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phoenix_title wx.MenuItem

A menu item represents an item in a menu.

Note that you usually don’t have to deal with it directly as wx.Menu methods usually construct an object of this class for you.

Also please note that the methods related to fonts and bitmaps are currently only implemented for Windows, Mac and GTK+.

events Events Emitted by this Class

Handlers bound for the following event types will receive one of the wx.CommandEvent wx.MenuEvent parameters.

  • EVT_MENU: Process a wxEVT_MENU command, which is generated by a menu item. This type of event is sent as wx.CommandEvent.
  • EVT_MENU_RANGE: Process a wxEVT_MENU command, which is generated by a range of menu items. This type of event is sent as wx.CommandEvent.
  • EVT_MENU_OPEN: A menu is about to be opened. On Windows, this is only sent once for each navigation of the menubar (up until all menus have closed). This type of event is sent as wx.MenuEvent.
  • EVT_MENU_CLOSE: A menu has been just closed. This type of event is sent as wx.MenuEvent.
  • EVT_MENU_HIGHLIGHT: The menu item with the specified id has been highlighted: used to show help prompts in the status bar by wx.Frame This type of event is sent as wx.MenuEvent.
  • EVT_MENU_HIGHLIGHT_ALL: A menu item has been highlighted, i.e. the currently selected menu item has changed. This type of event is sent as wx.MenuEvent.

class_hierarchy Class Hierarchy

Inheritance diagram for class MenuItem:


method_summary Methods Summary

__init__ Constructs a wx.MenuItem object.
Check Checks or unchecks the menu item.
Enable Enables or disables the menu item.
GetAccel Get our accelerator or None (caller must delete the pointer)
GetBackgroundColour Returns the background colour associated with the menu item.
GetBitmap Returns the checked or unchecked bitmap.
GetDisabledBitmap Returns the bitmap to be used for disabled items.
GetFont Returns the font associated with the menu item.
GetHelp Returns the help string associated with the menu item.
GetId Returns the menu item identifier.
GetItemLabel Returns the text associated with the menu item including any accelerator characters that were passed to the constructor or SetItemLabel .
GetItemLabelText Returns the text associated with the menu item, without any accelerator characters.
GetKind Returns the item kind, one of ITEM_SEPARATOR , ITEM_NORMAL , ITEM_CHECK or ITEM_RADIO .
GetLabel Returns the text associated with the menu item without any accelerator characters it might contain.
GetLabelFromText  
GetLabelText Strips all accelerator characters and mnemonics from the given text.
GetMarginWidth Gets the width of the menu item checkmark bitmap.
GetMenu Returns the menu this menu item is in, or None if this menu item is not attached.
GetName Returns the text associated with the menu item.
GetSubMenu Returns the submenu associated with the menu item, or None if there isn’t one.
GetText Returns the text associated with the menu item, such as it was passed to the wx.MenuItem constructor, i.e.
GetTextColour Returns the text colour associated with the menu item.
IsCheck Returns True if the item is a check item.
IsCheckable Returns True if the item is checkable.
IsChecked Returns True if the item is checked.
IsEnabled Returns True if the item is enabled.
IsRadio Returns True if the item is a radio button.
IsSeparator Returns True if the item is a separator.
IsSubMenu Returns True if the item is a submenu.
SetAccel Set the accel for this item - this may also be done indirectly with SetText
SetBackgroundColour Sets the background colour associated with the menu item.
SetBitmap Sets the bitmap for the menu item.
SetBitmaps Sets the checked/unchecked bitmaps for the menu item.
SetDisabledBitmap Sets the to be used for disabled menu items.
SetFont Sets the font associated with the menu item.
SetHelp Sets the help string.
SetItemLabel Sets the label associated with the menu item.
SetMarginWidth Sets the width of the menu item checkmark bitmap.
SetMenu Sets the parent menu which will contain this menu item.
SetSubMenu Sets the submenu of this menu item.
SetText Sets the text associated with the menu item.
SetTextColour Sets the text colour associated with the menu item.

api Class API



class wx.MenuItem(Object)

Possible constructors:

MenuItem(parentMenu=None, id=ID_SEPARATOR, text="",
         helpString="", kind=ITEM_NORMAL, subMenu=None)

A menu item represents an item in a menu.


