Description
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.
A GtkUIManager constructs a user interface (menus and toolbars) from
one or more UI definitions, which reference actions from one or more
action groups.
UI Definitions
The UI definitions are specified in an XML format which can be
roughly described by the following DTD.
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
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:
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 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
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:
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
Functions
gtk_ui_manager_new ()
GtkUIManager *
gtk_ui_manager_new (void);
gtk_ui_manager_new has been deprecated since version 3.10 and should not be used in newly-written code.
Creates a new ui manager object.
Returns
a new ui manager object.
Since: 2.4
gtk_ui_manager_set_add_tearoffs ()
void
gtk_ui_manager_set_add_tearoffs (GtkUIManager *manager,
gboolean add_tearoffs);
gtk_ui_manager_set_add_tearoffs has been deprecated since version 3.4 and should not be used in newly-written code.
Tearoff menus are deprecated and should not
be used in newly written code.
Sets the “add_tearoffs” property, which controls whether menus
generated by this GtkUIManager will have tearoff menu items.
Note that this only affects regular menus. Generated popup
menus never have tearoff menu items.
Since: 2.4
gtk_ui_manager_get_add_tearoffs ()
gboolean
gtk_ui_manager_get_add_tearoffs (GtkUIManager *manager);
gtk_ui_manager_get_add_tearoffs has been deprecated since version 3.4 and should not be used in newly-written code.
Tearoff menus are deprecated and should not
be used in newly written code.
Returns whether menus generated by this GtkUIManager
will have tearoff menu items.
Returns
whether tearoff menu items are added
Since: 2.4
gtk_ui_manager_insert_action_group ()
void
gtk_ui_manager_insert_action_group (GtkUIManager *manager,
GtkActionGroup *action_group,
gint pos);
gtk_ui_manager_insert_action_group has been deprecated since version 3.10 and should not be used in newly-written code.
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.
If pos
is larger than the number of action groups in manager
, or
negative, action_group
will be inserted at the end of the internal
list.
Since: 2.4
gtk_ui_manager_remove_action_group ()
void
gtk_ui_manager_remove_action_group (GtkUIManager *manager,
GtkActionGroup *action_group);
gtk_ui_manager_remove_action_group has been deprecated since version 3.10 and should not be used in newly-written code.
Removes an action group from the list of action groups associated
with manager
.
Since: 2.4
gtk_ui_manager_get_action_groups ()
GList *
gtk_ui_manager_get_action_groups (GtkUIManager *manager);
gtk_ui_manager_get_action_groups has been deprecated since version 3.10 and should not be used in newly-written code.
Returns the list of action groups associated with manager
.
Returns
a GList of
action groups. The list is owned by GTK+
and should not be modified.
[element-type GtkActionGroup][transfer none]
Since: 2.4
gtk_ui_manager_get_accel_group ()
GtkAccelGroup *
gtk_ui_manager_get_accel_group (GtkUIManager *manager);
gtk_ui_manager_get_accel_group has been deprecated since version 3.10 and should not be used in newly-written code.
Returns the GtkAccelGroup associated with manager
.
Since: 2.4
gtk_ui_manager_get_widget ()
GtkWidget *
gtk_ui_manager_get_widget (GtkUIManager *manager,
const gchar *path);
gtk_ui_manager_get_widget has been deprecated since version 3.10 and should not be used in newly-written code.
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.
Note that the widget found by following a path that ends in a <menu>;
element is the menuitem to which the menu is attached, not the menu it
manages.
Also note that the widgets constructed by a ui manager are not tied to
the lifecycle of the ui manager. If you add the widgets returned by this
function to some container or explicitly ref them, they will survive the
destruction of the ui manager.
Returns
the widget found by following the path,
or NULL if no widget was found.
[transfer none]
Since: 2.4
gtk_ui_manager_get_toplevels ()
GSList *
gtk_ui_manager_get_toplevels (GtkUIManager *manager,
GtkUIManagerItemType types);
gtk_ui_manager_get_toplevels has been deprecated since version 3.10 and should not be used in newly-written code.
Obtains a list of all toplevel widgets of the requested types.
Returns
a newly-allocated GSList of
all toplevel widgets of the requested types. Free the returned list with g_slist_free().
[element-type GtkWidget][transfer container]
Since: 2.4
gtk_ui_manager_get_action ()
GtkAction *
gtk_ui_manager_get_action (GtkUIManager *manager,
const gchar *path);
gtk_ui_manager_get_action has been deprecated since version 3.10 and should not be used in newly-written code.
Looks up an action by following a path. See gtk_ui_manager_get_widget()
for more information about paths.
Returns
the action whose proxy widget is found by following the path,
or NULL if no widget was found.
[transfer none]
Since: 2.4
gtk_ui_manager_add_ui_from_resource ()
guint
gtk_ui_manager_add_ui_from_resource (GtkUIManager *manager,
const gchar *resource_path,
GError **error);
gtk_ui_manager_add_ui_from_resource has been deprecated since version 3.10 and should not be used in newly-written code.
Parses a resource file containing a UI definition and
merges it with the current contents of manager
.
Returns
The merge id for the merged UI. The merge id can be used
to unmerge the UI with gtk_ui_manager_remove_ui(). If an error occurred,
the return value is 0.
Since: 3.4
gtk_ui_manager_add_ui_from_string ()
guint
gtk_ui_manager_add_ui_from_string (GtkUIManager *manager,
const gchar *buffer,
gssize length,
GError **error);
gtk_ui_manager_add_ui_from_string has been deprecated since version 3.10 and should not be used in newly-written code.
