Ribbon Creator – 14: Access Ribbons From a Different AddIn - RevitNetAddinWizard & NavisworksNetAddinWizard

We have introduced how to create various ribbon types using RevitAddinWizard in some early posts. Now let’s recap something important besides the convenience brought about by the friendly User Interface of the wizard. A good naming convention is necessary and critical for successful ribbon creations; otherwise it may become very difficult or even impossible to access those ribbons or update them.

Since the wizard follows such a good practise when creating ribbons it becomes somewhat straightforward to access them even if from a different addin. Of course there will be still some work but with the assistance of some technologies such as LINQ things are pretty manageable.
Let’s take the comprehensive ribbon we introduced previously for example. With the following code called from another AddIn other than the one which created the comprehensive ribbon:

        class ProItem
        {
            public bool SlideOut { get; set; }
            public string Container { get; set; }
            public string GroupID { get; set; }
            public int Index { get; set; }
            public RibbonItem Item { get; set; }
        }

        string GetGroupID(string name)
        {
            string id = name.Substring(name.IndexOf("cnt"), name.IndexOf("grp") - name.IndexOf("cnt") + 4);
            if(id[4] < '0' || id[4] >'9')
                id = id.Insert(3, "0");
            if (id[id.Length - 2] < '0' || id[id.Length - 2] > '9')
                id = id.Insert(id.Length - 1, "0");
            return id;
        }

        int GetIndex(string name)
        {
            if (name.Contains("item"))
                return int.Parse(name.Substring(name.IndexOf("item")+4));
            return 0;
        }

        void WriteItemMembers(StreamWriter sw, RibbonItem item)
        {
            List<RibbonItem> members = null;
            switch (item.ItemType)
            {
                case RibbonItemType.PulldownButton:
                    members = (item as PulldownButton).GetItems().Select(e => e as RibbonItem).ToList();
                    break;
                case RibbonItemType.RadioButtonGroup:
                    members = (item as RadioButtonGroup).GetItems().Select(e => e as RibbonItem).ToList();
                    break;
                case RibbonItemType.ComboBox:
                    members = (item as Autodesk.Revit.UI.ComboBox).GetItems().Select(e => e as RibbonItem).ToList();
                    break;
                case RibbonItemType.SplitButton:
                    members = (item as SplitButton).GetItems().Select(e => e as RibbonItem).ToList();
                    break;
                default:
                    return;
            }

            foreach (RibbonItem mem in members)
            {
                sw.WriteLine(string.Format("\t\t\tMember: {0} ({1})", mem.ItemType, mem.ItemText));
            }
        }

        public Result Execute(ExternalCommandData cmdData, ref string msg, ElementSet elemSet)
        {
            _cachedCmdData = cmdData;

            try
            {
                List<RibbonPanel> allAddinPanels = CachedUiApp.GetRibbonPanels();
                RibbonPanel panel = allAddinPanels.FirstOrDefault(p => p.Name.Equals("ABC_APP3_PNL2"));
                if (panel != null)
                {
                    var names = from item in panel.GetItems() select item.Name;
                    var items = from item in panel.GetItems()
                        select new ProItem
                        {
                            Item = item,
                            SlideOut = item.Name.StartsWith("SlideOut_"),
                            Container = item.Name.Contains("Stacked_") ? "Stacked" : "Panel",
                            GroupID = GetGroupID(item.Name),
                            Index = GetIndex(item.Name)
                        };

                    var groups = from itm in items orderby itm.SlideOut group itm by itm.SlideOut into g1
                        select new
                    {
                        SlideOut = g1.Key,
                        Containers = from o in g1 orderby o.Container group o by o.Container into g2
                            select new
                            {
                                Container = g2.Key,
                                Groups = from c in g2 orderby c.GroupID group c by c.GroupID into g3
                                select new
                                {
                                    Group = g3.Key,
                                    Items = g3
                                }
                            }
                    };

                    using (StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter(@"c:\ribbons.txt"))
                    {
                        foreach (var slideout in groups)
                        {
                            sw.WriteLine(string.Format("SlideOut: {0}", slideout.SlideOut));
                            foreach (var container in slideout.Containers)
                            {
                                sw.WriteLine(string.Format("\tContainer: {0}", container.Container));
                                foreach (var group in container.Groups)
                                {
                                    foreach (var item in group.Items)
                                    {
                                        sw.WriteLine(string.Format("\t\tItem: {0} ({1})", item.Item.ItemType, item.Item.ItemText));
                                        WriteItemMembers(sw, item.Item);
                                    }
                                }
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }

                return Result.Succeeded;
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                msg = ex.ToString();
                return Result.Failed;
            }
        }

all necessary information about the ribbons can be retrieved back including whether in a SlideOut or not, whether Stacked or not, which groups they belong to, and what members they have. More importantly, the items and groups can appear in the same order as they are created.
The resultant text file has been appended below:

SlideOut: False
Container: Panel
  Item: PushButton (PushButton1)
  Item: PushButton (PushButton2)
  Item: RadioButtonGroup ()
   Member: ToggleButton (ToggleButton1)
   Member: ToggleButton (ToggleButton2)
  Item: SplitButton (98172aef-4ffa-4043-b95e-05845c662653)
   Member: PushButton (PushButton3)
   Member: PushButton (PushButton4)
Container: Stacked
  Item: PushButton (PushButton5)
  Item: PushButton (PushButton6)
  Item: PulldownButton (PulldownButton1)
   Member: PushButton (PushButton7)
   Member: PushButton (PushButton8)
  Item: TextBox ()
  Item: TextBox ()
  Item: ComboBox (ComboBox1)
   Member: ComboBoxMember (ComboBoxMember1)
   Member: ComboBoxMember (ComboBoxMember2)
   Member: ComboBoxMember (ComboBoxMember3)
SlideOut: True
Container: Panel
  Item: PushButton (PushButton9)
  Item: PushButton (PushButton10)
  Item: PushButton (PushButton11)
  Item: PulldownButton (PulldownButton2)
   Member: PushButton (PushButton12)
   Member: PushButton (PushButton13)
  Item: SplitButton (de315e6d-dafd-440a-bc29-fe8cfb1b65d5)
   Member: PushButton (PushButton14)
   Member: PushButton (PushButton15)
   Member: PushButton (PushButton16)
  Item: PushButton (PushButton17)
  Item: TextBox ()
  Item: ComboBox (ComboBox2)
   Member: ComboBoxMember (ComboBoxMember4)
   Member: ComboBoxMember (ComboboxMember5)