CNS Menu 1.0.6 review

CNS Menu allows you to place hierarchal menus anywhere on a FileMaker layout.

License: Demo OS: Mac OS X File size: 3611K Developer: Comm-Unity Networking Systems Buy Now Price: $65.00 Updated: 20 Jul 2006

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CNS Menu allows you to place hierarchal menus anywhere on a FileMaker layout. When a menu item is chosen, the script of your choice in the database of your choice is performed. Menus can have any number of sub menus and can be displayed with a variety of styles and bullet marks. Creating menus with CNS Menu is as easy as handing the plug-in a return delimited string of menu items to display. Your menu items can have a display name, and a value that can be used in your scripts, so the end user can see useful information such as a customer name while the value can be a Customer ID number.

CNS Menu ships with the "CNS Menu.fp7" example database which includes 15 examples demonstrating ways to use and understand the CNS Menu plug-in. The database is fully unlocked so you can explore every detail. We have also included the documentation for each example inline, so you can both examine the example and see its explanation all from one layout. Examples include, QuickMenu, Menu Placement, MenuBuilder, Value List to QuickMenu, Hidden Items, Menu Decoration, Mouse Grabber, Right Click, Data Entry, Layout Navigation, Update Menu Item, Bookmark Example, External XML Menu, and RSS Menu.

CNS Menu has many advantages over its predecessor, SCRIPTit including MenuBuilder in the configuration dialog which allows you to quickly build new menus without having to know XML.

You can then simply use menus built in MenuBuilder in your database, or copy the XML which is generated for you. CNS Menu also includes a brand new way to create menus called "QuickMenus". A QuickMenu takes a return seperated list of items and creates a menu for you without having to know or use any XML.

Here are some key features of "CNS Menu":
Dynamically create popup menus.
Easily convert return delimited items such as value lists, layout names, and more, into QuickMenus.
Add styles to menu items such as bold, underline, italic, and any combination of those.
Add bullets to your menu items including check marks, circular bullets, and diamonds.
Pass script parameters through menus to your scripts.
Enable and disable menu items on the fly.
Update menu items dynamically.
Precisely display menus using left, top, align, and minWidth.
Use the built in MenuBuilder to quickly build XML menus - without having to learn XML.
Use modifier keys to display alternate menu items including Shift, Control, Command, and Option.
Get mouse coordinates with the CNSMenu_GetMouseCoordinates function.
Get the mouse button number clicked with the CNSMenu_GetMouseButton function.
Simple data entry by allowing a user to find items quickly through sub menus.
Display a user friendly menu item, but pass a value such as a Customer ID to your scripts.
Load an XML menu from your hard drive.

Limitations:
The demo version of CNS Menu will display a splash screen every fifteen minutes that you use.

What's New:
Compiled as a Universal Binary plug-in to work on both PPC-based and Intel-based Macs.
Added FailDB and FailScript parameters to Menus to allow a script to be called if the user clicks off a menu without selecting anything.

Requirements:
FileMaker 7.x or later.