How To Get The Index and Caption of a ActionClient ChildItem Added At RunTime

Question

This adds an ActionClientItem at runtime from a stringList:

var
  ActionClient: TActionClient;
  ChildItem: TActionClientItem;
if FileExists( ARecentFilesFilename ) then
begin
  ARecentFilesList.LoadFromFile( ARecentFilesFilename );
  // remove any duplicates
  RemoveDuplicates( ARecentFilesList );
  for i := 0 to ARecentFilesList.Count - 1 do
    begin
      Ribbon1.AddRecentItem( ARecentFilesList.Strings[ i ] );
      ActionClient := RibbonGroup1.ActionControls[ 1 ].ActionClient;
      ChildItem := ActionClient.Items.Add;
      ChildItem.Tag := i;
      ChildItem.Action := ActionOpenFileFromButton1;
      ChildItem.Caption := ARecentFilesList.Strings[ i ];
    end;
end;

This attempts to get the filename of the selected ActionClientItem but it fails.

procedure TMainForm.ActionOpenFileFromButton1Execute( Sender: TObject );
var
  ActionClient: TActionClient;
  ChildItem: TActionClientItem;
  AFilename: string;
  AIndex: integer;
begin
  ActionClient := RibbonGroup1.ActionControls[ 1 ].ActionClient;
  AIndex := ActionClient.Index;
  ChildItem := ActionClient.Items.ActionClients[ AIndex ];
  AFilename := ChildItem.Caption;
  OpenZipFileFromChildButton( AFilename );
end;

What am I doing wrong? Is there a different way do do this?

Answer 1

You can use the Sender to get access to the filename, but it's a TAction, so you need to have one action per recent file. Add them to your ActionManager and also keep a reference to them in a list.

edit

If you don't have a TActionManager on your form, drop one on there and associate it with the ribbon. Then, create say 10 actions, calling them RecentFileAction1, RecentFileAction2, etc. Then, in the form's OnCreate event handler, add them to your FRecentFileActions list:

TMainForm = class (TForm)

  //...

private
  FRecentFileActions: TList<TAction>;

  //...

end;


procedure TMainForm.FormCreate(ASender: TOject);
begin
  FRecentFileActions := TList<TAction>.Create;

  FRecentFileActions.Add(RecentFileAction1);
  FRecentFileActions.Add(RecentFileAction2);
  FRecentFileActions.Add(RecentFileAction3);
  // etc

  LoadRecentFilenames;
  RefreshActions;

end;

/edit

Then, change the caption on each action to the filename of the file.

procedure TMainForm.RefreshActions;
var
  i: integer;
begin
  for i := 0 to FRecentFileList.Count - 1 do
  begin     
    if i < FRecentFileActions.Count then
      FRecentFileActions[i].Caption := FRecentFileList[i];
  end;
end;

So, in the end, your event handler could look like this:

procedure TMainForm.ActionOpenFileFromButton1Execute( Sender: TObject );
var
  LAction: TAction;
begin
  LAction := Sender as TAction;
  OpenZipFileFromChildButton(LAction.Caption);
end;

N@