Could I use a Vector ADT class or a string array for creating a menu?

[antialberteinstein]

Hi @ArthurSonzogni,

I hope this message finds you well. I’m currently using your FTXUI library to develop a terminal UI for my project at university (Project By Learning 2), which strictly requires the use of C++ and abstract data types (ADTs) for the terminal interface.

I noticed that the Menu only accepts std::vector<std::string>, specifically in the function Menu(std::vector<std::string>, int&, ftxui::MenuOption). I would like to know if it’s possible to use a custom ADT class in place of std::vector, or if there’s a workaround to achieve this functionality with the text(std::string) method.

Thank you very much for your assistance. I appreciate your help!

Best regards,
Nhat Nguyen

[ArthurSonzogni]

Hello @antialberteinstein

using your FTXUI library to develop a terminal UI for my project at university (Project By Learning 2)

Cool! I would love to see the results ;-) Feel free to share it when you are done.

I would like to know if it’s possible to use a custom ADT class in place

You have two options:

1. The Menu is implemented using public APIs, so you should be able to copy-paste the implementation to make it your own.
2. In the latests versions of FTXUI, you can implement a ConstStringListRef::Adapter, and pass it to the MenuOption::entries.

  auto menu = Menu({
      .entries = Adapter::From(&entries),
      .selected = &selected,
  });

Full example:

// Copyright 2020 Arthur Sonzogni. All rights reserved.
// Use of this source code is governed by the MIT license that can be found in
// the LICENSE file.
#include <functional>  // for function
#include <iostream>  // for basic_ostream::operator<<, operator<<, endl, basic_ostream, basic_ostream<>::__ostream_type, cout, ostream
#include <string>    // for string, basic_string, allocator
#include <vector>    // for vector

#include "ftxui/component/captured_mouse.hpp"      // for ftxui
#include "ftxui/component/component.hpp"           // for Menu
#include "ftxui/component/component_options.hpp"   // for MenuOption
#include "ftxui/component/screen_interactive.hpp"  // for ScreenInteractive

// Bring your own adapter:
class Adapter : public ftxui::ConstStringListRef::Adapter {
 public:
  static std::unique_ptr<Adapter> From(std::vector<std::string>* entries) {
    return std::make_unique<Adapter>(entries);
  }
  explicit Adapter(std::vector<std::string>* entries) : entries_(entries) {}
  ~Adapter() final = default;
  size_t size() const final { return entries_->size(); }
  std::string operator[](size_t i) const final { return entries_->at(i); }

 private:
  std::vector<std::string>* entries_;
};

int main() {
  using namespace ftxui;
  auto screen = ScreenInteractive::TerminalOutput();

  std::vector<std::string> entries = {
      "entry 1",
      "entry 2",
      "entry 3",
  };

  int selected = 0;

  MenuOption menu_option = {
      .entries = Adapter::From(&entries),
      .selected = &selected,
  };

  auto menu = Menu(menu_option);

  screen.Loop(menu);

  std::cout << "Selected element = " << selected << std::endl;
}