The files of this type are used in the application blocks implementing the generic user interface, such as the Web Client and the Desktop Client. These files define the main menu structure of the application.

XML schema is available at http://schemas.haulmont.com/cuba/6.1/menu.xsd

A set of menu.xml files, including the ones defined in base projects, is declared in the cuba.menuConfig application property. The file has the following structure:

menu-config – the root element.

Elements of menu-config form a tree structure:

  • menu – a folding menu containing menu items and other folding menus.

    menu attributes:

    • id – identifier of an element, used for name localization (see below).

    • insertBefore, insertAfter – determines whether the item should be inserted before or after a particular element or a menu item with specified identifier. This attribute is used to insert an element to an appropriate place in the menu defined in files of base projects. Before and after elements cannot be used at the same time.

      CUBA Studio supports insertBefore and insertAfter attributes only for the top-level menu elements. Therefore the Studio menu designer should not be used if such attributes were defined manually, as Studio will delete them.

      Menu elements:

    • menu

    • item – menu item (see below).

    • separator – separator.

  • item – menu item.

    item attributes:

    • id – identifier of an element, used for name localization (see below), and for linking to one of the UI screen elements registered in screens.xml file. When user clicks on a menu item, the corresponding screen will be opened in the main application window.

    • shortcut – a keyboard shortcut for this menu item. Possible modifiers – ALT, CTRL, SHIFT – are separated with “-”. For example:

      shortcut="ALT-C"
shortcut="ALT-CTRL-C"
shortcut="ALT-CTRL-SHIFT-C"

      Shortcuts can also be configured in application properties and then used in menu.xml file in the following way:

      shortcut="${sales.menu.customer}"

    • openType – screen open mode. The following modes are available: WindowManager.OpenType: NEW_TAB, THIS_TAB, DIALOG, NEW_WINDOW.

      Default value – NEW_TAB.

      NEW_WINDOW mode is only supported in the Desktop Client. For the Web Client it is equivalent to NEW_TAB mode.

    • insertBefore, insertAfter – determines whether the item should be inserted before or after a particular element or a menu item with specified identifier.

      Studio does not support insertBefore, insertAfter attributes for the item element. Therefore the Studio menu designer should not be used if such attributes were defined manually, as Studio will delete them.

    • resizable – only relevant to DIALOG screen open mode. Controls window resizing ability. Possible values − true, false.

      By default, the main menu does not affect the ability to resize dialog windows.

      item elements:

    • param – screen parameters passed to the controller’s init() method. The properties configured in menu.xml override the parameters set in screens.xml with the same name.

      param attributes:

      • name – parameter name.

      • value – parameter value. String value, may be converted to an arbitrary object according to the following rules:

        • If a string is an entity identifier, specified according to the rules of the EntityLoadInfo class, the system loads the specified entity instance.

        • If a string has the format ${some_name}, the value of the parameter will be set to the some_name application property.

        • Strings true and false are converted to the corresponding Boolean values.

        • Otherwise, the string itself becomes the parameter value.

    • permissions – an element defining a set of permissions required to make the menu item available to the current user. This mechanism should only be used when item availability should be tied to a specific permission, or to more than one arbitrary permissions. In most cases, the standard capabilities of the security subsystem should be sufficient to manage the menu item availability based on screen identifiers.

      The element should contain nested permission elements, each describing a single required permission. The menu item will only be accessible if all permissions are granted.

      permission attributes:

      • type – permission type. The following types are available for PermissionType: SCREEN, ENTITY_OP, ENTITY_ATTR, SPECIFIC, UI.

      • target – an object checked for permission. Depends on permission type:

        • SCREEN – screen identifier, for example sales$Customer.lookup.

        • ENTITY_OP – a string formatted as {entity_name}:{op}, where {op} – read, create, update, delete. For example: sales$Customer:create.

        • ENTITY_ATTR – a string formatted as {entity_name}:{attribute}, for example sales$Customer:name.

        • SPECIFIC – specific permission identifier, for example sales.runInvoicing.

        • UI – path to a visual component of a screen.

Example of a menu file:

<menu-config xmlns="http://schemas.haulmont.com/cuba/menu.xsd">

  <menu id="sales" insertBefore="administration">
      <item id="sales$Customer.lookup"/>
      <separator/>
      <item id="sales$Order.lookup"/>
  </menu>

</menu-config>

A localized name of a menu element is defined the following way: the menu-config prefix with a dot at the end is added to the element identifier; the resulting string is used as a key for the main message pack. For example:

menu-config.sales=Sales
menu-config.sales$Customer.lookup=Customers