dijit/Menu

Authors:Bill Keese
jsDoc:http://dojotoolkit.org/api/dijit.Menu

Introduction

The Menu widget is used for context menus, otherwise known as a right-click or popup menus.

Previously Menu was also used for drop-down menus, but that functionality has been split off to the dijit/DropDownMenu widget.

Since Menu extends dijit/DropDownMenu, consult that page for general documentation about the children of Menu, etc.

Examples

Programmatic example

require(["dojo/ready", "dijit/Menu", "dijit/MenuItem", "dijit/CheckedMenuItem", "dijit/MenuSeparator", "dijit/PopupMenuItem"], function(ready, Menu, MenuItem, CheckedMenuItem, MenuSeparator, PopupMenuItem){
    ready(function(){
        var pMenu;
        pMenu = new Menu({
            targetNodeIds: ["progmenu"]
        });
        pMenu.addChild(new MenuItem({
            label: "Simple menu item"
        }));
        pMenu.addChild(new MenuItem({
            label: "Disabled menu item",
            disabled: true
        }));
        pMenu.addChild(new MenuItem({
            label: "Menu Item With an icon",
            iconClass: "dijitEditorIcon dijitEditorIconCut",
            onClick: function(){alert('i was clicked')}
        }));
        pMenu.addChild(new CheckedMenuItem({
            label: "checkable menu item"
        }));
        pMenu.addChild(new MenuSeparator());

        var pSubMenu = new Menu();
        pSubMenu.addChild(new MenuItem({
            label: "Submenu item"
        }));
        pSubMenu.addChild(new MenuItem({
            label: "Submenu item"
        }));
        pMenu.addChild(new PopupMenuItem({
            label: "Submenu",
            popup: pSubMenu
        }));

        pMenu.startup();
    });
});
<span id="progmenu">Right click me to get a menu</span>

Declarative markup

Creation from markup is even easier. This example creates a context menu for the whole window.

require(["dojo/parser", "dijit/Menu", "dijit/MenuItem", "dijit/MenuSeparator", "dijit/PopupMenuItem", "dijit/ColorPalette"]);
<div data-dojo-type="dijit/Menu" id="windowContextMenu" data-dojo-props="contextMenuForWindow:true" style="display: none;">
    <div data-dojo-type="dijit/MenuItem" data-dojo-props="iconClass:'dijitEditorIcon dijitEditorIconCut',
        onClick:function(){alert('not actually cutting anything, just a test!')}">Cut</div>
    <div data-dojo-type="dijit/MenuItem" data-dojo-props="iconClass:'dijitEditorIcon dijitEditorIconCopy',
        onClick:function(){alert('not actually copying anything, just a test!')}">Copy</div>
    <div data-dojo-type="dijit/MenuItem" data-dojo-props="iconClass:'dijitEditorIcon dijitEditorIconPaste',
        onClick:function(){alert('not actually pasting anything, just a test!')}">Paste</div>
    <div data-dojo-type="dijit/MenuSeparator"></div>
    <div data-dojo-type="dijit/PopupMenuItem">
        <span>Enabled Submenu</span>
        <div data-dojo-type="dijit/Menu" id="submenu1">
            <div data-dojo-type="dijit/MenuItem" data-dojo-props="onClick:function(){alert('Submenu 1!')}">Submenu Item One</div>
            <div data-dojo-type="dijit/MenuItem" data-dojo-props="onClick:function(){alert('Submenu 2!')}">Submenu Item Two</div>
        </div>
    </div>
    <div data-dojo-type="dijit/PopupMenuItem">
        <span>Popup of something other than a menu</span>
        <div data-dojo-type="dijit/ColorPalette"></div>
    </div>
</div>

<span>Right click anywhere on this page to see a menu</span>

Note that popup menus should be hidden via specifying style=”display: none”. Hiding the menu indirectly via a class won’t work (in that the menu will remain invisible even when it’s supposed to be displayed).

Attaching to Multiple Nodes

The Menu widget has two optional attributes:
  • selector: CSS selector that specifies that the Menu should be attached, via event delegation, to matching subnodes of targetNodeIds, rather than the targetNodeIds nodes themselves.
  • currentTarget: (readonly) which node the menu is being displayed for

Together, they allow a single Menu to attach to multiple nodes through delegation, and for the Menu’s action to be adjusted depending on the node. For example:

require(["dijit/registry", "dijit/Menu", "dijit/MenuItem", "dojo/query!css2"], function(registry, Menu, MenuItem){
    var menu = new Menu({
        targetNodeIds: ["myTable"],
        selector: "td.foo"
    });
    menu.addChild(new MenuItem({
        label: "click me"
        onClick: function(evt){
            var node = this.getParent().currentTarget;
            console.log("menu clicked for node ", node);
        }
    }));
});

This will track right-click events on each cell of a table with class=”foo”.

Further, the targetNode’s contents can be changed freely after the Menu is created. Nodes matching the selector can be created or removed, and no calls to bindDomNode() or unBindDomNode() are necessary.

Note that, like dojo/on::selector(), you need to require() an appropriate level of dojo/query to handle your selector.

Accessibility

Keyboard

Action Key
Open a context menu

On Windows: shift-f10 or the Windows context menu key.

On Firefox on the Macintosh: ctrl-space.

On Safari 4 or Chrome on Mac: VO+shift+m (VO is usually control+option). But to use this keyboard sequence (on Safari or Chrome) the voice-over option on safari or chrome(in System Preferences / Universal Access) must be turned on.

Navigate menu items Up and down arrow keys
Activate a menu item Spacebar or enter
Open a submenu Spacebar, enter, or right arrow
Close a context menu or submenu Esc or left arrow
Close a context menu and all open submenus Tab

Implementation Notes

Focus

Context menus are focused as soon as they are opened, and focus follows the mouse (or the keyboard arrow keys)

CSS Classes

There are separate CSS classes for indicating that a MenuItem is mouse hovered (dijitMenuItemHover), and to indicate which MenuItem is selected/active (dijitMenuItemSelected). In tundra/nihilo/soria they look exactly the same, although that could be customized by a user, including removing the hover effect altogether.

“Selected/active” is in the sense of the selected tab, and is controlled by the mouse or keyboard. Implementation-wise, it means that either the MenuItem has focus, or focus is on a submenu of that MenuItem.

The Menu/MenuBar domNode has a dijitMenuPassive/dijitMenuActive class so that CSS rules for hover can be customized based on whether or not the menu has focus. Once the menu gets focus the dijitMenuHover effect is disabled in favor of the dijitMenuSelected effect, so that the dijitMenuHover effect won’t linger on “File” if user moved the mouse over “File” but then used the keyboard arrows to move to the “Edit” MenuBarItem. (This is a setting in tundra/nihilo/soria and can be changed if desired.)

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