Quick Custom Menu Builder

[SkyFrontier]

Hello again.

Want to build entire custom menus with your favorite commands from within XYplorer?

...ever wanted to have a task specific set of tools at hand?

...all of this easy to handle, quick to deal with, fully customizable (ie, XY standard)?

Now you can!, dear user.

1. Download the code, open with notepad (or your favorite one for plain text), run it on XY > Scripting > Run Script...;

2. Choose you commands (tip: use Live Filter - even successive selections after filtering will be preserved!), click 'ok', choose your
favorite output method (with or without categories);

3. Done - copy the generated code and run it from wherever you want.

Tip 2: UDC is the best place for this, ie, create a UDC entry that loads the generated code (provided you saved it into XYS extension),
set an easy shortcut for it and when you need to edit the menu, you just need to do it - UDC remains the same, idem for shortcut.
Another method is to create an UDC entry for the attached .xys and run the generated code, ie, the custom menu from a CKS'ed
'Run Script Again'. This manner you wouldn't even have to edit a file anywhere - just run your quickly created, task-specific menu.

NOTE 1: Don (program's author) asked for Popular Commands & Settings
so he can build XY own button for this. This script may ease the process of gathering such info - so feel free to send your picked commands to this thread.
May be useful to him, I believe.

NOTE 2: This also can be the answer for the More Customized Context Menu-Don't Expand Items
thread.

As usual, feedback is welcome. Suggestions, enhancements, complaints. A little 'thank you' wouldn't hurt, either.

Best regards,

SkyF.

________
Pending:
1. live feed from XY so accurate data is retrieved, regarding current settings vs tips for CKS (anyone knows a method for obtaining this, via script?).
2. popupmenu() doesn't support icons for the moment, as far as I can see. Will update if/when this happens - a basic code is already waiting for this.

________
Changes:

v1.6, *coolest* edition (cheers, autocart!):
-*new temperature, fella!*: created menu immediately loaded! ÕÔ

-cheat sheet updated (647 -> 652 items)
-added "Load Menus Collection" to "load z_SF_QuickCustomMenuBuilder", which pulls all menus created so far (no accelerators)
-width of pick-up menu increased to 1000 pixels
-minor revision on messages and script presentation.

v1.4b, *this is savage flexibility* edition:
-*new logic, babe!*: TEMP MENUS concept! \o/

-cheat sheet updated (620 -> 647 items as of 15.40.0100); now displaying assigned hotkeys (if 'WITH categories' is chosen)
-new label naming technique for storage at '<xyscripts>\z_SF_QuickCustomMenuBuilder.txt'
-focus on livefilter box
-auto-sizing of window height.

v1.2: as suggested by user aurumdigitus, it writes a consolidated collection of all generated menus in the '<xyscripts>\z_SF_QuickCustomMenuBuilder.txt' file. Those menus can later have their captions renamed, allowing you to have specialized menus for different tasks with proper descriptions.

v1.1: fixes an issue reported by user Tejas.

Previous builds, unavailable:
QuickCustomMenuBuilder_v1_1.xys
(31.46 KiB) Downloaded 43 times
QuickCustomMenuBuilder.xys
(31.33 KiB) Downloaded 26 times

[tejas]

Hi Skyfrontier, excellent work ! just what i was searching for some time. Very useful , will give it more run.

Please just make one change: the thumbnail commands in output script are breaking because they get extra #1, #2, etc attached before the command id. i think its because the command description in main script has extra # in them apart from command id. I wish i knew regexp and scripting well to make the change in the script. I removed the #n manually from description and the script generated worked fine after that.

Thank you and keep up the good work

[SkyFrontier]

Please download v1.1.
Thanks for the info, tejas!
Glad it's useful.
Feel free to report any other issue or ask for features.

>re-upped. Sorry, in the middle of a movie session!

=)

[aurumdigitus]

@ SkyFrontier

For a multiplicity of reasons recommend that your scripts contain a block comment header similar to this:

/*
Script Name, Version
Date of this version
SkyFrontier
*/

As for QuickCustomMenuBuilder_v1_1.xys, a killer feature would be a way to concatenate individual pieces of code that it generates. Or maybe it could produce a "source code" type document that could later be reopened and edited further to produce the "object code", i.e. the XYS. Something to ruminate over.

[SkyFrontier]

Code: Select all

[b]...concatenate individual pieces of code that it generates...[/b]

You mean, auto-writing an XYS file at the end of the process? Easy.
I do understand as well that you're probably asking for a concatenation tool, like the Theme Set generator from the other thread. Easy, too, as it's just a matter of inserting captions on each Custom Menu and pointing to a collection of them so the Theme Set Gen does the magic.

Concerning the signature block, even I asked for similar thing in the past (couldn't locate the post, sorry) and I find myself in fault concerning this point. Ok - my next scripts will (probably) have it: script template creator in the making, already. Thanks for the suggestion.

Didn't get the last part of your post regarding 'source code edition': could you please try again? (All codes are already editable, the .xys is a plain text document and as far as I can see, I guess you already know it, don't you? That's what's confusing me...)

