Class Menu

java.lang.Object

javafx.scene.control.MenuItem

javafx.scene.control.Menu

All Implemented Interfaces:: Styleable, EventTarget

@DefaultProperty("items") public class Menu extends MenuItem

A popup menu of actionable items which is displayed to the user only upon request. When a menu is visible, in most use cases, the user can select one menu item before the menu goes back to its hidden state. This means the menu is a good place to put important functionality that does not necessarily need to be visible at all times to the user.

Menus are typically placed in a MenuBar, or as a submenu of another Menu. If the intention is to offer a context menu when the user right-clicks in a certain area of their user interface, then this is the wrong control to use. This is because when Menu is added to the scenegraph, it has a visual representation that will result in it appearing on screen. Instead, ContextMenu should be used in this circumstance.

Creating a Menu and inserting it into a MenuBar is easy, as shown below:

 Menu menu1 = new Menu("File");
 MenuBar menuBar = new MenuBar(menu1);

A Menu is a subclass of MenuItem which means that it can be inserted into a Menu's items ObservableList, resulting in a submenu being created:

 MenuItem menu12 = new MenuItem("Open");
 menu1.getItems().add(menu12);

The items ObservableList allows for any MenuItem type to be inserted, including its subclasses Menu, MenuItem, RadioMenuItem, CheckMenuItem, CustomMenuItem and SeparatorMenuItem. In order to insert an arbitrary Node to a Menu, a CustomMenuItem can be used. One exception to this general rule is that SeparatorMenuItem could be used for inserting a separator.

Since:

JavaFX 2.0

See Also:

Property Summary

Type	Property	Description
`final ObjectProperty<EventHandler<Event>>`	`onHidden`	Called just after the `ContextMenu` has been hidden.
`final ObjectProperty<EventHandler<Event>>`	`onHiding`	Called just prior to the `ContextMenu` being hidden.
`final ObjectProperty<EventHandler<Event>>`	`onShowing`	Called just prior to the `ContextMenu` being shown, even if the menu has no items to show.
`final ObjectProperty<EventHandler<Event>>`	`onShown`	Called just after the `ContextMenu` is shown.
`final ReadOnlyBooleanProperty`	`showing`	Indicates whether the `ContextMenu` is currently visible.

Properties declared in class javafx.scene.control.MenuItem

accelerator, disable, graphic, id, mnemonicParsing, onAction, onMenuValidation, parentMenu, parentPopup, style, text, visible

Field Summary

Modifier and Type	Field	Description
`static final EventType<Event>`	`ON_HIDDEN`	Called when the contextMenu for this menu is hidden.
`static final EventType<Event>`	`ON_HIDING`	Called when the contextMenu for this menu will be hidden.
`static final EventType<Event>`	`ON_SHOWING`	Called when the contextMenu for this menu will be shown.
`static final EventType<Event>`	`ON_SHOWN`	Called when the contextMenu for this menu shows.

Fields declared in class javafx.scene.control.MenuItem

MENU_VALIDATION_EVENT

Constructor Summary

Constructor	Description
`Menu()`	Constructs a Menu with an empty string for its display text.
`Menu(String text)`	Constructs a Menu and sets the display text with the specified text.
`Menu(String text, Node graphic)`	Constructs a Menu and sets the display text with the specified text and sets the graphic `Node` to the given node.
`Menu(String text, Node graphic, MenuItem... items)`	Constructs a Menu and sets the display text with the specified text, the graphic `Node` to the given node, and inserts the given items into the `items` list.

