External Program Custom Menu Sample

This page describe how to create a custom menu that starts another program. It is possible to pass values from the window where you run the custom menu as parameters to the external program.

Define the Custom Menu

  1. Open the page Solution Manager/User Interface/Custom Objects/New Custom Menu..
  2. Enter the window where you will use the custom menu.
  3. Enter the menu title. This is the text that will be shown in the pop-up menu.
  4. Set Action Type to External Program.
  5. In the Action Parameter pane enter the name of the program to start. It is possible to use values from the window where you run the custom menu, and context substitution variables as parameters to the program. The section How to use form data in parameters explains how to use values as parameters.

    Note: The program to start from the custom menu must be located in a folder that exists in your system PATH.
    If not, please specify the full path of the program to execute. (As illustrated in Figure 01 below)
    If an additional program parameter needs to be given, it should be in the following format. (As illustrated in Figure 02 below
    <"Program Path"><space><"Parameter">
    E.g. "C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Adobe\\Reader 10.0\\Reader\\AcroRd32.exe" "D:\\Learning Materials\\Scrum\\aep_sample.pdf"

    If the parameter is a text without whitespaces or special characters, the quotation marks can be omitted.
    E.g. "C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Adobe\\Reader 10.0\\Reader\\AcroRd32.exe" aep_sample.pdf
    Generally, text enclosed within quotation marks will be considered as single parameter.

    6. Figure 01: Defining Full Program Path

    Figure 02: Defining Full Program Path with Additional Parameter

  6. Enter the presentation object to control security for the custom menu. If you do not want to use security you do not enter a presentation object.
  7. Press the Save button to save the custom menu.

Note: If the custom menu is added to an overview (table) window, to make it enable, user must invoke context menu by clicking on top of a record.