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Menu item enable hack?

To: REALbasic NUG <realbasic-nug@lists.realsoftware.com>
Subject: Menu item enable hack?
From: Steve Upton <upton@chromix.com>
Date: Fri, 29 May 2009 14:07:00 -0700
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Hi All,

I am wondering if there's a solution to a problem I'm facing. This is all in 
Mac OS X

It's a bit odd, but i assure you it's not a nasty hack.

We have an app that runs "headless". That is, in OS X, it doesn't have a menu 
bar or an icon in the Dock. It does have "normal" "document" window and other 
UI elements that appear when needed.

We also have a "companion app" that runs alongside the headless app. It is a 
normal application with a menu bar, dock icon, etc.

The problem is that we want the companion app to bring the headless app and its 
window to the "front" and yet still have its menu items enabled. So, to 
describe it in detail, the frontmost app will be the headless one. It will have 
a window open that we want to appear to be (and act) active. The companion app 
will be immediately behind the headless app (having been the frontmost and just 
brought the headless app frontmost). As the headless app has no menu bar, the 
companion apps bar appears at the top of the screen, which is good. 
Unfortunately the menu items are disabled.

I find that some apps, like the RB IDE, have their menu items active even 
though they are not technically the frontmost app. Others do not.

I have tried the typical menu enabling things but it didn't work. I have looked 
into carbon events a bit (using MBS) but I'm not sure it will work.

Should I try to create my menu items on the fly rather than in the IDE. Will my 
own menu item subclasses offer me more options in this regard?

thanks for any suggestions you might have

Steve


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