RecentChooser is an interface that can be
      implemented by widgets displaying the list of recently used files.
      gtkmm provides four built-in implementations for choosing recent files:
      RecentChooserWidget,
      RecentChooserDialog,
      RecentChooserMenu, and
      RecentAction.
    
      RecentChooserWidget is a simple widget for
      displaying a list of recently used files.
      RecentChooserWidget is the basic building block for
      RecentChooserDialog, but you can embed it into your
      user interface if you want to.
    
      RecentChooserMenu and
      RecentAction allow you to list recently used files
      as a menu.
    
        Shown below is a simple example of how to use the
        RecentChooserDialog and the
        RecentAction classes in a program.
        This simple program has a menubar with a
         menu item.
        When you select this menu item, a dialog pops up showing the list of
        recently used files.
      
| ![[Note]](icons/note.png) | Note | 
|---|---|
| If this is the first time you're using a program that uses the Recent Files framework, the dialog may be empty at first. Otherwise it should show the list of recently used documents registered by other applications. | 
After selecting the menu item, you should see something similar to the following window.

File: examplewindow.h (For use with gtkmm 3, not gtkmm 2)
#ifndef GTKMM_EXAMPLEWINDOW_H
#define GTKMM_EXAMPLEWINDOW_H
#include <gtkmm.h>
class ExampleWindow : public Gtk::Window
{
public:
  ExampleWindow();
  virtual ~ExampleWindow();
protected:
  //Signal handlers:
  void on_menu_file_recent_files_item();
  void on_menu_file_recent_files_dialog();
  void on_menu_file_quit();
  void on_menu_file_new();
  //Child widgets:
  Gtk::Box m_Box;
  Glib::RefPtr<Gtk::UIManager> m_refUIManager;
  Glib::RefPtr<Gtk::ActionGroup> m_refActionGroup;
  Glib::RefPtr<Gtk::RecentAction> m_refRecentAction;
  Glib::RefPtr<Gtk::RecentManager> m_refRecentManager;
};
#endif //GTKMM_EXAMPLEWINDOW_H
File: examplewindow.cc (For use with gtkmm 3, not gtkmm 2)
#include "examplewindow.h"
#include <gtkmm/stock.h>
#include <iostream>
ExampleWindow::ExampleWindow()
: m_Box(Gtk::ORIENTATION_VERTICAL),
  m_refRecentManager(Gtk::RecentManager::get_default())
{
  set_title("recent files example");
  set_default_size(200, 200);
  //We can put a MenuBar at the top of the box and other stuff below it.
  add(m_Box);
  //Create actions for menus and toolbars:
  m_refActionGroup = Gtk::ActionGroup::create();
  //File menu:
  m_refActionGroup->add( Gtk::Action::create("FileMenu", "_File") );
  m_refActionGroup->add( Gtk::Action::create("FileNew", Gtk::Stock::NEW),
    sigc::mem_fun(*this, &ExampleWindow::on_menu_file_new));
  //A recent-files submenu:
  m_refRecentAction = Gtk::RecentAction::create("FileRecentFiles", "_Recent Files");
  m_refActionGroup->add(m_refRecentAction);
  //Connect to RecentChooser's item_activated signal
  //instead of Action's activate signal:
  m_refRecentAction->signal_item_activated().connect(
    sigc::mem_fun(*this, &ExampleWindow::on_menu_file_recent_files_item) );
  //A menu item to open the recent-files dialog:
  m_refActionGroup->add( Gtk::Action::create("FileRecentDialog", "Recent Files _Dialog"),
    sigc::mem_fun(*this, &ExampleWindow::on_menu_file_recent_files_dialog) );
  m_refActionGroup->add( Gtk::Action::create("FileQuit", Gtk::Stock::QUIT),
    sigc::mem_fun(*this, &ExampleWindow::on_menu_file_quit) );
  m_refUIManager = Gtk::UIManager::create();
  m_refUIManager->insert_action_group(m_refActionGroup);
  add_accel_group(m_refUIManager->get_accel_group());
  //Layout the actions in a menubar and toolbar:
  Glib::ustring ui_info =
        "<ui>"
        "  <menubar name='MenuBar'>"
        "    <menu action='FileMenu'>"
        "      <menuitem action='FileNew'/>"
        "      <menuitem action='FileRecentFiles'/>"
        "      <menuitem action='FileRecentDialog'/>"
        "      <separator/>"
        "      <menuitem action='FileQuit'/>"
        "    </menu>"
        "  </menubar>"
        "  <toolbar  name='ToolBar'>"
        "    <toolitem action='FileNew'/>"
        "    <toolitem action='FileQuit'/>"
        "  </toolbar>"
        "</ui>";
  try
  {
    m_refUIManager->add_ui_from_string(ui_info);
  }
  catch(const Glib::Error& ex)
  {
    std::cerr << "building menus failed: " <<  ex.what();
  }
  //Get the menubar and toolbar widgets, and add them to a container widget:
  Gtk::Widget* pMenubar = m_refUIManager->get_widget("/MenuBar");
  if(pMenubar)
    m_Box.pack_start(*pMenubar, Gtk::PACK_SHRINK);
  Gtk::Widget* pToolbar = m_refUIManager->get_widget("/ToolBar");
  if(pToolbar)
    m_Box.pack_start(*pToolbar, Gtk::PACK_SHRINK);
  show_all_children();
}
ExampleWindow::~ExampleWindow()
{
}
void ExampleWindow::on_menu_file_new()
{
  std::cout << " New File" << std::endl;
}
void ExampleWindow::on_menu_file_quit()
{
  hide(); //Closes the main window to stop the app->run().
}
void ExampleWindow::on_menu_file_recent_files_item()
{
  std::cout << "URI selected = " << m_refRecentAction->get_current_uri() << std::endl;
}
void ExampleWindow::on_menu_file_recent_files_dialog()
{
  Gtk::RecentChooserDialog dialog(*this, "Recent Files", m_refRecentManager);
  dialog.add_button("Select File", Gtk::RESPONSE_OK);
  dialog.add_button(Gtk::Stock::CANCEL, Gtk::RESPONSE_CANCEL);
  const int response = dialog.run();
  dialog.hide();
  if(response == Gtk::RESPONSE_OK)
  {
    std::cout << "URI selected = " << dialog.get_current_uri() << std::endl;
  }
}
File: main.cc (For use with gtkmm 3, not gtkmm 2)
#include "examplewindow.h"
#include <gtkmm/application.h>
int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
  Glib::RefPtr<Gtk::Application> app = Gtk::Application::create(argc, argv, "org.gtkmm.example");
  ExampleWindow window;
  //Shows the window and returns when it is closed.
  return app->run(window);
}
        The constructor for ExampleWindow creates the
        menu using UIManager (see Chapter 12, Menus and Toolbars for more information). It then adds
        the menu and the toolbar to the window.
      
        For any of the RecentChooser classes, if you
        don't wish to display all of the items in the list of recent files, you
        can filter the list to show only those that you want. You can filter
        the list with the help of the RecentFilter class.
        This class allows you to filter recent files by their name
        (add_pattern()), their mime type
        (add_mime_type()), the application that registered
        them (add_application()), or by a custom filter
        function (add_custom()). It also provides the
        ability to filter based on how long ago the file was modified and which
        groups it belongs to.
      
        After you've created and set up the filter to match only the items you
        want, you can apply a filter to a chooser widget with the
        RecentChooser::add_filter() function.