ContextMenu

The ContextMenu command can be used to:

Display a list of the context menu commands that are available for selected files, and
Trigger a context menu command for selected files without needing to first display the context menu (so you can, for example, configure a button or hotkey to execute a command that is normally only available from the context menu)

The first step in using the ContextMenu command is to select the file (or a file of the type) in question and use the SHOWCMDS argument to view the available context menu commands. The easiest way to do this (unless you want to set up a button dedicated to this) is to use the find-as-you-type field in Command mode.

ContextMenu via fayt.png

Opus will display a dialog containing a list of the available context menu commands. Context menu commands have an ID number and some may also have a "verb" - a plain text string that you can use to invoke the command. If a command has a verb displayed you should use this in preference to the ID, as it's possible for the ID number to change if additional context menu extensions are installed.

ContextMenu cmds.png

You can see from this example that the Restore previous versions command has a verb (PreviousVersions) whereas the Show Versions command only has an ID.

Once you know what the verb or ID is for the command you want to automate, you can configure your button or hotkey with the appropriate ContextMenu command.

Command Arguments:

Argument	Type	Possible values	Description
CTRL	/S	(no value)	When invoking a context menu command, tells the command handler to act as if the Ctrl key is held down. What difference this makes (if any) is up to the handler. Example: ContextMenu CTRL VERB delete
EXTENDEDVERBS	/S	(no value)	Enables support for extended verbs. These are context menu commands that are normally only displayed when the Shift key is held down. Example: ContextMenu SHOWCMDS EXTENDEDVERBS If you use this while invoking a command, you will probably also want to specify the SHIFT argument. Example: ContextMenu EXTENDEDVERBS SHIFT VERB delete
FILE	/K/M	<filename>, ...	Specify the file or files to operate on. If not specified the command will operate on all currently selected files. You can use this to execute commands on non-filesystem items, for example the Recycle Bin. To do this requires knowing the item's GUID, which unfortunately is beyond the scope of this help file - but as an example, the GUID for the Recycle Bin is {645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}. The following command will execute the "empty" verb on the Recycle Bin, causing it to empty. Example: ContextMenu FILE=::{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E} VERB=empty
ID	/K/N	<command ID>	Specify the ID of the context menu command to execute. You should use an item's verb or label (in that order, if it has either) in preference to its ID, because the ID may change (with the old ID potentially representing a completely different action) when you add or remove software, or even each time the menu is used. Example: ContextMenu ITEMMODE ID=79
ITEMMODE	/S	(no value)	(Windows Vista and above. Has no effect on Windows XP.) Specify ITEMMODE when you wish to list or invoke context menu commands in the same way as when a file or folder is right-clicked. Do not specify ITEMMODE if you wish to list or run commands which only appear when you right-click the background of a folder window. The exact difference (if any) that ITEMMODE makes is up to the invidual command handlers. As with the EXTENDEDVERBS argument, some handlers will filter their menu items in or out depending on the mode. Typically, ITEMMODE will either be required or will make no difference; it is only off by default for backward-compatibility reasons (to avoid breaking existing commands which invoke items from the folder background menu). Example: ContextMenu ITEMMODE VERB PreviousVersions
LABEL	/K	<label>	Specify the label of the context menu command to execute. It is better to specify the command's verb, using the VERB argument, instead of its label, but not all commands have verbs. (Not all commands have labels, either. Context menu handlers which draw their own items may not provide the labels in a form which Opus can read.) Labels, unlike verbs, are typically language-dependent and may change between versions of software or when different files are selected. Using the label is still preferable to using the ID, however. You can use the REGEXP or WILD arguments if you need to match the label using a pattern, which is most often needed when the label includes part of the selected filename. When searching for the label in a menu with sub-menus, Opus will check all of the top-level items first, then the items directly below the top-level sub-menus, then any items nested three levels deep, and so on. Example: ContextMenu ITEMMODE LABEL "Quarantine file"
LOOKUP	/S	(no value)	Use in conjunction with the VERB argument to make Opus lookup the verb's ID on-the-fly instead of simply passing the verb name to the command handler. You should not normally have to do this but some context menu handlers have bugs that prevent them from doing the lookup themselves. Example: ContextMenu WANTSYNC ITEMMODE LOOKUP VERB PickLinkSource FILE "C:\Template Folder"
REGEXP	/S	(no value)	Used in conjunction with the LABEL argument to specify that the label string is a regular expression. Example: *ContextMenu ITEMMODE REGEXP LABEL "Add to .\.zip."*
SHIFT	/S	(no value)	When invoking a context menu command, tells the command handler to act as if the Shift key is held down. What difference this makes (if any) is up to the handler. If you use this then you'll probably also want to use EXTENDEDVERBS as holding down the shift key also normally causes the extended verbs to be shown, and the menu handler may expect both to be used together. Example: ContextMenu SHIFT EXTENDEDVERBS VERB delete
SHOWCMDS	/S	(no value)	Displays a list of context menu commands for the selected files. Depending on the context menu handlers installed on your system, the list of commands you get back may differ based on the EXTENDEDVERBS and ITEMMODE arguments; if you use either of them when finding a command then you should do the same when running that command. Example: ContextMenu SHOWCMDS ITEMMODE
VERB	default	<verb>	Specify the verb of the context menu command to execute. This is the default argument for the ContextMenu command, so the keyword VERB does not need to be specified. Example: ContextMenu PreviousVersions Example: ContextMenu ITEMMODE VERB SevenZipCompressEmail
WANTSYNC	/S	(no value)	Requests that the context menu command be run synchronously. In other words, any other commands should wait until the context menu command has completed, instead of running in parallel. This is just a request and the context menu handler may ignore it. Similarly, context menu handlers may choose to run things synchronously even when this argument is not specified. Example: ContextMenu WANTSYNC ITEMMODE LOOKUP VERB DropHardLinkClone FILE {sourcepath$}
WILD	/S	(no value)	Used in conjunction with the LABEL argument to specify that the label string is a wildcard expression. Example: *ContextMenu ITEMMODE WILD LABEL "Add to .zip"*