Action Contexts

\partOverview Application which has different views needs to manage it actions based on the currently active view; not all of the actions supported by the application might be relevant or applicable on all of the views.

Therefore Lomiri Action API provides action contexts; a context groups actions together and by providing multiple contexts the developer is able to control the visibility of the actions. The ActionManager then exposes the actions from these different contexts.

Each application has one global context; the actions in this context are always available. The application may have one or more additional local context of which only one can be active at a time. The ActionManager merges the global context and the active local context together; the actions available at any given time is the union of the global context and the active local context.

\partApplications with Single Context For applications that do not require multiple contexts using the API is straight forward as the ActionManager provides the global context automatically.

import QtQuick 2.0
import Lomiri.Action 1.0

Item {
    ActionManager {
        Action {
            id: globalAction
            text: "My Global Action"
        }
    }
}

globalAction is now added to the global context.

\partApplications with Multiple Contexts When multiple contexts are needed the developer creates suitable number of ActionContext objects, adds the actions to the contexts, adds the contexts to the manager and sets the active one.

Setting the active context must be managed by the developer. The can only be one active local context at a time.

import QtQuick 2.0
import Lomiri.Action 1.0

Item {
    ActionManager {
        localContexts: [ctx1, ctx2]
        Action {
            id:   globalAction
            text: "My Global Action"
        }
    }

    ActionContext {
        id: ctx1
        Action {
            id:   ctx1Action1
            text: "Context1, Action 1"
        }
        Action {
            id:   ctx1Action2
            text: "Context1, Action 2"
        }
    }

    ActionContext {
        id: ctx2
        Action {
            id:   ctx2Action1
            text: "Context2, Action 1"
        }
        Action {
            id:   ctx2Action2
            text: "Context2, Action 2"
        }
    }

    Component.onCompleted: {
        ctx2.active = true;
        // now the ActionManager has exported
        // globalAction, ctx2Action1 and ctx2Action2
    }
}