[aurumdigitus]

Didn't get the last part of your post regarding 'source code edition': could you please try again? (All codes are already editable, the .xys is a plain text document and as far as I can see, I guess you already know it, don't you? That's what's confusing me...)

Sorry that did not come out clearly. Many programs - e.g. ImgBurn - allow work in progress to be saved as a "Project" file. This file can then be opened later and modified as needed before doing a burn.

Say QuickCustomMenuBuilder_v1_1.xys has been invoked and has 25 checkmarks but I know there will some additions and deletions later. The script then can generate the XYS and or save the work as a Project. The core idea is to be able to open the Project make for example 4 adds and 2 subtracts and then generate the new XYS. This is far superior to starting each time from scratch.

[SkyFrontier]

Got it. Great concept, thanks for the idea. I'm off for some days, 1 or 2 weeks, but will do and upload asap.

[SkyFrontier]

@ SkyFrontier

For a multiplicity of reasons recommend that your scripts contain a block comment header similar to this:

/*
Script Name, Version
Date of this version
SkyFrontier
*/

As for QuickCustomMenuBuilder_v1_1.xys, a killer feature would be a way to concatenate individual pieces of code that it generates. Or maybe it could produce a "source code" type document that could later be reopened and edited further to produce the "object code", i.e. the XYS. Something to ruminate over.

All done. See if you like it.
Uploaded in the first post.
Direct download of QuickCustomMenuBuilder_v1_2.xys = http://www.xyplorer.com/xyfc/download/file.php?id=5019

as suggested by user aurumdigitus, it writes a consolidated collection of all generated menus in the '<xyscripts>\z_SF_QuickCustomMenuBuilder.txt' file. Those menus can later have their captions renamed, allowing you to have specialized menus for different tasks with proper descriptions. Want immediate access to it? Please pass this into the address bar:

Code: Select all

load readfile("<xyscripts>\z_SF_QuickCustomMenuBuilder.txt"), , s;

or use it as a CTB (Custom Toolbar Button).

Tip:
http://www.xyplorer.com/xyfc/download/file.php?id=4918
This link downloads the XYstylEZThemesTool_PlusHelpers_v1_2.zip (part of the XYstylEZ - Visual Themes for your XYplorer), which has the Themes Eraser Tool, that may help the edition of the '<xyscripts>\z_SF_QuickCustomMenuBuilder.txt' file.

I'm thinking on a way to make easier to edit each menu individually, but each time I do it, I also think that it would be faster and accurate creating another menu from scratch due to Live Filter power.

[SkyFrontier]

96 downloads for 1.2? Really? So I bring to you the 1.4b, the *this is savage flexibility* edition, which has

-*new logic, babe!*: TEMP MENUS concept! \o/

-cheat sheet updated (620 -> 647 items as of 15.40.0100); now displaying assigned hotkeys (if 'WITH categories' is chosen)
-new label naming technique for storage at '<xyscripts>\z_SF_QuickCustomMenuBuilder.txt'
-focus on livefilter box
-auto-sizing of window height

Basically, TEMP MENUS store the selected menu items into memory (= no more lame copy+paste into .xys or even enter it into any script running support! Yay!), getting them ready to immediate usage on next script executions. Created menus won't survive an XYplorer restart (with or without saving), but all are stored at '<xyscripts>\z_SF_QuickCustomMenuBuilder.txt'.

Hints:
-if smartly used, you can free precious CKSs for other usages...
-...specially if you get the most well-thought '<xyscripts>\z_SF_QuickCustomMenuBuilder.txt' entries and combine them into a '<xyscripts>\z_SF_QuickCustomMenuBuilder_PERM.xys', for instance.

__
Direct download: http://www.xyplorer.com/xyfc/download/file.php?id=7560
(or from the first post)

[eil]

marvelous script- thanks for making!

[autocart]

User-defined commands (by "User/Manage Commands ...") themselfs are not in the pick-commands-list.

[SkyFrontier]

marvelous script- thanks for making!

Glad you liked it, eil! Being interested in turning things easier and productive, this year I finally had time and inspiration to rethink my file management habits which were already benefited by XY own routines and script power. This one is very effective offering a smooth interaction with the GUI elements in an impossible way otherwise.

User-defined commands (by "User/Manage Commands ...") themselfs are not in the pick-commands-list.

Yeah, I really miss this one too.
The lack of a way to 'scriptically' retrieve all commands makes the script update-dependent, a con I hope one day I can fix.

KS.dat is cryptic, UDC.dat not enough. With current plans of splitting user and program settings I also have hopes that everything goes plain text thus making some obscure experiments possible.

Whatever comes first, I'm also eagerly waiting for UDC flexibility.

[SkyFrontier]

Updated (download on first post):

v1.6, *coolest* edition (cheers, autocart!):
-created menu immediately loaded!

-cheat sheet updated (647 -> 652 items)
-added "Load Menus Collection" to "load z_SF_QuickCustomMenuBuilder", which pulls all menus created so far (no accelerators)
-width of pick-up menu increased to 1000 pixels
-minor revision on messages and script presentation.