Native Menu Support

This guide covers native menu bar support in InfiniFrame: configuring menu bars at build time, managing menu items at runtime, and platform-specific behavior.

Contents

• Quick Start
• Builder Configuration
• Menu Model Reference
• Runtime Operations
• Platform Support
• Migration from Photino

Quick Start

using InfiniFrame;
using System.Collections.Immutable;

var window = InfiniFrameWindowBuilder.Create()
    .SetTitle("My App")
    .SetMenuBar(new InfiniFrameMenuBar(
        Items: ImmutableArray.Create(
            new InfiniFrameMenuItem("file", "File", InfiniFrameMenuItemType.Submenu,
                Children: ImmutableArray.Create(
                    new InfiniFrameMenuItem("open", "Open", KeyboardShortcut: "Ctrl+O"),
                    new InfiniFrameMenuItem("save", "Save", KeyboardShortcut: "Ctrl+S"),
                    new InfiniFrameMenuItem("sep", Type: InfiniFrameMenuItemType.Separator),
                    new InfiniFrameMenuItem("exit", "Exit", KeyboardShortcut: "Alt+F4")
                )
            ),
            new InfiniFrameMenuItem("edit", "Edit"),
            new InfiniFrameMenuItem("help", "Help")
        )
    ))
    .SetStartUrl("https://myapp.local")
    .Build();

window.WaitForClose();

Builder Configuration

Set the menu bar during window construction using SetMenuBar:

var builder = InfiniFrameWindowBuilder.Create()
    .SetMenuBar(new InfiniFrameMenuBar(
        Items: ImmutableArray.Create(
            new InfiniFrameMenuItem("file", "File", InfiniFrameMenuItemType.Submenu,
                Children: ImmutableArray.Create(
                    new InfiniFrameMenuItem("new", "New", KeyboardShortcut: "Ctrl+N"),
                    new InfiniFrameMenuItem("open", "Open", KeyboardShortcut: "Ctrl+O"),
                    new InfiniFrameMenuItem("save", "Save", KeyboardShortcut: "Ctrl+S")
                )
            )
        )
    ));

IInfiniFrameWindow window = builder.Build();

The menu bar is serialized to JSON and passed to the native layer at window creation.

Menu Model Reference

InfiniFrameMenuBar

Property	Type	Description
Items	ImmutableArray<InfiniFrameMenuItem>	Top-level menu items

InfiniFrameMenuItem

Property	Type	Default	Description
Id	string	(required)	Unique identifier for programmatic access
Label	string?	null	Display text (required for Normal/Submenu)
Type	InfiniFrameMenuItemType	Normal	Item type
IsEnabled	bool	true	Whether the item can be interacted with
IsVisible	bool	true	Whether the item is visible
KeyboardShortcut	string?	null	Keyboard shortcut (e.g., "Ctrl+S")
Children	ImmutableArray<InfiniFrameMenuItem>	Empty	Child items for submenus

InfiniFrameMenuItemType

Value	Description
Normal	Standard clickable menu item
Separator	Visual separator between items
Submenu	Item containing child items

Runtime Operations

Once the window is created, you can modify menu items at runtime:

// Disable a menu item
window.Features.Menu.SetMenuItemEnabled("save", false);

// Hide a menu item
window.Features.Menu.SetMenuItemVisible("save", false);

// Send a click command
window.Features.Menu.ClickMenuItem("open");

// Replace the entire menu bar
window.Features.Menu.SetMenuBar(newInMenuBar);

Extension Methods

Fluent extension methods are available for method chaining:

window
    .SetMenuBar(newMenuBar)
    .SetMenuItemEnabled("save", false)
    .SetMenuItemVisible("sep", false)
    .ClickMenuItem("open");

Updating Nested Items

Enable/disable and visibility changes work recursively through submenu children:

// This finds "save" inside the "File" submenu
window.Features.Menu.SetMenuItemEnabled("save", false);

Platform Support

Feature	Windows	Linux	macOS
Menu bar at build time	✅	✅	✅
Runtime menu modification	✅	✅	✅
Keyboard shortcuts	✅	✅	✅
Submenus	✅	✅	✅
Separators	✅	✅	✅
Enable/disable items	✅	✅	✅
Show/hide items	✅	✅	✅
Native click commands	✅	✅	✅

note

Native menu rendering is handled by the platform adapters (Win32, GTK, macOS NSMenu). The managed API is available on all platforms; native rendering support is being implemented incrementally.

Migration from Photino

The Photino ecosystem has an open issue for native menu support (Photino.Native#44). InfiniFrame implements this as a first-class feature with the managed API.

If you were using a custom solution for menus in Photino, you can now use the built-in InfiniFrameMenuBar API:

// Before (Photino - manual approach)
// Custom JavaScript or native interop required

// After (InfiniFrame)
var menuBar = new InfiniFrameMenuBar(
    Items: ImmutableArray.Create(
        new InfiniFrameMenuItem("file", "File", InfiniFrameMenuItemType.Submenu,
            Children: ImmutableArray.Create(
                new InfiniFrameMenuItem("exit", "Exit")
            )
        )
    )
);
window.SetMenuBar(menuBar);