Class

GtkUIManager

Description [src]

class Gtk.UIManager : GObject.Object
  implements Gtk.Buildable {
  /* No available fields */
}

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

GtkUIManager is deprecated since GTK+ 3.10. To construct user interfaces from XML definitions, you should use GtkBuilder, GMenuModel, et al. To work with actions, use GAction, GtkActionable 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 # {XML-UI}

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

Do not confuse the GtkUIManager UI Definitions described here with the similarly named [GtkBuilder UI Definitions][BUILDER-UI].

<!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 GMarkupParser 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 GtkMenuBar

  • toolbar

a GtkToolbar

  • popup

a toplevel GtkMenu

  • menu

a GtkMenu attached to a menuitem

  • menuitem

a GtkMenuItem subclass, the exact type depends on the action

  • toolitem

a GtkToolItem 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 GtkMenuToolButton as proxy.

  • separator

a GtkSeparatorMenuItem or GtkSeparatorToolItem

  • 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 # {UI-Merging}

The most remarkable feature of GtkUIManager 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 # {Smart-Separators}

The separators created by GtkUIManager 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. GtkUIManager 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 # {GtkUIManager-BUILDER-UI}

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>

Hierarchy

hierarchy this GtkUIManager implements_0 GtkBuildable this--implements_0 ancestor_0 GObject ancestor_0--this

Ancestors

Implements

Constructors

gtk_ui_manager_new

Creates a new ui manager object.

deprecated: 3.10 since: 2.4

Instance methods

gtk_ui_manager_add_ui

Adds a UI element to the current contents of manager.

deprecated: 3.10 since: 2.4

gtk_ui_manager_add_ui_from_file

Parses a file containing a [UI definition][XML-UI] and merges it with the current contents of manager.

deprecated: 3.10 since: 2.4

gtk_ui_manager_add_ui_from_resource

Parses a resource file containing a [UI definition][XML-UI] and merges it with the current contents of manager.

deprecated: 3.10 since: 3.4

gtk_ui_manager_add_ui_from_string

Parses a string containing a [UI definition][XML-UI] and merges it with the current contents of manager. An enclosing <ui> element is added if it is missing.

deprecated: 3.10 since: 2.4

gtk_ui_manager_ensure_update

Makes sure that all pending updates to the UI have been completed.

deprecated: 3.10 since: 2.4

gtk_ui_manager_get_accel_group

Returns the GtkAccelGroup associated with manager.

deprecated: 3.10 since: 2.4

gtk_ui_manager_get_action

Looks up an action by following a path. See gtk_ui_manager_get_widget() for more information about paths.

deprecated: 3.10 since: 2.4

gtk_ui_manager_get_action_groups

Returns the list of action groups associated with manager.

deprecated: 3.10 since: 2.4

gtk_ui_manager_get_add_tearoffs

Returns whether menus generated by this GtkUIManager will have tearoff menu items.

deprecated: 3.4 since: 2.4

gtk_ui_manager_get_toplevels

Obtains a list of all toplevel widgets of the requested types.

deprecated: 3.10 since: 2.4

gtk_ui_manager_get_ui

Creates a [UI definition][XML-UI] of the merged UI.

deprecated: 3.10 since: 2.4

gtk_ui_manager_get_widget

Looks up a widget by following a path. The path consists of the names specified in the XML description of the UI. separated by “/”. Elements which don’t have a name or action attribute in the XML (e.g. <popup>) can be addressed by their XML element name (e.g. “popup”). The root element (“/ui”) can be omitted in the path.

deprecated: 3.10 since: 2.4

gtk_ui_manager_insert_action_group

Inserts an action group into the list of action groups associated with manager. Actions in earlier groups hide actions with the same name in later groups.

deprecated: 3.10 since: 2.4

gtk_ui_manager_new_merge_id

Returns an unused merge id, suitable for use with gtk_ui_manager_add_ui().

deprecated: 3.10 since: 2.4

gtk_ui_manager_remove_action_group

Removes an action group from the list of action groups associated with manager.

deprecated: 3.10 since: 2.4

gtk_ui_manager_remove_ui

Unmerges the part of managers content identified by merge_id.

deprecated: 3.10 since: 2.4

gtk_ui_manager_set_add_tearoffs

Sets the “add_tearoffs” property, which controls whether menus generated by this GtkUIManager will have tearoff menu items.

deprecated: 3.4 since: 2.4

Methods inherited from GObject (43)

Please see GObject for a full list of methods.

Methods inherited from GtkBuildable (10)
gtk_buildable_add_child

Adds a child to buildable. type is an optional string describing how the child should be added.

since: 2.12

gtk_buildable_construct_child

Constructs a child of buildable with the name name.

since: 2.12

gtk_buildable_custom_finished

This is similar to gtk_buildable_parser_finished() but is called once for each custom tag handled by the buildable.

since: 2.12

gtk_buildable_custom_tag_end

This is called at the end of each custom element handled by the buildable.

since: 2.12

gtk_buildable_custom_tag_start

This is called for each unknown element under <child>.

since: 2.12

gtk_buildable_get_internal_child

Get the internal child called childname of the buildable object.

since: 2.12

gtk_buildable_get_name

Gets the name of the buildable object.

since: 2.12

gtk_buildable_parser_finished

Called when the builder finishes the parsing of a [GtkBuilder UI definition][BUILDER-UI]. Note that this will be called once for each time gtk_builder_add_from_file() or gtk_builder_add_from_string() is called on a builder.

since: 2.12

gtk_buildable_set_buildable_property

Sets the property name name to value on the buildable object.

since: 2.12

gtk_buildable_set_name

Sets the name of the buildable object.

since: 2.12

Properties

Gtk.UIManager:add-tearoffs

The “add-tearoffs” property controls whether generated menus have tearoff menu items.

deprecated: 3.4 since: 2.4

Gtk.UIManager:ui
No description available.

