Introduction to the Analysis Menu

Menu Entries

The generic format for menu entries is:

   <command name> [ # tip <tooltip>]
   <template>
   menu
   <command>

• <command name> - the name that appears in the menu entry.
• <tooltip> (optional) - the tool tip for the entry; this option may not work properly in ds9. A tool tip is the message that appears when the mouse hovers over the menu item for a short time.
• <template> - the file format for which the menu item is active (e.g. *, *.fits, *.txt).
• menu - specifies that the entry is a menu item. ds9 also has a bind option here which is not supported by the CIAO GUIs.
• <command> - the command to execute, including any supported macro expansions.

To illustrate, look at the first entry in the default ciao.ans file:

unix% more $ASCDS_INSTALL/bin/ciao.ans
# ciao.ans   - Analysis Menu Definition file for CIAO 3

Edit Parameter File #tip Parameter editor GUI (peg)
*
menu
peg "$entry(Parameter file name)" infile=$filename | $null

---

..cut..

This entry creates a menu item titled "Edit Parameter File" with the tool tip "Parameter editor GUI (peg)". This option is available for all filetypes (*). The command that is executed uses three macros: $entry(<text>), $filename, and $null; see the next section for an explanation of what the macros do.

The three dashes (---) after the entry create a separator in the menu; see the Submenus and Separators section.

The resulting menu item is shown in Figure 1 .

Macros

When command-line macros are used in a menu entry, they are expanded before the command is executed. The following macros may be used in the analysis menu:

Submenus and Separators

There are two ways to add organization to the analysis menu: nested submenus and separators.

• Submenus

  Menu items may be places in submenus which can be nested up to ten deep. The menu format is:

  hmenu <name> [# tip <tooltip>] 
  
   ..(menu contents)..
  
  endhmenu
  

  • <name> - text to appear in the menu.
  • <tooltip> (optional) - text for the tool tip.

  Note that indentation is not important and that hmenu/endhmenu pairs can appear within a hmenu section. The ciao.ans file has several examples of this syntax in use:

  unix% more $ASCDS_INSTALL/bin/ciao.ans
  ..cut..
  
  # start "Tools" menu
    hmenu Tools - alphabetical # tip Complete list of CIAO tools
     hmenu A-C
        acis_detect_afterglow  # tip Identify and flag cosmic ray afterglows
        *.fits *.qp
        menu 
        peg acis_detect_afterglow infile=$filename | $null
  
        (rest of A-C tools listed)
  
     endhmenu
     hmenu D
        peg acis_detect_afterglow infile=$filename | $null
  
        (D tools listed)
  
     endhmenu
     hmenu E-Z
  
        (E-Z tools listed)
  
     endhmenu
    endhmenu
  # end "Tools" menu
  
  ..cut..
  

  Figure 1  shows the "Tools - alphabetical" menu and the three submenus - "A-C", "D", and "E-Z" - which were created with the syntax shown.

• Separators

  A separator is a dividing line in the menu. It is created by starting an empty line with three consecutive dashes (---):

  unix% more $ASCDS_INSTALL/bin/ciao.ans
  # ciao.ans   - Analysis Menu Definition file for CIAO 3
  
  Edit Parameter File #tip Parameter editor GUI (peg)
  *
  menu
  peg "$entry(Parameter file name)" infile=$filename | $null
  
  ---
  
  hmenu GUI Applications #tip Launch a GUI application  
     ds9  # tip Imaging GUI
  
  ..cut..
  

  A separator is created between the "Edit Parameter File" item and the "GUI Applications" menu, as shown in Figure 1 .

Help

It is also possible to create menu items that bring up a help dialog box. The syntax is straightforward:

help <help label>
  <helptext>
endhelp

• help label - the label for the menu entry.
• helptext - the text to be displayed in the dialog box. The text can extend over multiple lines.

To create a help item for Timing Analysis:

help Timing Analysis (help)
  Before creating a phase-binned spectrum,
  be sure to barycenter correct the data.

  Tool to use: axbary
  Files needed: level 2 event; ephemeris
endhelp

When this item is chosen from the newly-created Analysis menu (see Loading the New File), this dialog box  is launched. Clicking "OK" dismisses it.