Binding action views to menu options

A MENU statement is a controller for user actions, defining action handlers triggered by action views. Actions views in the form file (i.e. toolbar buttons, topmenu items or push buttons) are bound to menu options by name. For example, if a MENU instruction defines ON ACTION sendmail, a form BUTTON with the name "sendmail" will be attached to that action handler.

When binding action views to menu option clauses, the action name is case sensitive. The compiler converts COMMAND labels and ON ACTION identifiers to lowercase to create the action name. It is recommended that you use all lowercase letters when defining the action name for action views and menu options.

Menu options can also be defined with the COMMAND clause. Unlike ON ACTION, the COMMAND clause takes a string literal as argument, that defines both the action name and the default text to be displayed in the default action view. For example, COMMAND "Help" will define the action name help and the default button text "Help". Action views must be bound with the action name in lower case (help).

When the menu is rendered as a pop-up of dialog box, no explicit action views need to be defined, default action views will be created and will get the decoration specified in action defaults.