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Bar

BarSubItem Class

A sub-menu that contains other bar items (including child sub-menus).

Namespace: DevExpress.XtraBars

Assembly: DevExpress.XtraBars.v24.1.dll

NuGet Package: DevExpress.Win.Navigation

Declaration

public class BarSubItem :
    BarLinkContainerItem

The following members return BarSubItem objects:

Remarks

The BarSubItem is a sub-menu that can contain other items: buttons, editors, sub-menus, etc.

Sub-Menu that Contains Another Sub-Menu

Use the following properties to show or hide sub-menu side areas:

If the sub-menu’s owner bar is the form’s main menu (see MainMenu), the sub-menu button does not display the drop-down arrow. Set the AllowDrawArrow property to True to display the drop-down arrow.

See Bar Item Links for more information.

Important

If you create a bar item in code, associate the bar item with the BarManager or RibbonControl. Use the constructor with the BarManager parameter. To display the bar item within the Ribbon Control, pass the RibbonControl.Manager object as the BarManager parameter.

Example

The following code shows how to create bars and bar items in code.

In the example two bars are created - a main menu (a bar that is stretched to match the form’s width), and a regular bar. The main menu will contain three sub-menus (File, Edit and View), each having its own bar items. The second bar will display the Output button, which is also available via the View submenu of the first bar:

BarManager_CreateBars_ex

Bars are added to the BarManager.Bars collection. Bar items are added to bars via the Bar.AddItem and Bar.AddItems methods.

To avoid flickering while adding and customizing bars and bar items, the code that performs the customization is enclosed with the BarManager.BeginUpdate and BarManager.EndUpdate method calls.

To respond to clicking bar items, the BarManager.ItemClick event is handled.

using DevExpress.XtraBars;

private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e) {
    BarManager barManager = new BarManager();
    barManager.Form = this;
    // Prevent excessive updates while adding and customizing bars and bar items.
    // The BeginUpdate must match the EndUpdate method.
    barManager.BeginUpdate();
    // Create two bars and dock them to the top of the form.
    // Bar1 - is a main menu, which is stretched to match the form's width.
    // Bar2 - is a regular bar.
    Bar bar1 = new Bar(barManager, "My MainMenu");
    Bar bar2 = new Bar(barManager, "My Bar");
    bar1.DockStyle = BarDockStyle.Top;
    bar2.DockStyle = BarDockStyle.Top;
    // Position the bar1 above the bar2
    bar1.DockRow = 0;
    // The bar1 must act as the main menu.
    barManager.MainMenu = bar1;

    // Create bar items for the bar1 and bar2
    BarSubItem subMenuFile = new BarSubItem(barManager, "File");
    BarSubItem subMenuEdit = new BarSubItem(barManager, "Edit");
    BarSubItem subMenuView = new BarSubItem(barManager, "View");

    BarButtonItem buttonOpen = new BarButtonItem(barManager, "Open");
    BarButtonItem buttonExit = new BarButtonItem(barManager, "Exit");
    BarButtonItem buttonCopy = new BarButtonItem(barManager, "Copy");
    BarButtonItem buttonCut = new BarButtonItem(barManager, "Cut");
    BarButtonItem buttonViewOutput = new BarButtonItem(barManager, "Output");

    subMenuFile.AddItems(new BarItem[] { buttonOpen, buttonExit});
    subMenuEdit.AddItems(new BarItem[] { buttonCopy, buttonCut});
    subMenuView.AddItem(buttonViewOutput);

    //Add the sub-menus to the bar1
    bar1.AddItems(new BarItem[] {subMenuFile, subMenuEdit, subMenuView });

    // Add the buttonViewOutput to the bar2.
    bar2.AddItem(buttonViewOutput);

    // A handler to process clicks on bar items
    barManager.ItemClick += new ItemClickEventHandler(barManager_ItemClick);     

    barManager.EndUpdate();
}

void barManager_ItemClick(object sender, ItemClickEventArgs e) {
    BarSubItem subMenu = e.Item as BarSubItem;
    if (subMenu != null) return;
    MessageBox.Show("Item '" + e.Item.Caption + "' has been clicked");
}
See Also