Method Summary

Modifier and Type	Method	Description
`final ObservableList<MenuItem>`	`getItems()`	The items to show within this menu.
`final EventHandler<Event>`	`getOnHidden()`	Gets the value of the `onHidden` property.
`final EventHandler<Event>`	`getOnHiding()`	Gets the value of the `onHiding` property.
`final EventHandler<Event>`	`getOnShowing()`	Gets the value of the `onShowing` property.
`final EventHandler<Event>`	`getOnShown()`	Gets the value of the `onShown` property.
`void`	`hide()`	Hides the `ContextMenu` if it was previously showing, and any showing submenus.
`final boolean`	`isShowing()`	Gets the value of the `showing` property.
`final ObjectProperty<EventHandler<Event>>`	`onHiddenProperty()`	Called just after the `ContextMenu` has been hidden.
`final ObjectProperty<EventHandler<Event>>`	`onHidingProperty()`	Called just prior to the `ContextMenu` being hidden.
`final ObjectProperty<EventHandler<Event>>`	`onShowingProperty()`	Called just prior to the `ContextMenu` being shown, even if the menu has no items to show.
`final ObjectProperty<EventHandler<Event>>`	`onShownProperty()`	Called just after the `ContextMenu` is shown.
`final void`	`setOnHidden(EventHandler<Event> value)`	Sets the value of the `onHidden` property.
`final void`	`setOnHiding(EventHandler<Event> value)`	Sets the value of the `onHiding` property.
`final void`	`setOnShowing(EventHandler<Event> value)`	Sets the value of the `onShowing` property.
`final void`	`setOnShown(EventHandler<Event> value)`	Sets the value of the `onShown` property.
`void`	`show()`	If the Menu is not disabled and the `ContextMenu` is not already showing, then this will cause the `ContextMenu` to be shown.
`final ReadOnlyBooleanProperty`	`showingProperty()`	Indicates whether the `ContextMenu` is currently visible.

Methods declared in class javafx.scene.control.MenuItem

acceleratorProperty, buildEventDispatchChain, disableProperty, fire, getAccelerator, getCssMetaData, getGraphic, getId, getOnAction, getOnMenuValidation, getParentMenu, getParentPopup, getProperties, getPseudoClassStates, getStyle, getStyleableParent, getStyleClass, getText, getTypeSelector, getUserData, graphicProperty, idProperty, isDisable, isMnemonicParsing, isVisible, mnemonicParsingProperty, onActionProperty, onMenuValidationProperty, parentMenuProperty, parentPopupProperty, setAccelerator, setDisable, setGraphic, setId, setMnemonicParsing, setOnAction, setOnMenuValidation, setParentMenu, setParentPopup, setStyle, setText, setUserData, setVisible, styleProperty, textProperty, visibleProperty

Methods declared in class java.lang.Object

clone, equals, finalize, getClass, hashCode, notify, notifyAll, toString, wait, wait, wait

Methods declared in interface javafx.event.EventTarget

addEventFilter, addEventHandler, removeEventFilter, removeEventHandler

Methods declared in interface javafx.css.Styleable

getStyleableNode

Property Details

showing

public final ReadOnlyBooleanProperty showingProperty

Indicates whether the ContextMenu is currently visible.

Default value:

false

See Also:

onShowing

public final ObjectProperty<EventHandler<Event>> onShowingProperty

Called just prior to the ContextMenu being shown, even if the menu has no items to show. Note however that this won't be called if the menu does not have a valid anchor node.

See Also:

onShown

public final ObjectProperty<EventHandler<Event>> onShownProperty

Called just after the ContextMenu is shown.

See Also:

onHiding

public final ObjectProperty<EventHandler<Event>> onHidingProperty

Called just prior to the ContextMenu being hidden.

See Also:

onHidden

public final ObjectProperty<EventHandler<Event>> onHiddenProperty

Called just after the ContextMenu has been hidden.

See Also:

Field Details

ON_SHOWING

public static final EventType<Event> ON_SHOWING

Called when the contextMenu for this menu will be shown. However if the contextMenu is empty then this will not be called.

ON_SHOWN

public static final EventType<Event> ON_SHOWN

Called when the contextMenu for this menu shows. However if the contextMenu is empty then this will not be called.

ON_HIDING

public static final EventType<Event> ON_HIDING

Called when the contextMenu for this menu will be hidden. However if the contextMenu is empty then this will not be called.

