MenuController

MenuController

The MenuController is the part of MenuAPI that actually runs: it draws every registered Menu, handles all controls, and keeps track of which menu is currently open.

You never create one yourself. It is a BaseScript that starts automatically as soon as MenuAPI.dll is loaded by your resource, and every member on it is static, so you always use it as MenuController.Something.

Its main job for you is registering menus (AddMenu(), AddSubmenu() and BindMenuItem()) and giving you a handful of global switches to control how menus behave.

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Example usage

using MenuAPI;

public class MyMenus : BaseScript
{
    public MyMenus()
    {
        // Global settings. These can be changed at any time.
        MenuController.MenuToggleKey = Control.PlayerMenu;

        // The first menu you register becomes MenuController.MainMenu, which is
        // the menu that opens when the user presses the toggle key.
        Menu menu = new Menu("Main Menu", "Subtitle");
        MenuController.AddMenu(menu);

        // Submenus.
        Menu submenu = new Menu("Submenu");
        MenuItem submenuButton = new MenuItem("Open the submenu")
        {
            RightIcon = MenuItem.Icon.ARROW_RIGHT
        };
        menu.AddMenuItem(submenuButton);
        MenuController.BindMenuItem(menu, submenu, submenuButton);
    }

    // Somewhere else in your resource:
    private void CloseEverything()
    {
        if (MenuController.IsAnyMenuOpen())
        {
            MenuController.CloseAllMenus();
        }
    }
}

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Properties

Note

RedM supports a smaller feature set than FiveM. Members that only exist in the FiveM build of MenuAPI are listed under FiveM only members.

All properties are static.

Property	Type	Default value	Description	Optional
MainMenu	Menu	Null	The menu that is opened when the user presses the menu toggle key. This is set automatically to the first menu you register, but you can change it at any time.	Yes
Menus	List<Menu>	(empty)	(Getter only) Every menu that has been registered with AddMenu() or AddSubmenu().	Yes
MenuToggleKey	Control	Control.PlayerMenu	The control that opens MainMenu. See The menu toggle key.	Yes
MenuToggleKeyIsValid	boolean	false	(Getter only) Whether the current MenuToggleKey is a control the game accepts. When this is false, the toggle key is ignored entirely. See The menu toggle key.	Yes
DisableMenuButtons	boolean	false	When true, all menu controls are ignored. The menu stays on screen, it just does not respond to input. Useful while you are doing something that should not be interrupted.	Yes
AreMenuButtonsEnabled	boolean	false	(Getter only) Whether menu controls are currently being processed. This is false when no menu is open, the pause menu is active, the screen is faded out, the player is dead, or DisableMenuButtons is true.	Yes
DontOpenAnyMenu	boolean	false	When true, menus stop being drawn and can not be opened. Menus with IgnoreDontOpenMenus set to true are excluded.	Yes
PreventExitingMenu	boolean	false	When true, the user can not close the menu with the back/cancel control. Submenus can still go back to their parent.	Yes
DisableBackButton	boolean	false	When true, the back/cancel control does nothing at all, not even in submenus.	Yes
NavigateMenuUsingArrows	boolean	true	When true, pressing left on an item that has no left/right behaviour goes back to the parent menu.	Yes
SetDrawOrder	boolean	true	Whether MenuAPI sets the script graphics draw order while drawing. Turn this off if the menu draws over (or under) your own UI in the wrong order.	Yes
EnableManualGCs	boolean	true	Whether MenuAPI triggers a manual garbage collect every 60 seconds while no menu is open. Turn this off if your resource manages GCs itself.	Yes
ScreenWidth	float	-	(Getter only) The width of the screen, scaled to a 1080p height. The RedM build assumes a fixed 16:9 aspect ratio.	Yes
ScreenHeight	float	1080f	(Getter only) The height of the screen. This is always 1080.	Yes

Caution

PreventExitingMenu should only be used for menus where the user really must not walk away halfway through. Always give them a button to close the menu themselves. Be nice to your users!

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Constants

Constant	Type	Value	Description
_texture_dict	string	“menu_textures”	The streamed texture dictionary used for the default menu sprites.
_header_texture	string	“translate_bg_1a”	The texture name used for the default menu banner.

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Methods

All methods are static.

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AddMenu(Menu menu)

Registers a menu with the controller. A menu is not drawn and does not respond to controls until it has been registered.

