Context Menu API, partial implementation

[tvoliter]

Ready for review

[mikechambers]

Can you provide a simple example of how an extension would create and open a context-menu?

[redmunds]

typo: nowtcreate

[tvoliter]

Sure, here is a hello world demo you can paste into a main.js file to try it out as a plugin

/_jslint vars: true, plusplus: true, devel: true, nomen: true, regexp: true, indent: 4, maxerr: 50 */
/_global define, $, brackets, window */

/** Simple extension that adds a "File > Hello World" menu item */
define(function (require, exports, module) {
'use strict';

var CommandManager = brackets.getModule("command/CommandManager"),
    Menus          = brackets.getModule("command/Menus");


// Function to run when the menu item is clicked
function handleHelloWorld() {
    window.alert("Hello, world!");
}


// First, register a command - a UI-less object associating an id to a handler
var MY_COMMAND_ID = "helloworld.sayhello";
CommandManager.register("Hello World", MY_COMMAND_ID, handleHelloWorld);

// Register a new context menu
var cmenu = Menus.registerContextMenu("helloworld-context-menu");

// Get the menu object related to the context menu and add a MenuItem that will call your command
var menu = cmenu.getMenu();
menu.addMenuItem("mymenuid", MY_COMMAND_ID);

// Trigger the context meny by calling open(). Here we show it when right-clicking over the
// #projects div
$("#projects").mousedown(function (e) {
        if (e.which === 3) {
            cmenu.open(e.pageX, e.pageY);
        }
    });

});

-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Chambers [mailto:reply@reply.github.com]
Sent: Thursday, June 07, 2012 2:08 PM
To: Ty Voliter
Subject: Re: [brackets] Context Menu API (for review only) (#1012)

Can you provide a simple example of how an extension would create and open a context-menu?

---

Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub:
#1012 (comment)

[mikechambers]

Could the x,y coords to open be optional, and if they are not passed in default to the correct position relative to the current position of the mouse?

Otherwise, there may be situations where the position of the menu should be different depending on the platform, that extension developers might not know about, or might not take into account.

Plus, it covers the primary use case and would make the api easier to use.

[redmunds]

@mikechambers On Windows, you can use the context-menu button to open a context-menu for the currently selected element (not at the mouse), so this is so both the keyboard and the mouse can be supported.

After that, Brackets will attempt to display the menu at the specified coordinates, but will adjust the menu position as necessary to fit it in the Brackets window.

[mikechambers]

@redmunds Sorry. What is the context-menu button?

[tvoliter]

Great suggestion!

-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Chambers [mailto:reply@reply.github.com]
Sent: Thursday, June 07, 2012 4:54 PM
To: Ty Voliter
Subject: Re: [brackets] Context Menu API (for review only) (#1012)

Could the x,y coords to open be optional, and if they are not passed in default to the correct position relative to the current position of the mouse?

Otherwise, there may be situations where the position of the menu should be different depending on the platform, that extension developers might not know about, or might not take into account.

Plus, it covers the primary use case and would make the api easier to use.

---

Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub:
#1012 (comment)

[mikechambers]

@redmunds Thanks. I didn't realize that you were referring to the context menu keyboard button on some windows keyboards. (I didn't even know such a thing existed).

[mikechambers]

What happens if multiple extensions want to work with the context menu and / or add items to it? For example, imagine a context menu opened when text selected and the user right clicks it. How will multiple extensions be able to add items to a single context menu?

Also, will there be default items (copy, cut, paste) that will always be in the context menu?

[tvoliter]

These are great questions and this is what I am actually investigating next. Early thoughts were that Brackets would have a few built in context menus tied to specific click areas like the editor, working set, file tree, etc. Plugins could add to these and could be more context sensitive by disabling/enabling items based on some criteria when the beforeContextMenuOpen event is triggered. I am also exploring how event bubbling and context menus will interact to see how Brackets will handle a general context menu that shows when clicking over a large div and a very specific context menu that shows when clicking on some small portion of that div.

What are your expectations on how this should work?

-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Chambers [mailto:reply@reply.github.com]
Sent: Thursday, June 07, 2012 5:33 PM
To: Ty Voliter
Subject: Re: [brackets] Context Menu API (for review only) (#1012)

What happens if multiple extensions want to work with the context menu and / or add items to it? For example, imagine a context menu opened when text selected and the user right clicks it. How will multiple extensions be able to add items to a single context menu?

Also, will there be default items (copy, cut, paste) that will always be in the context menu?

---

Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub:
#1012 (comment)

[mikechambers]

I would expect that my extension would add to an existing menu, and would not create a new one from scratch.

[tvoliter]

I did a bit of research and it seems it's not possible to query the current mouse position in browsers without an event. However, to make this API for friendly I changed it so it can take a MouseEvent or a specific location.

-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Chambers [mailto:reply@reply.github.com]
Sent: Thursday, June 07, 2012 4:54 PM
To: Ty Voliter
Subject: Re: [brackets] Context Menu API (for review only) (#1012)

Could the x,y coords to open be optional, and if they are not passed in default to the correct position relative to the current position of the mouse?

Otherwise, there may be situations where the position of the menu should be different depending on the platform, that extension developers might not know about, or might not take into account.

Plus, it covers the primary use case and would make the api easier to use.

---

Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub:
#1012 (comment)

[redmunds]

typo: "stae"

[redmunds]

Fixed. I also changed "MenuItems are views of Commands and control a MenuItem's ..." to "MenuItems are views of Commands which control a MenuItem's ..."

[tvoliter]

Should this be a relative offset as well (some reference + 1) instead of a constant?

[redmunds]

This was intended to be the reference (or base) that all other context menu z-indexes are based off of. Currently, this is the only one. :)

Would be nice to unify this with the main menus, but currently these index values are hard-coded in bootstrap (even though they are using LESS).