different .ini file, and activate them when the corresponding main menu icon is pressed, but then how to deactivate them as another main menu icon is pressed?

I'm sorry, but to be honest I don't really understand the problem. There are bangs for both: activating (already used by you) and deactivating skins. Use them with no fear.
So, there are even more possibilities, in my opinion:

• Create so many .ini skin files as many submenus do you need. Place all these files into one single config (folder), in this case let's say a folder named ULTIMATE-SIDEBAR\GAMING-SUBMENUS. So here you should have the GAMING-MENU.ini (already existing, based on the posted code), PROGRAMS-MENU.ini, DOCUMENTS-MENU.ini and so on. This ensures you that only one single of them can be loaded at a time. In such cases if you try to load another one, the previously loaded skin is unloaded, being replaced by the just loaded skin. In this case you have to load the appropriate skin when you're clicking the appropriate meter, [Image1] or whatever. Just take care not to have the main skin's .ini file into the same folder as the skins of submenu, because if you do have it, when you try loading a submenu, the main skin is unloaded.
• Create the skins of submenus onto different folders, let's say the GAMING-MENU.ini into a Gaming, PROGRAMS-MENU.ini into Program and DOCUMENTS-MENU.iniinto a Documents subfolder of ULTIMATE-SIDEBAR config. Now you can load any of these skins by a !ActivateConfig bang and can unload all others by a !DeactivateConfig. For instance the LeftMouseUpAction option of the [Image1] meter would be in this case:

  Code: Select all

  [Image1]
  ...
  LeftMouseUpAction=[!ActivateConfig "ULTIMATE-SIDEBAR\Gaming" "GAMING-MENU.ini"][!DeactivateConfig "ULTIMATE-SIDEBAR\Program"][!DeactivateConfig "ULTIMATE-SIDEBAR\Documents"][!SetOption SUBMENU ImageName GAMING-MENU.png][!UpdateMeter SUBMENU][!ShowMeter Over1-SELECTED][!ShowMeter HoverDot-Item1][!Redraw]

  This procedure has a disadvantage: you have to add so many !DeactivateConfig bangs as many skins you have (less one in fact), but at least if you're using the skin normally only one of those skins is loaded at a time (because if anytime you load another one by clicking the appropriate menu, the previously loaded one is unloaded). This will give error messages in the log, whenever are you clicking a menu. This makes me to tell that the first procedure, described above is better, because it avoids those errors.
• Finally a third option is to not create further skin files (further .ini files), but add the elements of the submenus into the code of the main skin. Not an impossible procedure. me personally at least probably would prefer this one. The disadvantage is that in this case the length of the skin increases quite enough, having to add quite many further meters and probably a few measures as well, to the code.

If you can't deal with all this, please pack the root config you have so far (ULTIMATE-SIDEBAR) and upload the package. It is extremely hard for anyone to help further if we don't have all needed files, resources and so on.

ADDITIONAL TIP: !Rainmeter... is a deprecated bang prefix, you should not use it. Remove all its occurrences from the whole code (see it is missing from the LeftMouseUpAction posted by me above).

[Mor3bane]

I'm sorry, but to be honest I don't really understand the problem. There are bangs for both: activating (already used by you) and deactivating skins. Use them with no fear.
So, there are even more possibilities, in my opinion:

• Create so many .ini skin files as many submenus do you need. Place all these files into one single config (folder), in this case let's say a folder named ULTIMATE-SIDEBAR\GAMING-SUBMENUS. So here you should have the GAMING-MENU.ini (already existing, based on the posted code), PROGRAMS-MENU.ini, DOCUMENTS-MENU.ini and so on. This ensures you that only one single of them can be loaded at a time. In such cases if you try to load another one, the previously loaded skin is unloaded, being replaced by the just loaded skin. In this case you have to load the appropriate skin when you're clicking the appropriate meter, [Image1] or whatever. Just take care not to have the main skin's .ini file into the same folder as the skins of submenu, because if you do have it, when you try loading a submenu, the main skin is unloaded.
• Create the skins of submenus onto different folders, let's say the GAMING-MENU.ini into a Gaming, PROGRAMS-MENU.ini into Program and DOCUMENTS-MENU.iniinto a Documents subfolder of ULTIMATE-SIDEBAR config. Now you can load any of these skins by a !ActivateConfig bang and can unload all others by a !DeactivateConfig. For instance the LeftMouseUpAction option of the [Image1] meter would be in this case:

  Code: Select all

  [Image1]
  ...
  LeftMouseUpAction=[!ActivateConfig "ULTIMATE-SIDEBAR\Gaming" "GAMING-MENU.ini"][!DeactivateConfig "ULTIMATE-SIDEBAR\Program"][!DeactivateConfig "ULTIMATE-SIDEBAR\Documents"][!SetOption SUBMENU ImageName GAMING-MENU.png][!UpdateMeter SUBMENU][!ShowMeter Over1-SELECTED][!ShowMeter HoverDot-Item1][!Redraw]

  This procedure has a disadvantage: you have to add so many !DeactivateConfig bangs as many skins you have (less one in fact), but at least if you're using the skin normally only one of those skins is loaded at a time (because if anytime you load another one by clicking the appropriate menu, the previously loaded one is unloaded). This will give error messages in the log, whenever are you clicking a menu. This makes me to tell that the first procedure, described above is better, because it avoids those errors.
• Finally a third option is to not create further skin files (further .ini files), but add the elements of the submenus into the code of the main skin. Not an impossible procedure. me personally at least probably would prefer this one. The disadvantage is that in this case the length of the skin increases quite enough, having to add quite many further meters and probably a few measures as well, to the code.

If you can't deal with all this, please pack the root config you have so far (ULTIMATE-SIDEBAR) and upload the package. It is extremely hard for anyone to help further if we don't have all needed files, resources and so on.

ADDITIONAL TIP: !Rainmeter... is a deprecated bang prefix, you should not use it. Remove all its occurrences from the whole code (see it is missing from the LeftMouseUpAction posted by me above).

This 'variant' method is actually quite tidy, and reduces the amount of repetitive code needed to switch between menus.

[balala]

This 'variant' method

Which variant? There are three.

[Mor3bane]

Which variant? There are three.

I referred literally to 'variant' as in multiple .ini in a folder resulting in each being a variant of the other as the result.

[balala]

I referred literally to 'variant' as in multiple .ini in a folder resulting in each being a variant of the other as the result.

Oh, yes, in this case yes, it does "reduce the amount of repetitive code", as you said.

[Mor3bane]

https://docs.rainmeter.net/manual/user-interface/context-menus/

there are also context menus that can be arranged as per the skin variant method controlled by mouse clicking a set area or button, etc.