Recommended approach for simple Menu in a plug-in?

1

Just looking for input before I dive down the wrong road here. If you wanted to create a simple popup menu for preferences settings (i.e. a list of items inside a single PopupMenu component) in a plug-in, would you use:

  1. MenuBarComponent
  2. A PopUpMenu controlled by a Button
  3. Something else?

To be clear, this isn’t an instance where ComboBox is the right choice, because it’s a settings/preferences kind of menu.

In short, I’m wondering if it’s worth it to bring in the higher level MenuBar stuff for this, or easier to just link up a PopUpMenu with a Button to trigger showing the popup.

2

I’m partial to having a “settings” button (usually ImageButton or DrawableButton with a gear logo) that opens an new component as an overlay if the settings are relatively complex. Or if it’s a tabbed GUI, to have a “settings” tab.

Menu diving for preferences in a popup or menu bar is inappropriate for a plugin imo. It makes feature discovery difficult.

3

Yes I agree with you - the simple popup wouldn’t be for accessing Processor features, it would be license admin stuff, view the manual, check for updates, etc. Probably more “actions” rather than “preferences”, come to think of it.

4

With latest juce there’s lots of lambda capabilities so whether it’s a menu or just popup you can easily do many things without too much boilerplate.

5

Right… lambda allows easy access to whatever method you want to call, without setting up a Listener. Got it.

Still wondering about that choice between “menu or just popup”.