ON_HIDDEN

public static final EventType<Event> ON_HIDDEN

Called when the contextMenu for this menu is hidden. However if the contextMenu is empty then this will not be called.

Constructor Details

Method Details

isShowing

public final boolean isShowing()

Gets the value of the showing property.

Property description:

Indicates whether the ContextMenu is currently visible.

Default value:

false

Returns:

the value of the showing property

See Also:

showingProperty

public final ReadOnlyBooleanProperty showingProperty()

Indicates whether the ContextMenu is currently visible.

Default value:

false

Returns:

the showing property

See Also:

onShowingProperty

public final ObjectProperty<EventHandler<Event>> onShowingProperty()

Called just prior to the ContextMenu being shown, even if the menu has no items to show. Note however that this won't be called if the menu does not have a valid anchor node.

Returns:

the on showing property

See Also:

setOnShowing

public final void setOnShowing(EventHandler<Event> value)

Sets the value of the onShowing property.

Property description:

Called just prior to the ContextMenu being shown, even if the menu has no items to show. Note however that this won't be called if the menu does not have a valid anchor node.

Parameters:

value - the value for the onShowing property

See Also:

getOnShowing

public final EventHandler<Event> getOnShowing()

Gets the value of the onShowing property.

Property description:

Called just prior to the ContextMenu being shown, even if the menu has no items to show. Note however that this won't be called if the menu does not have a valid anchor node.

Returns:

the value of the onShowing property

See Also:

onShownProperty

public final ObjectProperty<EventHandler<Event>> onShownProperty()

Called just after the ContextMenu is shown.

Returns:

the on shown property

See Also:

setOnShown

public final void setOnShown(EventHandler<Event> value)

Sets the value of the onShown property.

Property description:

Called just after the ContextMenu is shown.

Parameters:

value - the value for the onShown property

See Also:

getOnShown

public final EventHandler<Event> getOnShown()

Gets the value of the onShown property.

Property description:

Called just after the ContextMenu is shown.

Returns:

the value of the onShown property

See Also:

onHidingProperty

public final ObjectProperty<EventHandler<Event>> onHidingProperty()

Called just prior to the ContextMenu being hidden.

Returns:

the on hiding property

See Also:

setOnHiding

public final void setOnHiding(EventHandler<Event> value)

Sets the value of the onHiding property.

Property description:

Called just prior to the ContextMenu being hidden.

Parameters:

value - the value for the onHiding property

See Also:

getOnHiding

public final EventHandler<Event> getOnHiding()

Gets the value of the onHiding property.

Property description:

Called just prior to the ContextMenu being hidden.

Returns:

the value of the onHiding property

See Also:

onHiddenProperty

public final ObjectProperty<EventHandler<Event>> onHiddenProperty()

Called just after the ContextMenu has been hidden.

Returns:

the on hidden property

See Also:

setOnHidden

public final void setOnHidden(EventHandler<Event> value)

Sets the value of the onHidden property.

Property description:

Called just after the ContextMenu has been hidden.

Parameters:

value - the value for the onHidden property

See Also:

getOnHidden

public final EventHandler<Event> getOnHidden()

Gets the value of the onHidden property.

Property description:

Called just after the ContextMenu has been hidden.

Returns:

the value of the onHidden property

See Also:

getItems

public final ObservableList<MenuItem> getItems()

The items to show within this menu. If this ObservableList is modified at runtime, the Menu will update as expected.

Returns:: the list of items

show

public void show()

If the Menu is not disabled and the ContextMenu is not already showing, then this will cause the ContextMenu to be shown.

hide

public void hide()

Hides the ContextMenu if it was previously showing, and any showing submenus. If this menu is not showing, then invoking this function has no effect.

© 2008, 2025, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
Documentation extracted from JavaFX API Documentation.
Licensed under the GNU General Public License, version 2, with the Classpath Exception.
Java, JavaFX and OpenJDK are trademarks or registered trademarks of Oracle and/or its affiliates.