Suppose you'd like to be able to run a method of the calling form from within a command or procedure of a shortcut menu. You'd like a way to do this generically so you don't have to put any references to the runtime name of the form in the menu code.

One solution is to pass THISFORM as a parameter to the shortcut menu. You can accept a parameter in a menu by placing a PARAMETERS statement in the menu's Setup method. Use "PARAMETERS" instead of "LPARAMETERS" so that the parameter you pass will be visible to commands and procedures in the menu. Then, simply use the parameter, which is an object reference to the form, to call the desired method from within the menu.

Here's an example. Create a form called myForm. In its RightClick method put

DO myShortcutMenu.mpr WITH THISFORM

Add a custom method to myForm named SayHello, and in there use a wait window or a messagebox to say 'Hello'.

Now, create a shortcut menu named myShortcutMenu. In its Setup method put

PARAMETERS oCallingForm

Add a menu bar with whatever prompt you like, and in its command write

oCallingForm.SayHello()

That's all there is to it. If you're doing this outside of a project, don't forget to generate the menu code (myShortcutMenu.mpr) before running the form.

The parameter could be any object reference, of course. For example you could pass a reference to a business object instead of to the form itself, if that's where the desired method was located.