Main Menu

You have two different options when creating menus. One is to simply add items to the default menu available in every template. The other is to create a custom menu that pops up when needed. You can find more information about these popups in the Popup Menus and Keyboards section.

Menu Template

Note

Every template has a main menu button. The position of this button varies between templates and cannot be removed from the template. Some OEMs may format certain templates to not display the main menu button if you have no menu items (such as the navigation map view).

Adding Menu Items

The best way to create and update your menu is to the use the Screen Manager API. The screen manager contains two menu related properties: menu, and voiceCommands. Setting an array of MenuCells into the menu property will automatically set and update your menu and submenus, while setting an array of VoiceCommands into the voiceCommands property allows you to use "hidden" menu items that only contain voice recognition data. The user can then use the IVI system's voice engine to activate this command even though it will not be displayed within the main menu.

To find out more information on how to create voiceCommands see the related documentation.

// Create the menu cell
MenuCell cell = new MenuCell("Cell text", null, Collections.singletonList("cell text"), new MenuSelectionListener() {
    @Override
    public void onTriggered(TriggerSource trigger) {
        // Menu item was selected, check the `triggerSource` to know if the user used touch or voice to activate it
        // <#Handle the Cell's Selection#>
    }
});

sdlManager.getScreenManager().setMenu(Collections.singletonList(cell));

Adding Submenus

Adding a submenu is as simple as adding subcells to a SdlMenuCell. The submenu is automatically displayed when selected by the user. Currently menus only support one layer of subcells.

// Create the inner menu cell
MenuCell innerCell = new MenuCell("inner menu cell", null, Collections.singletonList("inner menu cell"), new MenuSelectionListener() {
    @Override
    public void onTriggered(TriggerSource trigger) {
        // Menu item was selected, check the `triggerSource` to know if the user used touch or voice to activate it
        // <#Handle the cell's selection#>
    }
});

// Create and set the submenu cell
MenuCell cell = new MenuCell("cell", null, Collections.singletonList(innerCell));

sdlManager.getScreenManager().setMenu(Collections.singletonList(cell));

Artworks

Artworks will be automatically handled when using the screen manager API. First, a "non-artwork" menu will be displayed, then, when the artworks have finished uploading, the "artwork-ified" menu will be displayed. If you are doing this manually with RPCs, you will have to upload artworks using the file manager yourself and send the correct menu when they are ready.

Deleting and Changing Menu Items

The screen manager will intelligently handle deletions for you. If you want to show new menu items, simply set a new array of menu cells. If you want to have a blank menu, set an empty array. On supported systems, the library will calculate the optimal adds / deletes to create the new menu. If the system doesn't support this sort of dynamic updating, the entire list will be removed and re-added.

If you are doing this manually, you must use the DeleteCommand and DeleteSubMenu RPCs, passing the cmdIDs you wish to delete.

Using RPCs

The AddCommand RPC can be used to add items to the root menu or to a submenu. Each AddCommand RPC must be sent with a unique id, a voice-recognition command, and a set of menu parameters. The menu parameters include the menu name, the position of the item in the menu, and the id of the menu item’s parent. If the menu item is being added to the root menu, then the parent id is 0. If it is being added to a submenu, then the parent id is the submenu’s id.

To create a submenu using RPCs, you must use a AddSubMenu RPC with a unique id. When a response is received from the SDL Core, check if the submenu was added successfully. If it was, send an AddCommand RPC for each item in the submenu.