Chapter 10 Customizing PowerDesigner Menus Using Add-Ins

Introducing Customizable Menus and Add-In Types

PowerDesigner add-ins allow you to customize PowerDesigner menus by adding your own menu items.

Customizable menus

You can customize the following menus:

All contextual menus of objects that are accessible from the Browser or from a symbol in the diagram
Main menus of each module from each diagram type (i.e. Import, Export, Reverse, Tools, Help)

Types of menu items

You can add the following menu items:

Commands that call a method script defined using scripting
Submenus that are cascading menus that appear under a menu item
Separators that are lines used to organize commands in menus

Available add-ins

An add-in is a module that adds a specific feature or service to PowerDesigner standard behavior. You can use the following add-ins to create menu items in PowerDesigner:

Customized commands mechanism
Resource file (XEM, XOL, XDB, XSL or XPL)
ActiveX
XML file

For more information on the use of resource files to create custom commands and custom popup menus, see "Defining menus in a profile" in the "Managing Profiles" chapter in the Advanced User Documentation .