IBM Content Navigator, Version 2.0.3

Creating a menu

You can create a plug-in to provide a custom toolbar or context menu to use in IBM® Content Navigator.

About this task

To create a menu, you must first create the menu type. The menu type indicates where and how the menu will appear in the user interface. For example, you might define a menu type to create a context menu for a custom widget. You can use the menu type for multiple menus.

Procedure

To create a custom menu:

Extend the PluginMenuType.java class to define the menu type:
If the menu is a toolbar, implement the isToolbar method to return true. If you do not implement this method or if the method returns false, the menu is a context menu.

For a default menu, the menu type provides an identifier for the default menu. When a user creates a copy of this menu, the menu type is identified in the copy to link it back to the original menu.
Extend the PluginMenu.java class to define the menu:
1. Implement the getId method to return the identifier for the menu. Prefix the identifier with "Default" if users will be able to create copies of this menu.
2. Implement the getMenuType method to return the PluginMenuType class that you created in step 1.
3. Implement the getMenuItems method to return instances of the actions that are included in the menu.
Add the menu as a component in your Plugin.java subclass:
1. Implement the getMenuTypes method to return an instance of the PluginMenuType.java subclass that you created in step 1.
2. Implement the getMenus method to return an instance of the PluginMenu.java subclass that you created in step 2.

Sample plug-in files for a custom menu

The following files in the sample plug-in define a context menu and two toolbar menus:

Table 1. Sample files that define a plug-in menu
File	Description
SamplePluginContextMenuMenuType.java	This file extends the PluginMenuType.java class to create a menu type for a context menu.
SamplePluginContextMenuMenu.java	This file extends the PluginMenu.java class to defines a context menu that includes the following actions: A sample action, which is defined in the SamplePluginAction.java file Properties Help About Preview Open The following actions are in the available actions box: Custom Checkin Only For Text Docs
SamplePluginToolbarMenuType.java	This file extends the PluginMenuType.java class to create a menu type for a toolbar.
SamplePluginToolbarMenu.java	This file extends the PluginMenu.java class to defines a toolbar that includes the following actions: A sample action, which is defined in SamplePluginAction.java file Help About
SamplePluginToolbarMenuType2.java	This file extends the PluginMenuType.java class to create a menu type for a toolbar.
SamplePluginToolbarMenu2.java	This file extends the PluginMenu.java class to defines a toolbar that includes the following actions: A sample action, which is defined in the SamplePluginAction.java file Custom Checkin, which is defined in the SamplePluginCheckInAction.java file Help

What to do next

After you add the plug-in in the web client, use the IBM Content Navigator administration tool to add the menu to a desktop.