Tip: How to Create Submenus on the NetBeans Platform

This tip shows the way I usually create an action for a NetBeans Platform application and then include it into a submenu.

1. Create a new module, then use the Action wizard to create my DemoAction.
   

   

2. The first panel asks for the type of Action, I leave Always Enabled selected. In the next panels, I fill the forms with all required data, as shown below:
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. Nothing new, as you can see. And then let's tweak the layer.xml file entries that were created by the wizard shown above. This is what was generated:

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
   <!DOCTYPE
    filesystem PUBLIC "-//NetBeans//DTD Filesystem 1.2//EN" 
   "http://www.netbeans.org/dtds/filesystem-1_2.dtd">
   <filesystem>
      <folder name="Actions">
           <folder name="Edit">
               <file name="org-casaburo-submenuDemo-DemoAction.instance">
                  <attr name="delegate" newvalue="org.casaburo.submenuDemo.DemoAction"/>
                  <attr name="displayName" bundlevalue="org.casaburo.submenuDemo.Bundle#CTL_DemoAction"/>
                  <attr name="iconBase" stringvalue="org/casaburo/submenuDemo/add.png"/>
                  <attr name="instanceCreate" methodvalue="org.openide.awt.Actions.alwaysEnabled"/>
                  <attr name="noIconInMenu" boolvalue="false"/>
              </file>
           </folder>
      </folder>
      <folder name="Menu">
           <folder name="Edit">
               <file name="org-casaburo-submenuDemo-DemoAction.shadow">
                   <attr name="originalFile" stringvalue="Actions/Edit/org-casaburo-submenuDemo-DemoAction.instance"/>
                   <attr name="position" intvalue="100"/>
               </file>
           </folder>
       </folder>
       <folder name="Toolbars">
           <folder name="File">
               <file name="org-casaburo-submenuDemo-DemoAction.shadow">
                   <attr name="originalFile" stringvalue="Actions/Edit/org-casaburo-submenuDemo-DemoAction.instance"/>
                   <attr name="position" intvalue="0"/>
               </file>
           </folder>
       </folder>
   </filesystem>

    

   Now, let's say I want to place my Demo Action menu item under "My Submenu". I modify the layer.xml as below (notice the lines 20 to 25 below):

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
   
   <!DOCTYPE filesystem PUBLIC "-//NetBeans//DTD Filesystem 1.2//EN" 
   "http://www.netbeans.org/dtds/filesystem-1_2.dtd">
   
   <filesystem>
       <folder name="Actions">
           <folder name="Edit">
               <file name="org-casaburo-submenuDemo-DemoAction.instance">
                   <attr name="delegate" newvalue="org.casaburo.submenuDemo.DemoAction"/>
                   <attr name="displayName" bundlevalue="org.casaburo.submenuDemo.Bundle#CTL_DemoAction"/>
                   <attr name="iconBase" stringvalue="org/casaburo/submenuDemo/add.png"/>
                   <attr name="instanceCreate" methodvalue="org.openide.awt.Actions.alwaysEnabled"/>
                   <attr name="noIconInMenu" boolvalue="false"/>
               </file>
           </folder>
       </folder>
       <folder name="Menu">
           <folder name="Edit">
             <folder name="My Submenu">
               <file name="org-casaburo-submenuDemo-DemoAction.shadow">
                   <attr name="originalFile" stringvalue="Actions/Edit/org-casaburo-submenuDemo-DemoAction.instance"/>
                   <attr name="position" intvalue="100"/>
               </file>
             </folder>
           </folder>
       </folder>
       <folder name="Toolbars">
           <folder name="File">
               <file name="org-casaburo-submenuDemo-DemoAction.shadow">
                   <attr name="originalFile" stringvalue="Actions/Edit/org-casaburo-submenuDemo-DemoAction.instance"/>
                   <attr name="position" intvalue="0"/>
               </file>
           </folder>
       </folder>
   </filesystem>

   And this is the result:

   

   That's all!