INatAutoFrameMenus

This document covers the following topics:


Purpose

Collection of the available frame menus.

Frame menus must have a consistent layout throughout an application. It is therefore not useful for a Natural Studio plug-in to create arbitrary frame menus at will. The best approach for a plug-in is

  • thinking about the document types it is going to represent in document windows;

  • specifying a frame menu for each of these types;

  • creating these frame menus as clones of the default frame menu for plug-ins;

  • extending them in order to cover the needs of the document type, in a manner consistent with the document-specific frame menus in Natural Studio.

Properties

The following properties are available:

Parent

Used to navigate to the parent interface of this interface.

Natural Data Format Variant Type Remark
HANDLE OF OBJECT VT_DISPATCH (INatAutoControlBars) Get only

Studio

Used to navigate to the root interface.

Natural Data Format Variant Type Remark
HANDLE OF OBJECT VT_DISPATCH (INatAutoStudio) Get only

Count

The number available frame menus.

Natural Data Format Variant Type Remark
I4 VT_I4 Get only

Methods

The following methods are available:

Add

Creates a new frame menu and adds it to the collection. Dynamically created frame menus are not persistently customizable in the Customize dialog.

Parameters

Name Natural Data Format Variant Type Remark
Return value HANDLE OF OBJECT VT_DISPATCH (INatAutoFrameMenu)  
Caption A VT_BSTR  
Return value

The newly added frame menu.

Caption

A string used to identify the frame menu.

Clone

Creates a new frame menu as a copy of an existing frame menu and adds it to the collection. Dynamically created frame menus are not persistently customizable in the Customize dialog.

Parameters

Name Natural Data Format Variant Type Remark
Return value HANDLE OF OBJECT VT_DISPATCH (INatAutoFrameMenu)  
Caption A VT_BSTR  
Index

I4
A

VT_I4
VT_BSTR

Optional
Return value

The newly added frame menu.

Caption

A string used to identify the frame menu.

Index

Identifies the frame menu to be cloned. This can be either the index of the frame menu in the collection (a value between 1 and Count) or the caption of the frame menu (as indicated in the Customize dialog). If this parameter is omitted, the built-in frame menu Plug-in MDI View is cloned.

Item

Returns a specific frame menu from the collection. Used to iterate through the collection.

Parameters

Name Natural Data Format Variant Type Remark
Return value HANDLE OF OBJECT VT_DISPATCH (INatAutoFrameMenu)  
Index

I4
A

VT_I4
VT_BSTR

 
Return value

The frame menu identified by the value specified in Index.

Index

Identifies a specific frame menu in the collection. This can be either the index of the frame menu in the collection (a value between 1 and Count) or the caption of the frame menu (as indicated in the Customize dialog).