Methods



__init__(self, parentMenu=None, id=ID_SEPARATOR, text="", helpString="", kind=ITEM_NORMAL, subMenu=None)

Constructs a wx.MenuItem object.

Menu items can be standard, or “stock menu items”, or custom. For the standard menu items (such as commands to open a file, exit the program and so on, see Stock Items for the full list) it is enough to specify just the stock ID and leave text and helpString empty. Some platforms (currently wxGTK only, and see the remark in SetBitmap documentation) will also show standard bitmaps for stock menu items.

Leaving at least text empty for the stock menu items is actually strongly recommended as they will have appearance and keyboard interface (including standard accelerators) familiar to the user.

For the custom (non-stock) menu items, text must be specified and while helpString may be left empty, it’s recommended to pass the item description (which is automatically shown by the library in the status bar when the menu item is selected) in this parameter.

Finally note that you can e.g. use a stock menu label without using its stock help string:

# use all stock properties:
helpMenu.Append(wx.ID_ABOUT)

# use the stock label and the stock accelerator but not the stock help string:
helpMenu.Append(wx.ID_ABOUT, "", "My custom help string")

# use all stock properties except for the bitmap:
mymenu = wx.MenuItem(helpMenu, wx.ID_ABOUT)
mymenu.SetBitmap(wx.ArtProvider.GetBitmap(wx.ART_WARNING))
helpMenu.Append(mymenu)

that is, stock properties are set independently one from the other.

Parameters:
  • parentMenu (wx.Menu) – Menu that the menu item belongs to. Can be None if the item is going to be added to the menu later.
  • id (int) – Identifier for this menu item. May be ID_SEPARATOR , in which case the given kind is ignored and taken to be ITEM_SEPARATOR instead.
  • text (string) – Text for the menu item, as shown on the menu. See SetItemLabel for more info.
  • helpString (string) – Optional help string that will be shown on the status bar.
  • kind (ItemKind) – May be ITEM_SEPARATOR , ITEM_NORMAL , ITEM_CHECK or ITEM_RADIO .
  • subMenu (wx.Menu) – If not None, indicates that the menu item is a submenu.


Check(self, check=True)

Checks or unchecks the menu item.

Note that this only works when the item is already appended to a menu.

Parameters:check (bool) –


Enable(self, enable=True)

Enables or disables the menu item.

Parameters:enable (bool) –


GetAccel(self)

Get our accelerator or None (caller must delete the pointer)

Return type: wx.AcceleratorEntry


GetBackgroundColour(self)

Returns the background colour associated with the menu item.

Return type: wx.Colour

Availability

Only available for MSW.



GetBitmap(self, checked=True)

Returns the checked or unchecked bitmap.

Parameters:checked (bool) –
Return type: wx.Bitmap

Availability

Only available for MSW.



GetDisabledBitmap(self)

Returns the bitmap to be used for disabled items.

Return type: wx.Bitmap

Availability

Only available for MSW.



GetFont(self)

Returns the font associated with the menu item.

Return type: wx.Font

Availability

Only available for MSW.



GetHelp(self)

Returns the help string associated with the menu item.

Return type:string


GetId(self)

Returns the menu item identifier.

Return type:int


GetItemLabel(self)

Returns the text associated with the menu item including any accelerator characters that were passed to the constructor or SetItemLabel .

Return type:string


GetItemLabelText(self)

Returns the text associated with the menu item, without any accelerator characters.

Return type:string


GetKind(self)

Returns the item kind, one of ITEM_SEPARATOR , ITEM_NORMAL , ITEM_CHECK or ITEM_RADIO .

Return type: wx.ItemKind


GetLabel(self)

Returns the text associated with the menu item without any accelerator characters it might contain.

