About Different Use Cases for NativeMenu

[gebodal]

Hello all,

Slightly as a follow-up to this question, I was hoping someone could elaborate on the different uses of NativeMenu in Avalonia apps as of 10.x/11 - as it seems things have moved on a bit since some of the answers I could find were written.

What exactly are the rules for including a NativeMenu in an application? (I'm interested specifically in desktop apps, and I'm assuming that's pretty much the limit of the NativeMenu...?)

More specifically:

1. I've seen references to it in both App.axaml and MainWindow.axaml (or equivalents), included under <NativeMenu.Menu> as a child of <Application> and <Window>, respectively. Are these still appropriate locations?
2. What is the difference between putting the NativeMenu in the <Application> versus the <Window>?
3. Can different windows have different NativeMenu objects in their AXAML? How does this relate to the main "application" drop-down menu seen on MacOS (i.e. the one that is usually boldfaced containing the application name)?
4. I've also seen NativeMenu used under <TrayIcon.Menu> in <Application>. What operating systems does this work with? Can this also be used with <Window>? Will this cause the menu to only appear as a context menu of the tray icon, or will it also appear in the system bar (as for MacOS)?
5. For the main system bar (i.e. MacOS top bar), how do we determine if it is being shown to the user? The use case I'm imagining here is: I have a Menu with the standard "File"/"Edit"/"View" etc in my MainWindow.axaml, the structure of which is mimicked in a NativeMenu (placed somewhere, as above). Only one of these menus should be visible on the application, so what do I bind the IsEnabled/IsVisible properties of the Window's Menu to? I'm assuming it's somehow related to IsNativeMenuExportedProperty?
6. As a follow-up, are there any good practices for having a Menu/NativeMenu mimic each other in terms of content, so they don't have to be maintained separately? I could imagine writing a script to convert a Menu into a NativeMenu (throwing away icons and the like), but is this a good approach?
7. (Following follow-up) Do NativeMenuItem objects support ItemsSource equivalents for dynamically adjusting content?
8. Are there any other standard locations for <NativeMenu>?
9. Are there any other standard uses for <NativeMenu>?

(The docs could possibly do with improving in this area, as they don't discuss what kinds of controls NativeMenu can be included with, other than that it can be placed inside a tray icon.)

Any wisdom on the matter is much appreciated.

[nesteruk]

NativeMenu is one of the most cryptic things in avalonia