If MainMenu is still null, the menu you pass here becomes the main menu.

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
menu	Menu	The menu to register. Registering the same menu twice does nothing.

Return value

This function does not return anything.

Menu menu = new Menu("Main Menu", "Subtitle");
MenuController.AddMenu(menu);

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AddSubmenu(Menu parent, Menu child)

Registers child (if it was not registered yet) and sets its ParentMenu to parent. That parent/child relation is what makes the back/cancel control return to the previous menu.

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
parent	Menu	The menu that the child returns to.
child	Menu	The submenu.

Return value

This function does not return anything.

Note

AddSubmenu() only sets up the relation. To give the user a button that opens the submenu, use BindMenuItem() instead, which does both.

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BindMenuItem(Menu parentMenu, Menu childMenu, MenuItem menuItem)

Turns menuItem into a submenu button: pressing it closes parentMenu and opens childMenu. This also calls AddSubmenu() for you.

Binding the same item again replaces the menu it was bound to.

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
parentMenu	Menu	The menu that menuItem belongs to.
childMenu	Menu	The menu to open when the item is pressed.
menuItem	MenuItem	The item that opens the submenu.

Return value

This function does not return anything.

Menu menu = new Menu("Main Menu", "Subtitle");
MenuController.AddMenu(menu);

Menu submenu = new Menu("Submenu", "Secondary Menu");

MenuItem submenuButton = new MenuItem("Open submenu", "This opens the submenu.")
{
    RightIcon = MenuItem.Icon.ARROW_RIGHT
};
menu.AddMenuItem(submenuButton);

// Registers `submenu`, sets its parent, and binds the button to it.
MenuController.BindMenuItem(menu, submenu, submenuButton);

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GetCurrentMenu()

Returns the menu that is currently open.

Parameters

This function does not have any parameters.

Return value

Type	Description
Menu	The currently open menu, or null if no menu is open.

Menu current = MenuController.GetCurrentMenu();
if (current != null)
{
    Debug.WriteLine($"'{current.MenuTitle}' is open, on item {current.CurrentIndex}.");
}

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IsAnyMenuOpen()

Returns whether any menu is currently open.

Parameters

This function does not have any parameters.

Return value

Type	Description
boolean	True if at least one menu is open.

// Don't let the player attack while a menu is open.
if (MenuController.IsAnyMenuOpen())
{
    DisableControlAction(0, (uint)Control.Attack, true);
}

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CloseAllMenus()

Closes every open menu. Each closed menu triggers its own OnMenuClose event and disables its UI prompts.

MenuAPI also calls this automatically when your resource stops, so the UI prompts do not get stuck on screen.

Parameters

This function does not have any parameters.

Return value

This function does not return anything.

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The menu toggle key

MenuAPI handles all menu controls for you, including one control that opens MainMenu. By default that is Control.PlayerMenu.

Caution

The built-in toggle key currently does not work in RedM. The toggle key is only processed while MenuToggleKeyIsValid is true, and that check expects the small numeric control IDs that FiveM uses. RedM controls are 32-bit hashes, so no RedM control ever passes it.

Open your menu yourself instead — see the example below. Everything else (navigating, selecting, going back) works normally.

// Open the menu from your own command or key mapping.
RegisterCommand("mymenu", new Action<int, List<object>, string>((source, args, raw) =>
{
    if (!MenuController.IsAnyMenuOpen())
    {
        menu.OpenMenu();
    }
}), false);

• The toggle control is disabled every frame while MenuAPI is running, so the game’s own action for it does not also fire.
• MainMenu must not be null when the toggle key is used. If it is, an error is printed to the console and no menu opens.

Note

RedM’s CitizenFX.Core does not ship a Control enum, so MenuAPI provides its own. It is included in MenuAPI.dll under the usual CitizenFX.Core.Control name, so using CitizenFX.Core; is all you need to use it. Note that RedM controls are hashes (uint), so native calls need an explicit cast, e.g. DisableControlAction(0, (uint)Control.Attack, true).

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FiveM only members

These members are part of the FiveM build of MenuAPI and are not available (or have no effect) in RedM:

Member	Notes
MenuAlignment, MenuAlignmentOption	Right aligned menus are FiveM only, so neither the property nor the enum exists in the RedM build.
EnableMenuToggleKeyOnController	This property exists in the RedM build, but has no effect: RedM has no separate controller handling for the toggle key.