How can we add a menu in Adobe Illustrator CS3?

Question

Hi
I want to create a new menu in Adobe Illustrator menu structure, and I want to call another application through that menu. After hours of searching in web I came to know that  I have to work with Plugin programming. So I downloaded the adobe illustrator SDK CS3 and started the programming using Visual Studio .NET 2005 with the sample codes provided with the SDK. And I am still  not able to find out the any solution for adding a new menu. The problem is the the documentation provided with the sample code is too short, I am not able to understand the control flow , the functions used in the sample code.
please help me!
Sreejesh K V

Answer 1

Hi,
Thank you very much for your help
I am not clear about the following code.
extern AIErr addMenu( SPInterfaceMessage *message ) {
     AIErr error = kNoErr;
     // Add a menu item to the About SDK Plug-ins menu group.
     SDKAboutPluginsHelper aboutPluginsHelper;
     aboutPluginsHelper.AddAboutPluginsMenuItem(message,
                    kSDKDefAboutSDKCompanyPluginsGroupName,
                    ai::UnicodeString(kSDKDefAboutSDKCompanyPluginsGroupNameString),
                    "Adobe Plugin...",
                    &g->aboutPluginMenu);
     // Add other menus.
     AIMenuItemHandle          throwAwayAIMenu;
     AIPlatformAddMenuItemData throwAwayMenuData;
     AIMenuGroup                    throwAwayMenuGroup;
     char strBuffer[255];
     #define kMenuPlayMenuGroup     "Menu Play Group"
     #define kSDKMenuGroup     "SDK Group"
     // First we create a normal plug-in menu to use a hierarchical root                                   
     throwAwayMenuData.groupName = "Window Utilities";
     error = sADMBasic->GetIndexString(message->d.self, kMenuStringResID, 1, strBuffer, sizeof(strBuffer));
     if (error)
          goto error;
     throwAwayMenuData.itemText = SUctopstr ( strBuffer );
     error = sMenu->AddMenuItem( message->d.self, kSDKMenuGroup, &throwAwayMenuData,
                                        0, &throwAwayAIMenu );
     if ( error )
          goto error;
     // Now we declare the menu item a menu group
     sMenu->AddMenuGroupAsSubMenu( kSDKMenuGroup, 0, throwAwayAIMenu, &throwAwayMenuGroup );
     // Now we can add menu items to it.
     throwAwayMenuData.groupName = kSDKMenuGroup;
     *strBuffer = '\0';
     error = sADMBasic->GetIndexString(message->d.self, kMenuStringResID, 8, strBuffer, sizeof(strBuffer));
     if (error)
          goto error;
     throwAwayMenuData.itemText = SUctopstr ( strBuffer );     
     error = sMenu->AddMenuItem( message->d.self, "Auto Update 1", &throwAwayMenuData, 0,
                                        &throwAwayAIMenu );
     if ( error )
          goto error;          
     // enabled for paths and no masks in the selection
     error = sMenu->UpdateMenuItemAutomatically( throwAwayAIMenu, kAutoEnableMenuItemAction,
                    kIfPath | kIfGuide, kIfMask,
                    0, 0,
                    0, 0 );      // don't care about other update options
     if ( error )
          goto error;     
     sMenu->AddMenuGroupAsSubMenu( kMenuPlayMenuGroup, 0, throwAwayAIMenu, &throwAwayMenuGroup );
     throwAwayMenuData.groupName = kMenuPlayMenuGroup;
     *strBuffer = '\0';
     error = sADMBasic->GetIndexString(message->d.self, kMenuStringResID, 2, strBuffer, sizeof(strBuffer));
     if (error)
          goto error;
     throwAwayMenuData.itemText = SUctopstr ( strBuffer );     
     error = sMenu->AddMenuItem( message->d.self, "Menu Play", &throwAwayMenuData, 0,
                                        &throwAwayAIMenu );
     if ( error )
          goto error;          
     error = sMenu->UpdateMenuItemAutomatically( throwAwayAIMenu, kAutoEnableMenuItemAction,
                    0, 0,      // don't care about what's in artwork
                    kIfGroup, // is selected and
                    kIfTextPath,      // are not selected
                    0, 0 );      // don't care about other update options
     if ( error )
          goto error;     
     Can you give me the sample code to call the functions within the SDK API.
For example adding an url in the plugin menu, calling another application ( .exe).
I just tried to do myself but it ended in syntax error because I am not familiar
With the VC++ programming.
Thanks
Sreejesh k v