Search Menu

• Jul 01, 2019
• 2 minutes to read

The ribbon can display a search box that allows a user to find a bar item by its caption.

To display the search box, set the ShowSearchItem property to true.

Bar Items in the Menu

Bar items are found by their captions and search tags. If you want a specific bar item not to appear in the search menu, set its VisibleInSearchMenu property to false.

C#

using DevExpress.XtraBars;

BarButtonItem closeButton = new BarButtonItem();
closeButton.Caption = "Close";
closeButton.SearchTags = "Quit, Exit";
closeButton.ItemClick += CloseButton_ItemClick;
ribbonControl1.Items.Add(closeButton);
ribbonPageGroup1.ItemLinks.Add(closeButton);

private void CloseButton_ItemClick(object sender, ItemClickEventArgs e) {
    this.Close();
}

VB.NET

Imports DevExpress.XtraBars

Dim closeButton As New BarButtonItem()
closeButton.Caption = "Close"
closeButton.SearchTags = "Quit, Exit"
AddHandler closeButton.ItemClick, AddressOf CloseButton_ItemClick
ribbonControl1.Items.Add(closeButton)
ribbonPageGroup1.ItemLinks.Add(closeButton)

Private Sub CloseButton_ItemClick(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As ItemClickEventArgs)
    Me.Close()
End Sub

Customize the Menu

The CustomizeSearchMenu event fires when the query in the search box changes, and allows you to customize the menu. The following properties provide information specific to this event:

• SearchString - gets the search query;
• Menu - gets the search menu (see PopupMenu).

The code below shows how to add a custom button to the menu.

C#

using DevExpress.XtraBars;

ribbonControl1.CustomizeSearchMenu += RibbonControl1_CustomizeSearchMenu;

BarButtonItem shareButton;
BarButtonItem ShareButton {
    get {
        if (shareButton == null) {
            BarButtonItem shareButton = new BarButtonItem();
            shareButton.Caption = "Share";
            shareButton.ItemClick += (s, e) => MessageBox.Show("Share");
            shareButton.Manager = ribbonControl1.Manager;
            this.shareButton = shareButton;
        }
        return shareButton;
    }
}
private void ribbonControl1_CustomizeSearchMenu(object sender, DevExpress.XtraBars.Ribbon.RibbonSearchMenuEventArgs e) {
    e.Menu.AddItem(ShareButton);
}

VB.NET

Imports DevExpress.XtraBars

Private shareButton1 As BarButtonItem
Private ReadOnly Property ShareButton() As BarButtonItem
    Get
        If shareButton1 Is Nothing Then
            Dim share As New BarButtonItem()
            share.Caption = "Share"
            AddHandler share.ItemClick, Sub(s, e) MessageBox.Show("Share")
            shareButton1.Manager = ribbonControl1.Manager
            Me.shareButton1 = share
        End If
        Return shareButton1
    End Get
End Property
Private Sub ribbonControl1_CustomizeSearchMenu(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As DevExpress.XtraBars.Ribbon.RibbonSearchMenuEventArgs) _
    Handles ribbonControl1.CustomizeSearchMenu
    e.Menu.AddItem(ShareButton)
End Sub