Return type:string

Deprecated since version 4.0.0: This function is deprecated in favour of GetItemLabelText .

See also

GetItemLabelText



static GetLabelFromText(text)
Parameters:text (string) –
Return type:string

Deprecated since version 4.0.0: This function is deprecated; please use GetLabelText instead.

See also

GetLabelText



static GetLabelText(text)

Strips all accelerator characters and mnemonics from the given text.

For example:

wx.MenuItem.GetLabelfromText("&Hello\tCtrl-h")

will return just "Hello" .

Parameters:text (string) –
Return type:string


GetMarginWidth(self)

Gets the width of the menu item checkmark bitmap.

Return type:int

Availability

Only available for MSW.



GetMenu(self)

Returns the menu this menu item is in, or None if this menu item is not attached.

Return type: wx.Menu


GetName(self)

Returns the text associated with the menu item.

Return type:string

Deprecated since version 4.0.0: This function is deprecated. Please use GetItemLabel or GetItemLabelText instead.



GetSubMenu(self)

Returns the submenu associated with the menu item, or None if there isn’t one.

Return type: wx.Menu


GetText(self)

Returns the text associated with the menu item, such as it was passed to the wx.MenuItem constructor, i.e.

with any accelerator characters it may contain.

Return type:string

Deprecated since version 4.0.0: This function is deprecated in favour of GetItemLabel .

See also

GetLabelFromText



GetTextColour(self)

Returns the text colour associated with the menu item.

Return type: wx.Colour

Availability

Only available for MSW.



IsCheck(self)

Returns True if the item is a check item.

Unlike IsCheckable this doesn’t return True for the radio buttons.

Return type:bool

New in version 2.9.5.



IsCheckable(self)

Returns True if the item is checkable.

Notice that the radio buttons are considered to be checkable as well, so this method returns True for them too. Use IsCheck if you want to test for the check items only.

Return type:bool


IsChecked(self)

Returns True if the item is checked.

Return type:bool


IsEnabled(self)

Returns True if the item is enabled.

Return type:bool


IsRadio(self)

Returns True if the item is a radio button.

Return type:bool

New in version 2.9.5.



IsSeparator(self)

Returns True if the item is a separator.

Return type:bool


IsSubMenu(self)

Returns True if the item is a submenu.

Return type:bool


SetAccel(self, accel)

Set the accel for this item - this may also be done indirectly with SetText

Parameters:accel (wx.AcceleratorEntry) –


SetBackgroundColour(self, colour)

Sets the background colour associated with the menu item.

Parameters:colour (wx.Colour) –

Availability

Only available for MSW.



SetBitmap(self, bmp, checked=True)

Sets the bitmap for the menu item.

It is equivalent to MenuItem.SetBitmaps(bmp, NullBitmap) if checked is True (default value) or SetBitmaps(wxNullBitmap, bmp) otherwise.

SetBitmap must be called before the item is appended to the menu, i.e. appending the item without a bitmap and setting one later is not guaranteed to work. But the bitmap can be changed or reset later if it had been set up initially.

Notice that GTK+ uses a global setting called gtk-menu-images to determine if the images should be shown in the menus at all. If it is off (which is the case in e.g. Gnome 2.28 by default), no images will be shown, consistently with the native behaviour.

Parameters:

Availability

Only available for MSW, OSX, GTK.



SetBitmaps(self, checked, unchecked=NullBitmap)

Sets the checked/unchecked bitmaps for the menu item.

The first bitmap is also used as the single bitmap for uncheckable menu items.

Parameters:

Availability

Only available for MSW.



SetDisabledBitmap(self, disabled)

Sets the to be used for disabled menu items.

Parameters:disabled (wx.Bitmap) –

Availability

Only available for MSW.



SetFont(self, font)

Sets the font associated with the menu item.

Parameters:font (wx.Font) –

Availability

Only available for MSW.



SetHelp(self, helpString)

Sets the help string.

