ConsoleMenu — Standard menu class

class consolemenu.ConsoleMenu(title=None, subtitle=None, screen=None, formatter=None, prologue_text=None, epilogue_text=None, clear_screen=True, show_exit_option=True, exit_option_text='Exit', exit_menu_char=None)

A class that displays a menu and allows the user to select an option.

Parameters:

• title (str) – The title of the menu, or a method reference that returns a string.
• subtitle (str) – The subtitle of the menu, or a method reference that returns a string.
• screen (consolemenu.screen.Screen) – The screen object associated with this menu.
• formatter (MenuFormatBuilder) – The MenuFormatBuilder instance used to format this menu.
• prologue_text (str) – Text or method reference to include in the “prologue” section of the menu.
• epilogue_text (str) – Text or method reference to include in the “epilogue” section of the menu.
• show_exit_option (bool) – Specifies whether this menu should show an exit item by default. Defaults to True. Can be overridden when the menu is started.
• exit_option_text (str) – Text for the Exit menu item. Defaults to ‘Exit’.
• exit_menu_char (str) – Character to use for exiting the menu. Defaults to None.
• clear_screen (bool) – Set to False to disable clearing of screen between menus

cls.currently_active_menu

Class variable that holds the currently active menu or None if no menu is currently active (e.g. when switching between menus)

Type:ConsoleMenu

items

The list of MenuItems that the menu will display

Type:list of MenuItem

parent

The parent of this menu

Type:ConsoleMenu

previous_active_menu

the previously active menu to be restored into the class’s currently active menu

Type:ConsoleMenu

current_option

The currently highlighted menu option

Type:int

selected_option

The option that the user has most recently selected

Type:int

current_item

The item corresponding to the menu option that is currently highlighted, or None.

Type:consolemenu.items.MenuItem

selected_item

The item in items that the user most recently selected, or None.

Type:consolemenu.items.MenuItem

start(show_exit_option=None)

Start the menu in a new thread and allow the user to interact with it. The thread is a daemon, so join() should be called if there’s a possibility that the main thread will exit before the menu is done

Parameters:show_exit_option (bool) – Specify whether the exit item should be shown, defaults to the value set in the constructor

join(timeout=None)

Should be called at some point after start() to block until the menu exits.

Parameters:timeout (Number) – How long to wait before timing out.

show(show_exit_option=None)

Calls start and then immediately joins.

Parameters:show_exit_option (bool) – Specify whether the exit item should be shown, defaults to the value set in the constructor

Item Management

append_item(item)

Add an item to the end of the menu before the exit item.

Parameters:item (MenuItem) – The item to be added.

add_exit()

Add the exit item if necessary. Used to make sure there aren’t multiple exit items.

Returns:True if item needed to be added, False otherwise. Return type:bool

remove_exit()

Remove the exit item if necessary. Used to make sure we only remove the exit item, not something else.

Returns:True if item needed to be removed, False otherwise. Return type:bool

User interaction

get_input()

Can be overridden to change the input method. Called in process_user_input()

Returns:the ordinal value of a single character Return type:int

process_user_input()

Gets the next single character and decides what to do with it

draw()

Refresh the screen and redraw the menu. Should be called whenever something changes that needs to be redrawn.

go_to(option)

Go to the option entered by the user as a number

Parameters:option (int) – the option to go to

go_up()

Go up one, wrap to end if necessary

go_down()

Go down one, wrap to beginning if necessary

select()

Select the current item and run it

exit()

Signal the menu to exit, then block until it’s done cleaning up

State management

is_alive()

Check whether the thread is stil alive.

Returns:True if the thread is still alive; False otherwise. Return type:bool

wait_for_start(timeout=None)

Block until the menu is started.

Parameters:timeout – How long to wait before timing out. Returns:False if timeout is given and operation times out, True otherwise. None before Python 2.7. Return type:bool

pause()

Temporarily pause the menu until resume is called.

resume()

Sets the currently active menu to this one and resumes it.

is_running()

Check if the menu has been started and is not paused.

Returns:True if the menu is started and hasn’t been paused; False otherwise. Return type:bool