Menu bar — version history

u_pbt_menubar · Introduced in 2.0

An application menu bar drawn by the library in the application's theme: menus, cascading sub-menus, checkable entries, separators, icons, shortcuts and &File mnemonics. Introduced in 2.0.

4.0 — October 2026 #

New #

• is_image on an entry: its icon can be changed on the fly.
• is_group on entries: radio entries — checking one unchecks the others of the same group under the same parent, with a round bullet instead of a check mark.
• ue_menu_closed(as_key): a drop-down closed without a choice — by the user (click outside, Esc, sliding to the next menu) or by your code removing, clearing, hiding or disabling the open menu. Undo there what ue_menu_opening prepared.
• of_add_separator accepts the address of an entry ("file/export"): the line goes into its cascade.
• of_menu(key) carries item colors (il_accent, il_back_color…) and a tooltip, shown on the menu title; entry colors are drawn in the drop-down.
• Alt+F held down opens File from any control of the application, and F10 works like Alt; an Alt+letter your application registered keeps priority.
• Two titles on the same letter (&File, &Favorites): Alt+F moves from one to the other, Enter opens.
• An accented or non-Latin underlined letter (&Édition) can be typed in the drop-down.
• The bar is a single tab stop; the arrows move from title to title.
• Ctrl++, Ctrl+-, Ctrl+,, Alt+Left, Ctrl+Space, Ctrl+Tab, Ctrl+Backspace shortcuts fire wherever the focus is (they were shown but did nothing from a PowerBuilder control), including on an AZERTY keyboard.
• Every native menu of the component (like every native menu of the library) lets the user type the first letters of an entry to jump to it, read through the keyboard layout; a menu with more than 500 entries only draws what is visible.
• The bar stays on one line: the titles that do not fit, from the end, fold into a chevron at its end, their entries as cascades. Alt + the letter of a hidden menu opens it from the chevron, the arrows stop on the chevron like on a title, and it sits on the left in right-to-left layouts. ib_wrap = true keeps the bar that wraps to several rows.
• ib_track_hover and ue_item_hover(as_keys): the entry under the pointer or the keyboard in an open drop-down, for a help text in a status bar; an empty address when the drop-down closes.
• of_add_header: section headers in a drop-down or a cascade.
• is_align on a menu: ALIGN_END sets it at the end of the bar, like Help.

Fixed #

• After a mouse choice in a drop-down, the focus goes back to the control that had it before ue_item_selected is raised (Edit > Paste pasted nowhere); same on Esc and on a click outside.
• ue_menu_opening is truly "just in time": the drop-down waits for the event to finish, so an entry disabled or filled there shows at this opening, not the next one.
• of_item and of_remove_item reach the entry their address names, even when the same key exists in another cascade (file/export/pdf, file/print/pdf); the shortcut shown on one no longer triggers the other; a sub-entry below the third level lands under the right parent.
• An entry disabled, hidden or removed while its drop-down is open, or a shortcut of an entry under a disabled cascade, no longer raises ue_item_selected; emptying, removing or hiding the open menu closes its drop-down.
• A cascade whose entries are all hidden is drawn disabled instead of being chosen as a command; separators no longer dangle at the start, at the end or doubled.
• Item colors (il_back_color…) of a menu or an entry now take effect and read back.
• An entry removed and then re-added at the same address (a recent-files list) starts without the colors and tooltip of the old one.
• Keyboard: the arrows skip disabled menus; the mnemonic of a hidden menu no longer hides the same letter on another menu; after Alt+letter and a choice, the next Alt lights the bar again; in right-to-left layouts, Left and Right follow the writing direction and an underlined label reads in the right order.
• In right-to-left reading, native menus hang from the right edge of their title and cascades open to the left (Left opens, Right closes).
• Clicking the title of an open menu closes it, as in Windows, instead of reopening it.
• An is_shortcut set on an entry that opens a cascade is neither shown nor triggered: a shortcut belongs on a leaf.
• A bar whose menus are all hidden or disabled leaves Alt to a ribbon in the same window; with two bars (or ribbons) in one window, Alt goes to the one nearest the focus.
• Redrawing the bar while a drop-down is open keeps its title lit.
• Reading back il_back_color_hover or il_text_color_hover of an item never coloured returns -1 (the theme's colour), like the other item colours (it returned 0, black).
• Enter or Esc pressed in the component, when it does not use them, goes back to the window: the PowerBuilder Default or Cancel CommandButton fires (the key was lost).
• A disabled component (ib_enabled = false) leaves the Tab order; enabled again (or after of_reset), it takes its place back.
• With no language chosen by the application, the component announces English to screen readers (it announced French).
• is_theme_style, is_theme_mode and il_theme_accent read back the style and mode shown and the component's own accent (-1 when it has none); an unknown or badly written value is ignored instead of leaving the component without a theme, and an axis left empty follows the application's theme.
• The application accent (PBT_SetDefaultThemeAccent) survives a change of theme, is followed as long as the component has no accent of its own, and repaints everything derived from it (hover, pressed, selections); Windows high contrast is supported.
• Typing a character with AltGr in a PowerBuilder field (the euro of a French keyboard, AltGr+E) no longer fires a Ctrl+Alt shortcut of that key, and AltGr pressed alone no longer hands the keyboard to the bar as Alt does.

