How to add Dropdown Menus

Dropdown Menus

In order to implemented dropdown menus, use the new <menu> and <option> elements. The <menu> element defines where the dropdown menu will show up in the ui, whereas the XML elements determine what menu options it has and what if anything those options actually do:

<menu x="10" y="40" width="120" height="30" value="2">
  <option name="Menu Option 1">
    <!-- Turn on this group -->
    <binding type="general" level="group" position="0" parameter="ENABLED" 
    translation="fixed_value" translationValue="true" />
    <!-- Turn off this group -->
    <binding type="general" level="group" position="1" parameter="ENABLED" 
    translation="fixed_value" translationValue="false" />
  </option>
  <option name="Menu Option 2">
    <!-- Turn off this group -->
    <binding type="general" level="group" position="0" parameter="ENABLED" 
    translation="fixed_value" translationValue="false" />
    <!-- Turn on this group -->
    <binding type="general" level="group" position="1" parameter="ENABLED" 
    translation="fixed_value" translationValue="true" />
  </option>
</menu>

In this example, a menu is being used to switch between two groups (the first menu option turns group 0 on and group 1 off; the section option turns group 0 off and group 1 on). Full documentation for the new <menu> and <option> elements is here.

The new fixed_value translation type

You’ll note, in the example above, there’s something new in the bindings: the four bindings elements have a translation parameter of type fixed_value. This is a new translation type. Up until now, binding translation has strictly been about taking an input parameter (such as a knob value or continuous controller amount) and translating it so that it is useful for some other purpose (it’s our way of being able to do a little bit of math without having a full-blown scripting language). This new fixed_value binding is different. It ignores the input value completely and instead provides whatever is specified in the translationValue parameter. In this way, each menu option can have hardcoded values that it provides its bindings when it is selected.