Automating a wxPython main menu setup?

I am trying to find a way to condense and automate the construction of a main menu (underneath the title bar, with file, edit, help, etc.) in wxPython.

Writing out each and every menu item is direct, but I notice I repeat myself a lot, between Appending, sorting IDs, etc. Followed by other unique pits like if I want to add an icon to a specific menu, or if I have submenus and they may have submenus, etc. Without one consistent way to itemize everything, simply by adding information to maybe a list or dictionary, or a combo of the two, my wx.Frame object will get very dense.

I can't see a clean an organized way of doing that, short of a 3-dimensional array. And even then, I don't know how to organize that 3D array uniformly so every item is ready to go.

Here is what I have so far (pardon any indentation errors; it works fine on me):

class frameMain(wx.Frame):
    """The main application frame."""
    def __init__(self,
                 parent=None,
                 id=-1,
                 title='TITLE',
                 pos=wx.DefaultPosition,
                 size=wx.Size(550, 400),
                 style=wx.DEFAULT_FRAME_STYLE):
        """Initialize the Main frame structure."""
        wx.Frame.__init__(self, parent, id, title, pos, size, style)
        self.Center()
        self.CreateStatusBar()

        self.buildMainMenu()

    def buildMainMenu(self):
        """Creates the main menu at the top of the screen."""
        MainMenu = wx.MenuBar()

        # Establish menu item IDs.
        menuID_File = ['exit']
        menuID_Help = ['about']
        menuID_ALL = [menuID_File,
                      menuID_Help]

        # Make a dictionary of the menu item IDs.
        self.menuID = {}
        for eachmenu in menuID_ALL:
            for eachitem in eachmenu:
                self.menuID[eachitem] = wx.NewId()

        # Create the menus.
        MM_File = wx.Menu()
        FILE = {}
        MM_File.AppendSeparator()
        FILE['exit'] = MM_File.Append(self.menuID['exit'],
                                      'Exit',
                                      'Exit application.')
        self.Bind(wx.EVT_MENU, self.onExit, FILE['exit'])
        MainMenu.Append(MM_File, 'File')

        MM_Help = wx.Menu()
        HELP = {}
        MM_Help.AppendSeparator()
        HELP['about'] = MM_Help.Append(self.menuID['about'],
                                       'About',
                                       'About the application.')
        self.Bind(wx.EVT_MENU, self.onAbout, HELP['about'])
        MainMenu.Append(MM_Help, 'Help')

        # Install the Main Menu.
        self.SetMenuBar(MainMenu)

I tried using the list-to-dictionary thing to make it so I don't need a specific index number when referring to an ID, just write in a keyword and it gets the ID. I write it once, and it's applied across the rest of the function.

Notice how I have to make a whole new variable and repeat itself, like MM_File, MM_Edit, MM_Help, and each time I do I put in similar information to append and bind. And keep in mind, some of the menus may need Separators, or have menus in menus, or I may want to use a sprite next to any of these menu items, so I'm trying to figure how to organize my arrays to do that.

What is the appropriate way to organize this into a concise system so it doesn't bloat this class?

Solution

There are several approaches you can take with this. You can put the menu generation code into a helper function if you like. Something like this should work:

def menu_helper(self, menu, menu_id, name, help, handler, sep=True):
    menu_obj = wx.Menu()
    if sep:
        menu_obj.AppendSeparator()
    menu_item = menu_obj.Append(menu_id, name, help)
    self.Bind(wx.EVT_MENU, handler, menu_item)
    self.MainMenu.Append(menu_obj, menu)

Here's a complete example:

import wx

class frameMain(wx.Frame):
    """The main application frame."""
    def __init__(self,
                 parent=None,
                 id=-1,
                 title='TITLE',
                 pos=wx.DefaultPosition,
                 size=wx.Size(550, 400),
                 style=wx.DEFAULT_FRAME_STYLE):
        """Initialize the Main frame structure."""
        wx.Frame.__init__(self, parent, id, title, pos, size, style)
        self.Center()
        self.CreateStatusBar()

        self.buildMainMenu()

    def buildMainMenu(self):
        """Creates the main menu at the top of the screen."""
        self.MainMenu = wx.MenuBar()

        # Establish menu item IDs.
        menuID_File = 'exit'
        menuID_Help = 'about'
        menuID_ALL = [menuID_File,
                      menuID_Help]

        # Make a dictionary of the menu item IDs.
        self.menuID = {item: wx.NewId() for item in menuID_ALL}


        # Create the menus.

        self.menu_helper('File', self.menuID['exit'], 'Exit',
                         'Exit application', self.onExit)


        self.menu_helper('Help', self.menuID['about'], 'About',
                         'About the application.', self.onAbout)

        # Install the Main Menu.
        self.SetMenuBar(self.MainMenu)

    def menu_helper(self, menu, menu_id, name, help, handler, sep=True):
        """
        """
        menu_obj = wx.Menu()
        if sep:
            menu_obj.AppendSeparator()
        menu_item = menu_obj.Append(menu_id, name, help)
        self.Bind(wx.EVT_MENU, handler, menu_item)
        self.MainMenu.Append(menu_obj, menu)

    #----------------------------------------------------------------------
    def onExit(self, event):
        pass

    def onAbout(self, event):
        pass

if __name__ == '__main__':
    app = wx.App(False)
    frame = frameMain()
    frame.Show()
    app.MainLoop()

Or you could create a class that handles all the menu creation. You could also create a config file that has all this information in it that you read to create your menu. Another alternative would be to use XRC, although I personally find that a bit limiting.