Behavior changes #

• of_add_menu, of_add_item and of_add_separator return -5 for a key already taken, a key containing / or |, or an unknown menu or parent (an entry with a mistyped parent used to land at the root of the menu); of_remove_item / of_remove_menu return -5 for an unknown address.
• of_remove_item, of_remove_menu and of_clear release the handles of what goes (IsValid() returns false) and disarm their shortcuts, which used to swallow the key.
• A bare key no longer searches down the cascades: an entry is named by its full address. of_item("file") — a one-level address — designates nothing: use of_menu("file").
• of_count("file") and of_keys_at count entries only, not separators; of_count returns a long.
• Details and how to adapt: Migrating from 3.0 to 4.0, sections 11.3 and 11.15.
• A menu bar too narrow for its titles no longer wraps to several rows: it folds the last ones into a chevron and keeps its height, so ue_auto_height is no longer raised at every resize. ib_wrap = true gives back the former behaviour (migration page, section 11.46).

3.0 — September 2026 #

New #

• of_set_property, of_get_property and of_component_name: drive a property by its name (settings screen, saved configuration).

Fixed #

• Losing the focus puts the bar back to rest: clicking another control or another window no longer leaves a menu title lit until Esc.
• The hovered entry of a drop-down (shortcut, sub-menu arrow, check mark) is readable in the Office 2007 themes.

Behavior changes #

• ue_item_selected returns the address of the entry actually chosen: with two sub-menus each holding a pdf, choosing Print > PDF returns "print/pdf" (it could return "export/pdf"). See Migrating from 2.0 to 3.0.

2.0 — September 2026 #

New #

• Menus, entries and cascading sub-menus addressed by path ("file/export/pdf"), with icons, check marks (ib_checked) and separators, drawn by the library in the application's theme instead of a Windows menu.
• ue_item_selected(as_keys) returns the full address of the chosen entry; ue_menu_opening(as_key) is raised before a menu opens, to enable, disable or fill its entries just in time.
• Entry handles (of_item) to rename, disable, check or hide an entry — ib_visible takes it out of the menu, shortcut included, while keeping its key; menu handles (of_menu) to rename or disable a whole menu.
• Shortcuts per entry (is_shortcut), shown on the right and armed wherever the focus is.
• Windows keyboard behavior: Alt gives the focus to the bar, &File mnemonics, arrows, Enter, Esc.
• of_remove_item, of_remove_menu, of_clear, and of_count, of_keys_at, of_has at every level.
• Intrinsic height: the bar announces the height it needs (ue_auto_height).
• ue_script_error: a script error in the page reaches PowerBuilder with its message instead of being lost.