Dev:ActionMenu

From The Apple Wiki
ActionMenu
Cydia Package
Package IDactionmenu
Latest Version1.2.14


ActionMenu is an extension that adds extra options to the menu that pops up when you select text or tap-and-hold an item (such as an image or a table cell).

Developers can integrate with it (by making a plugin) to add their own custom options to these menus.

How to use this library

Headers are available from ActionMenu.h. If using Theos, place the headers in $THEOS/include/ActionMenu.

The project type should be a library.

Include directive

#import <ActionMenu/ActionMenu.h>

Makefile

Add to your Makefile:

  • actionmenu to the XXX_LIBRARIES variable.
  • /Library/ActionMenu/Plugins to the XXX_INSTALL_PATH variable.
  • Foundation UIKit CoreGraphics to the XXX_FRAMEWORKS variable.

Packaging

Add to your package's control file:

  • , mobilesubstrate (>= 0.9.5000), firmware (>= 3.0), preferenceloader (>= 2.2.2), cydia (>= 1.1.1), com.rpetrich.rocketbootstrap (>= 1.0.3) | firmware (<< 7.0) to the Depends field.

Creating an Action Menu Plugin

We implement a category of the UIResponder class which will be loaded by Action Menu. Action Menu also provides us with easy methods to register our new UIMenuController item.

AMExample.h

We will first create our header file which will not have more than the category interface:

@interface UIResponder (MyAwesomePlugin) //create our Category
- (BOOL)canPerformAction; //(we will check here if the selected text is longer than 0 characters)
- (void)performMyAction; //this method will do the actual 'work' of our Plugin
@end

AMExample.m

We are going to implement the methods and then our category in the .m implementation file.

We can use the NSObject's +(void)load method (which will be executed earlier than any other method) to initialize and create our UIMenuController item.

#import "AMExample.h"

@implementation UIResponder (MyAwesomePlugin)

+ (void)load {
	/*
	This will call Action Menu's registerAction:title:canPerform method 
	which is Action Menu's extension to UIMenuController
	*/

	[[UIMenuController sharedMenuController] registerAction:@selector(performMyAction) 
	                                                  title:@"Example" 
	                                             canPerform:@selector(canPerformAction)];
}

@end

Now we have to implement the canPerformAction and performMyAction method. The canPerformAction checks for the length of the selected text and checks wether it is 0 or higher. It can only perform (return TRUE) if the selected text is longer than 0 characters.

Now we have to implement the canPerformAction and performMyAction method to complete this plugin:

- (BOOL)canPerformAction {
	//returns TRUE if the selected text is longer than 0 characters
	return [[self selectedTextualRepresentation] length] > 0;
}

And in our performMyAction method we show an UIAlertView:

- (void)performMyAction {
	//get the selected text
	NSString *selection = [self selectedTextualRepresentation];

	UIAlertView *av = [[UIAlertView alloc] initWithTitle:@"Selected Text" 
	                                              message:selection delegate:nil 
	                                    cancelButtonTitle:@"Okay" otherButtonTitles:nil];
	[av show]; //shows the alert
	[av release]; //releases the object to avoid memory leaks
}

To sum it up, +(void)load registers our Action Menu Item to be shown in the UIMenuController, - (BOOL)canPerformAction checks if there is any selected text, and - (void)performMyAction will run our code when the menu item is selected.

This is everything you need to know for your first Action Menu Plugin. All you need to do is change the actions that take place in the performMyAction method and you can customize your plugin.

External links