Getting NSMenuItem of NSMenu tree by title

Question

I have an NSMenu (let's say the Main Menu), with lots of NSMenus in it, and NSMenuItems at different levels.

I want to be able to get the NSMenuItem instance specifying the tree path (with the title of the corresponding NSMenus/NSMenuItems in it).

Example :

Menu :

• File
  • New
  • Open
    • Document
    • Project
  • Save
  • Save As...

Path : /File/Open/Document

How would you go about it, in the most efficient and Cocoa-friendly way?

Answer 1

I think that best way would be to obtain the NSMenuItem by specifying its title or, better, a custom defined tag.

#define kMenuFileNew 1
#define kMenuFileOpen 2

NSMenu *menu = [[NSMenu alloc] initWithTitle:@"File"];
NSMenuItem *item1 = [[NSMenuItem alloc] initWith..];
item1.tag = kMenuFileOpen;
[menu addItem:item1];


NSMenuItem* item2 = [menu itemWithTag:kMenuFileOpen];

Answer 2

So, here it is; solved by creating a Category on NSMenu, and using recursion.

Code :

- (NSMenuItem*)getItemWithPath:(NSString *)path
{
    NSArray* parts = [path componentsSeparatedByString:@"/"];
    NSMenuItem* currentItem = [self itemWithTitle:[parts objectAtIndex:0]];

    if ([parts count]==1)
    {
        return currentItem;
    }
    else
    {
        NSString* newPath = @"";

        for (int i=1; i<[parts count]; i++)
        {
            newPath = [newPath stringByAppendingString:[parts objectAtIndex:i]];
        }

        return [[currentItem submenu] getItemWithPath:newPath];
    }
}

Usage :

NSMenuItem* i = [mainMenu getItemWithPath:@"View/Layout"];