## MenuItem

Object Hierarchy | Related C++ Class: MenuItem

### Inheritance

SIObject

UIObject

MenuItem

### Introduced

v4.0

### Description

The MenuItem object represents an individual item of a custom Menu. With the MenuItem object you can attach a command or a callback function to a menu item and fire it when you click on the menu item.
Other features of custom menu items include:
- Menu items set with a command are greyed out if the command is disabled.
- Menu items will show the origin of the command or callback ([u] for user, [w] for workgroup).
- Menu items that point to a command will show the hotkey associated with the command.
- Set them with a Filter to validate the menu items against the selected/target object(s) before opening the menu. Custom menus are greyed out or removed if the filter criteria is not satisfied.
- Callback functions are undoable provided that commands or object model methods they used supports undo and redo.
A menu item can be defined as a standard menu item on which you can attach a command or callback function (Note: If for some reasons you assign both a command and a callback to your menu item, the callback will have precedence over the command when the menu item is selected). You can also create a menu item as a separator or as a sub menu. See the Menu object documentation for more details about adding menu items to a custom menu.

### Methods

IsClassOf | IsEqualTo | SetBackgroundColor |

### Properties

Application | Callback | Categories | Checked
Command | Enabled | Filter | FullName
Help | Name | NestedObjects | Origin
OriginPath | Parent | Style | Type

### Examples

#### JScript Example

    // JScript implementation example of a custom menu item
    // This function is required to register the menu in Softimage
    //
    // README: Copy and paste the example into the script editor
    // and run (F5).
    //
    // The menu will install itself into the main window menu
    //-------------------------------------------------------------------
    function  XSILoadPlugin( in_reg )
    {
            // register plug-in information
            in_reg.Author = "Softimage Co." ;
            in_reg.Name = "MenuItem Example";
            //  the version number of this plug-in
            in_reg.Major = 1;
            in_reg.Minor = 0 ;
            // install a custom menu in the window menu
            in_reg.RegisterMenu( siMenuMainWindowID, "ExMenuItem", true, true );
            return true;
    }
    // This is the callback function used for building the menu. Since the menu is
    // dynamic, the function is called each time the menu opens.
    function  ExMenuItem_Init( in_ctxt )
    {
            // retrieve the menu object to build
            menu = in_ctxt.Source;
            // attach a menu item to the menu along with its function handler
            menu.AddCallbackItem( "Custom menu item", "OnMenuItem" );
            return true;
    }
    //This callback function is called by Softimage when the menu item is selected
    function OnMenuItem( in_ctxt )
    {
            var menuitem = in_ctxt.source;
            LogMessage( menuitem.name + ":" + menuitem.callback );
    }
    //--------------------------------------------------------------------
    // Code to bootstrap example into system
    //--------------------------------------------------------------------
    function ExampleSourceCode()
    {
            return "// XSISDK Doc Example\n" +
                    ExMenuItem_Init.toString() + "\n" +
                    OnMenuItem.toString() + "\n" +
                    XSILoadPlugin.toString();
    }
    // if we are running from script editor save code to
    // examples addon folder in the user's directory.
    if (GetUserPref("ScriptingSessionActive"))
    {
            var ex_name     = "ExMenuItem";
            var ex_subfolder        = "Plugins";
            var ex_folder   = "XSISDKDocExamples";
            var ex_langsuffix       = ".js";
            CreateAddonDirectories( InstallationPath(siUserPath), ex_folder );
            var fso = XSIFactory.CreateActiveXObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject");
            var filename = XSIUtils.BuildPath(
                    InstallationPath(siUserAddonPath),
                    ex_folder,
                    "Application",
                    ex_subfolder,
                    ex_name+ex_langsuffix );
            if (!fso.FileExists(filename))
            {
                    var f = fso.CreateTextFile ( filename );
                    f.write( ExampleSourceCode() );
                    f.close();
                    Application.LoadPlugin(filename);
            }
    }
    //

### See Also

Menu