Parameters:helpString (string) –


SetItemLabel(self, label)

Sets the label associated with the menu item.

Note that if the ID of this menu item corresponds to a stock ID, then it is not necessary to specify a label: wxWidgets will automatically use the stock item label associated with that ID. See the constructor for more info.

The label string for the normal menu items (not separators) may include the accelerator which can be used to activate the menu item from keyboard. An accelerator key can be specified using the ampersand & character. In order to embed an ampersand character in the menu item text, the ampersand must be doubled.

Optionally you can specify also an accelerator string appending a tab character \t followed by a valid key combination (e.g. CTRL+V ). Its general syntax is any combination of "CTRL" , "RAWCTRL" , "ALT" and "SHIFT" strings (case doesn’t matter) separated by either '-' or '+' characters and followed by the accelerator itself. Notice that CTRL corresponds to the “Ctrl” key on most platforms but not under Mac OS where it is mapped to “Cmd” key on Mac keyboard. Usually this is exactly what you want in portable code but if you really need to use the (rarely used for this purpose) “Ctrl” key even under Mac, you may use RAWCTRL to prevent this mapping. Under the other platforms RAWCTRL is the same as plain CTRL .

The accelerator may be any alphanumeric character, any function key (from F1 to F12) or one of the special characters listed in the table below (again, case doesn’t matter):

  • DEL or DELETE: Delete key
  • BACK : Backspace key
  • INS or INSERT: Insert key
  • ENTER or RETURN: Enter key
  • PGUP: PageUp key
  • PGDN: PageDown key
  • LEFT: Left cursor arrow key
  • RIGHT: Right cursor arrow key
  • UP: Up cursor arrow key
  • DOWN: Down cursor arrow key
  • HOME: Home key
  • END: End key
  • SPACE: Space
  • TAB: Tab key
  • ESC or ESCAPE: Escape key (Windows only)

Examples:

self.myMenuItem.SetItemLabel("My &item\tCTRL+I")
self.myMenuItem2.SetItemLabel("Clean and build\tF7")
self.myMenuItem3.SetItemLabel("Simple item")
self.myMenuItem4.SetItemLabel("Item with &accelerator")
Parameters:label (string) –

Note

In wxGTK using "SHIFT" with non-alphabetic characters currently doesn’t work, even in combination with other modifiers, due to GTK+ limitation. E.g. Shift+Ctrl+A works but Shift+Ctrl+1 or Shift+/ do not, so avoid using accelerators of this form in portable code.



SetMarginWidth(self, width)

Sets the width of the menu item checkmark bitmap.

Parameters:width (int) –

Availability

Only available for MSW.



SetMenu(self, menu)

Sets the parent menu which will contain this menu item.

Parameters:menu (wx.Menu) –


SetSubMenu(self, menu)

Sets the submenu of this menu item.

Parameters:menu (wx.Menu) –


SetText(self, text)

Sets the text associated with the menu item.

Parameters:text (string) –

Deprecated since version 4.0.0: This function is deprecated in favour of SetItemLabel .

See also

SetItemLabel .



SetTextColour(self, colour)

Sets the text colour associated with the menu item.

Parameters:colour (wx.Colour) –

Availability

Only available for MSW.


Properties



Accel

See GetAccel and SetAccel



BackgroundColour

See GetBackgroundColour and SetBackgroundColour



Bitmap

See GetBitmap and SetBitmap



DisabledBitmap

See GetDisabledBitmap and SetDisabledBitmap



Font

See GetFont and SetFont



Help

See GetHelp and SetHelp



Id

See GetId



ItemLabel

See GetItemLabel and SetItemLabel



ItemLabelText

See GetItemLabelText



Kind

See GetKind



Label

See GetLabel



MarginWidth

See GetMarginWidth and SetMarginWidth



Menu

See GetMenu and SetMenu



Name

See GetName



SubMenu

See GetSubMenu and SetSubMenu



Text

See GetText and SetText



TextColour

See GetTextColour and SetTextColour