Various Ways to Access Submenus and Menu Items

• Microsoft Windows Software Development Kit (SDK) versions 3.0 and 3.1
• Microsoft Win32 Application Programming Interface (API) included with:

      - Microsoft Windows NT versions 3.5 and 3.51
      - Microsoft Windows 95 version 4.0
  

SUMMARY

In calls to Microsoft Windows functions that create, modify, and destroy menus, an application can access an individual menu item by either its position or its item ID. A pop-up menu must be accessed by its position because it does not have a menu-item ID.

Specifically, when an application calls the EnableMenuItem() function to enable, disable, or dim (gray) an individual menu item, the application can specify either the MF_BYPOSITION or the MF_BYCOMMAND flag in the wEnable parameter. When the application calls EnableMenuItem() to access a pop-up menu, it must specify the MF_BYPOSITION flag.

The information below provides examples of the following:

• Retrieving a menu handle for a submenu
• Accessing a submenu
• Accessing a menu item

MORE INFORMATION

The following resource-file menu template provides the basis for the source code examples in this article. The template describes a top-level menu with two pop-up submenus. One of the submenus contains a third, nested submenu.

   GenericMenu MENU
   BEGIN
      POPUP "&Help"
      BEGIN
         MENUITEM "&About Generic...", IDM_ABOUT
      END

      POPUP "&Test"
      BEGIN
         POPUP "&Nested"
         BEGIN
            MENUITEM "&1 Beep", IDM_1BEEP
            MENUITEM "&2 Beeps", IDM_2BEEPS
         END
      END
   END

Retrieving the Handle to a Submenu

Code such as the following can be used to obtain handles to the menus:

   HMENU hMainMenu, hHelpPopup, hTestPopup, hNestedPopup;

   <other program lines>

   hMainMenu = GetMenu(hWnd);
   hHelpPopup = GetSubMenu(hMainMenu, 0);
   hTestPopup = GetSubMenu(hMainMenu, 1);
   hNestedPopup = GetSubMenu(hTestPopup, 0);

Disabling a Submenu

The following call disables and dims the nested pop-up menu:

   EnableMenuItem (hTestPopup, 0, MF_BYPOSITION | MF_GRAYED);

   EnableMenuItem (hMainMenu, 1, MF_BYPOSITION | MF_GRAYED);

Disabling a Menu Item

The 1 Beep menu item can be disabled and dimmed by using any one of the following calls:

   EnableMenuItem(hMainMenu, IDM_1BEEP, MF_BYCOMMAND | MF_GRAYED);
   EnableMenuItem(hTestPopup, IDM_1BEEP, MF_BYCOMMAND | MF_GRAYED);
   EnableMenuItem(hNestedPopup, IDM_1BEEP, MF_BYCOMMAND | MF_GRAYED);
   EnableMenuItem(hNestedPopup, 0, MF_BYPOSITION | MF_GRAYED);

Other Windows Menu Functions

Although the EnableMenuItem() function is used in the example above, the same general approach is used for all Windows menu functions; access pop-up menus by position, and access menu items by position or menu- item ID.