Parses a string containing a UI definition and merges it with
the current contents of manager
. An enclosing <ui> element is added if
it is missing.
Returns
The merge id for the merged UI. The merge id can be used
to unmerge the UI with gtk_ui_manager_remove_ui(). If an error occurred,
the return value is 0.
Since: 2.4
gtk_ui_manager_add_ui_from_file ()
guint
gtk_ui_manager_add_ui_from_file (GtkUIManager *manager,
const gchar *filename,
GError **error);
gtk_ui_manager_add_ui_from_file has been deprecated since version 3.10 and should not be used in newly-written code.
Parses a file containing a UI definition and
merges it with the current contents of manager
.
Returns
The merge id for the merged UI. The merge id can be used
to unmerge the UI with gtk_ui_manager_remove_ui(). If an error occurred,
the return value is 0.
Since: 2.4
gtk_ui_manager_new_merge_id ()
guint
gtk_ui_manager_new_merge_id (GtkUIManager *manager);
gtk_ui_manager_new_merge_id has been deprecated since version 3.10 and should not be used in newly-written code.
Returns an unused merge id, suitable for use with
gtk_ui_manager_add_ui().
Returns
an unused merge id.
Since: 2.4
gtk_ui_manager_add_ui ()
void
gtk_ui_manager_add_ui (GtkUIManager *manager,
guint merge_id,
const gchar *path,
const gchar *name,
const gchar *action,
GtkUIManagerItemType type,
gboolean top);
gtk_ui_manager_add_ui has been deprecated since version 3.10 and should not be used in newly-written code.
Adds a UI element to the current contents of manager
.
If type
is GTK_UI_MANAGER_AUTO, GTK+ inserts a menuitem, toolitem or
separator if such an element can be inserted at the place determined by
path
. Otherwise type
must indicate an element that can be inserted at
the place determined by path
.
If path
points to a menuitem or toolitem, the new element will be inserted
before or after this item, depending on top
.
Since: 2.4
gtk_ui_manager_remove_ui ()
void
gtk_ui_manager_remove_ui (GtkUIManager *manager,
guint merge_id);
gtk_ui_manager_remove_ui has been deprecated since version 3.10 and should not be used in newly-written code.
Unmerges the part of manager
's content identified by merge_id
.
Since: 2.4
gtk_ui_manager_get_ui ()
gchar *
gtk_ui_manager_get_ui (GtkUIManager *manager);
gtk_ui_manager_get_ui has been deprecated since version 3.10 and should not be used in newly-written code.
Creates a UI definition of the merged UI.
Returns
A newly allocated string containing an XML representation of
the merged UI.
Since: 2.4
gtk_ui_manager_ensure_update ()
void
gtk_ui_manager_ensure_update (GtkUIManager *manager);
gtk_ui_manager_ensure_update has been deprecated since version 3.10 and should not be used in newly-written code.
Makes sure that all pending updates to the UI have been completed.
This may occasionally be necessary, since GtkUIManager updates the
UI in an idle function. A typical example where this function is
useful is to enforce that the menubar and toolbar have been added to
the main window before showing it:
Since: 2.4
Signal Details
The “actions-changed” signal
void
user_function (GtkUIManager *manager,
gpointer user_data)
The ::actions-changed signal is emitted whenever the set of actions
changes.
GtkUIManager::actions-changed has been deprecated since version 3.10 and should not be used in newly-written code.
Flags: No Recursion
Since: 2.4
The “add-widget” signal
void
user_function (GtkUIManager *manager,
GtkWidget *widget,
gpointer user_data)
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().
GtkUIManager::add-widget has been deprecated since version 3.10 and should not be used in newly-written code.
Flags: No Recursion
Since: 2.4
The “connect-proxy” signal
void
user_function (GtkUIManager *manager,
GtkAction *action,
GtkWidget *proxy,
gpointer user_data)
The ::connect-proxy signal is emitted after connecting a proxy to
an action in the group.
This is intended for simple customizations for which a custom action
class would be too clumsy, e.g. showing tooltips for menuitems in the
statusbar.
GtkUIManager::connect-proxy has been deprecated since version 3.10 and should not be used in newly-written code.
Flags: No Recursion
Since: 2.4
The “disconnect-proxy” signal
void
user_function (GtkUIManager *manager,
GtkAction *action,
GtkWidget *proxy,
gpointer user_data)
The ::disconnect-proxy signal is emitted after disconnecting a proxy
from an action in the group.
GtkUIManager::disconnect-proxy has been deprecated since version 3.10 and should not be used in newly-written code.
Flags: No Recursion
Since: 2.4
The “post-activate” signal
void
user_function (GtkUIManager *manager,
GtkAction *action,
gpointer user_data)
The ::post-activate signal is emitted just after the action
is activated.
This is intended for applications to get notification
just after any action is activated.
GtkUIManager::post-activate has been deprecated since version 3.10 and should not be used in newly-written code.
Flags: No Recursion
Since: 2.4
The “pre-activate” signal
void
user_function (GtkUIManager *manager,
GtkAction *action,
gpointer user_data)
The ::pre-activate signal is emitted just before the action
is activated.
This is intended for applications to get notification
just before any action is activated.
GtkUIManager::pre-activate has been deprecated since version 3.10 and should not be used in newly-written code.
Flags: No Recursion
Since: 2.4