First Use of Custom Menus

[SteveB]

I started playing with Filemaker's Menu Control, and so far as I can tell, it has a major default: It adds to the first menu that you create for the current file 2 entries...an Exit and a Help entry. The Exit stupidly causes FM to close, and I haven't found a way around this. That means a user could leave a solution inadventently, or in mid-task (say before validation). Stupid, genuinely stupid.

[SlimJim]

I don't think that is a default action. I just created a menu set in a sample file which I defined to contain only the standard scripts menu. When I set it it showed me the scripts menu (together with the tools menu)and there were no exit and help items.

[SteveB]

Start with a new Menu Set, and I think you'll find that they've added 'Exit' to the first menu when you run it. Since it doesn't show up when you're defining the Menu Set, it would require a hack to remove it (both illegal and difficult).

Steve

[SlimJim]

You're right - how annoying. What I said is correct but essentially useless. It seems the only way you can get rid of Exit is to run a subset of the Standard Menus and nothing else.

[QuinTech]

You're kidding!?!?! I should've known better than to get my hopes up...

Just tried it for the first time, and I was able to make a menu without Help, but not so for Exit. What a drag. I wonder if you can still disable it with a plugin?

Wondering about the motive behind this, maybe FMI was afraid that too many developers would forget to include an Exit option. I also wonder if that would have made the Quit ("x") button inoperable ... if so, that could have been a problem. However, I would prefer they give us that control and trust us to design correctly, rather than making the decision for us.

Well, since we need an Exit option anyhow, maybe we just have to write an appropriate On-Exit script?

Someone once said, quite wisely, that FM developers are people who are used to creating workarounds.

[SteveB]

Unfortunately, we'll wind up with Exits on every menu that we create which is totally useless for a controlled runtime. I emailed Dacon's Menu Control and Secure Menu, and was told by both that their existing plugins won't work with v8 and they could not provide a time frame for a version 8.

Since my solution was designed to work with Dacons Menu Control, I'm up a creek. Thanks, Filemaker. What a half-baked design! It proves what I've always said and thought about them...they don't give a damm what developers think, need or want.

Steve

Edited September 7, 2005 by Guest

[Fenton]

Just a question, from a Mac perspective (if anyone reading has Advanced on a Mac). Is it really an "Exit", as in "quit application," or is just a "close all windows"?, which does much the same thing on Windows, but not on a Mac.

[rogermax]

What am I missing here? I just did a little test file, created a single menu (scripts) and then bound it as a runtime. It opened with only the scripts menu, no exit item or anything else.

===

Edit: Ok I see it now. If you start with anything custom, then the first menu will get the Exit (quit app) command. Bogus.

Edited September 8, 2005 by Guest
further knowledge gained

[SteveB]

Roger:

Did the menu in the runtime also have 'Toolbars' as the last menu?

Steve

[rogermax]

Steve, The Toolbar menu did not show. Referencing a discussion at Devcon, in FMAdvanced the Tools menu will always show, but when opened in runtime or FM8, it is gone. My test was a bit flawed because the Scripts menu is not a customizable menu, that is why the Exit command did not show. The FM documentation p27 states that on Windows the Exit command will always show in the first modifiable menu. On MacOS the Quit command will appear.

[SteveB]

So, it's basically useless since it can't be removed.

Steve

Edited September 9, 2005 by Guest