Signals

Gtk.UIManager::actions-changed

The ::actions-changed signal is emitted whenever the set of actions changes.

deprecated: 3.10 since: 2.4

Gtk.UIManager::add-widget

The ::add-widget signal is emitted for each generated menubar and toolbar. It is not emitted for generated popup menus, which can be obtained by gtk_ui_manager_get_widget().

deprecated: 3.10 since: 2.4

Gtk.UIManager::connect-proxy

The ::connect-proxy signal is emitted after connecting a proxy to an action in the group.

deprecated: 3.10 since: 2.4

Gtk.UIManager::disconnect-proxy

The ::disconnect-proxy signal is emitted after disconnecting a proxy from an action in the group.

deprecated: 3.10 since: 2.4

Gtk.UIManager::post-activate

The ::post-activate signal is emitted just after the action is activated.

deprecated: 3.10 since: 2.4

Gtk.UIManager::pre-activate

The ::pre-activate signal is emitted just before the action is activated.

deprecated: 3.10 since: 2.4

Signals inherited from GObject (1)
GObject::notify

The notify signal is emitted on an object when one of its properties has its value set through g_object_set_property(), g_object_set(), et al.

Class structure

struct GtkUIManagerClass {
  GObjectClass parent_class;
  void (* add_widget) (
    GtkUIManager* manager,
    GtkWidget* widget
  );
  void (* actions_changed) (
    GtkUIManager* manager
  );
  void (* connect_proxy) (
    GtkUIManager* manager,
    GtkAction* action,
    GtkWidget* proxy
  );
  void (* disconnect_proxy) (
    GtkUIManager* manager,
    GtkAction* action,
    GtkWidget* proxy
  );
  void (* pre_activate) (
    GtkUIManager* manager,
    GtkAction* action
  );
  void (* post_activate) (
    GtkUIManager* manager,
    GtkAction* action
  );
  GtkWidget* (* get_widget) (
    GtkUIManager* manager,
    const gchar* path
  );
  GtkAction* (* get_action) (
    GtkUIManager* manager,
    const gchar* path
  );
  void (* _gtk_reserved1) (
void
  );
  void (* _gtk_reserved2) (
void
  );
  void (* _gtk_reserved3) (
void
  );
  void (* _gtk_reserved4) (
void
  );
  
}

No description available.

Class members
parent_class: GObjectClass

No description available.

add_widget: void (* add_widget) ( GtkUIManager* manager, GtkWidget* widget )

No description available.

actions_changed: void (* actions_changed) ( GtkUIManager* manager )

No description available.

connect_proxy: void (* connect_proxy) ( GtkUIManager* manager, GtkAction* action, GtkWidget* proxy )

No description available.

disconnect_proxy: void (* disconnect_proxy) ( GtkUIManager* manager, GtkAction* action, GtkWidget* proxy )

No description available.

pre_activate: void (* pre_activate) ( GtkUIManager* manager, GtkAction* action )

No description available.

post_activate: void (* post_activate) ( GtkUIManager* manager, GtkAction* action )

No description available.

get_widget: GtkWidget* (* get_widget) ( GtkUIManager* manager, const gchar* path )

No description available.

get_action: GtkAction* (* get_action) ( GtkUIManager* manager, const gchar* path )

No description available.

_gtk_reserved1: void (* _gtk_reserved1) ( void )

No description available.

_gtk_reserved2: void (* _gtk_reserved2) ( void )

No description available.

_gtk_reserved3: void (* _gtk_reserved3) ( void )

No description available.

_gtk_reserved4: void (* _gtk_reserved4) ( void )

No description available.

Virtual methods

Gtk.UIManagerClass.actions_changed
No description available.

Gtk.UIManagerClass.add_widget
No description available.

Gtk.UIManagerClass.connect_proxy
No description available.

Gtk.UIManagerClass.disconnect_proxy
No description available.

Gtk.UIManagerClass.get_action

Looks up an action by following a path. See gtk_ui_manager_get_widget() for more information about paths.

deprecated: 3.10 since: 2.4

Gtk.UIManagerClass.get_widget

Looks up a widget by following a path. The path consists of the names specified in the XML description of the UI. separated by “/”. Elements which don’t have a name or action attribute in the XML (e.g. <popup>) can be addressed by their XML element name (e.g. “popup”). The root element (“/ui”) can be omitted in the path.

deprecated: 3.10 since: 2.4

Gtk.UIManagerClass.post_activate
No description available.

Gtk.UIManagerClass.pre_activate
No description available.