Menu QML Type

Menu popup that can be used as a context menu or popup menu. More...

• List of all members, including inherited members

Properties

• cascade : bool (since QtQuick.Controls 2.3 (Qt 5.10))
• contentData : list<QtObject>
• contentModel : model
• count : int (since QtQuick.Controls 2.3 (Qt 5.10))
• currentIndex : int (since QtQuick.Controls 2.3 (Qt 5.10))
• delegate : Component (since QtQuick.Controls 2.3 (Qt 5.10))
• focus : bool
• icon
  • icon.cache : bool
  • icon.color : color
  • icon.height : int
  • icon.name : string
  • icon.source : url
  • icon.width : int
• overlap : real (since QtQuick.Controls 2.3 (Qt 5.10))
• title : string

Methods

• Action actionAt(int index) (since QtQuick.Controls 2.3 (Qt 5.10))
• void addAction(Action action) (since QtQuick.Controls 2.3 (Qt 5.10))
• void addItem(Item item)
• void addMenu(Menu menu) (since QtQuick.Controls 2.3 (Qt 5.10))
• void dismiss() (since QtQuick.Controls 2.3 (Qt 5.10))
• void insertAction(int index, Action action) (since QtQuick.Controls 2.3 (Qt 5.10))
• void insertItem(int index, Item item)
• void insertMenu(int index, Menu menu) (since QtQuick.Controls 2.3 (Qt 5.10))
• Item itemAt(int index)
• Menu menuAt(int index) (since QtQuick.Controls 2.3 (Qt 5.10))
• void moveItem(int from, int to)
• void popup(MenuItem item) (since QtQuick.Controls 2.3 (Qt 5.10))
• void popup(Item parent, MenuItem item) (since QtQuick.Controls 2.3 (Qt 5.10))
• void popup(point pos, MenuItem item) (since QtQuick.Controls 2.3 (Qt 5.10))
• void popup(Item parent, point pos, MenuItem item) (since QtQuick.Controls 2.3 (Qt 5.10))
• void popup(real x, real y, MenuItem item) (since QtQuick.Controls 2.3 (Qt 5.10))
• void popup(Item parent, real x, real y, MenuItem item) (since QtQuick.Controls 2.3 (Qt 5.10))
• void removeAction(Action action) (since QtQuick.Controls 2.3 (Qt 5.10))
• void removeItem(Item item) (since QtQuick.Controls 2.3 (Qt 5.10))
• void removeMenu(Menu menu) (since QtQuick.Controls 2.3 (Qt 5.10))
• Action takeAction(int index) (since QtQuick.Controls 2.3 (Qt 5.10))
• MenuItem takeItem(int index) (since QtQuick.Controls 2.3 (Qt 5.10))
• Menu takeMenu(int index) (since QtQuick.Controls 2.3 (Qt 5.10))

Detailed Description

Menu has two main use cases:

• Context menus; for example, a menu that is shown after right clicking
• Popup menus; for example, a menu that is shown after clicking a button

When used as a context menu, the recommended way of opening the menu is to call popup(). Unless a position is explicitly specified, the menu is positioned at the mouse cursor on desktop platforms that have a mouse cursor available, and otherwise centered over its parent item.

MouseArea {
    anchors.fill: parent
    acceptedButtons: Qt.LeftButton | Qt.RightButton
    onClicked: (mouse) => {
        if (mouse.button === Qt.RightButton)
            contextMenu.popup()
    }
    onPressAndHold: (mouse) => {
        if (mouse.source === Qt.MouseEventNotSynthesized)
            contextMenu.popup()
    }

    Menu {
        id: contextMenu
        MenuItem { text: "Cut" }
        MenuItem { text: "Copy" }
        MenuItem { text: "Paste" }
    }
}

When used as a popup menu, it is easiest to specify the position by specifying the desired x and y coordinates using the respective properties, and call open() to open the menu.

Button {
    id: fileButton
    text: "File"
    onClicked: menu.open()

    Menu {
        id: menu
        y: fileButton.height

        MenuItem {
            text: "New..."
        }
        MenuItem {
            text: "Open..."
        }
        MenuItem {
            text: "Save"
        }
    }
}

If the button should also close the menu when clicked, use the Popup.CloseOnPressOutsideParent flag:

onClicked: menu.visible = !menu.visible

Menu {
    // ...
    closePolicy: Popup.CloseOnEscape | Popup.CloseOnPressOutsideParent

Since QtQuick.Controls 2.3 (Qt 5.10), it is also possible to create sub-menus and declare Action objects inside Menu:

Menu {
    Action { text: "Cut" }
    Action { text: "Copy" }
    Action { text: "Paste" }

    MenuSeparator { }

    Menu {
        title: "Find/Replace"
        Action { text: "Find Next" }
        Action { text: "Find Previous" }
        Action { text: "Replace" }
    }
}

Sub-menus are cascading by default on desktop platforms that have a mouse cursor available. Non-cascading menus are shown one menu at a time, and centered over the parent menu.

Typically, menu items are statically declared as children of the menu, but Menu also provides API to add, insert, move and remove items dynamically. The items in a menu can be accessed using itemAt() or contentChildren.

Although MenuItems are most commonly used with Menu, it can contain any type of item.

Margins

As it is inherited from Popup, Menu supports margins. By default, all of the built-in styles specify 0 for Menu's margins to ensure that the menu is kept within the bounds of the window. To allow a menu to go outside of the window (to animate it moving into view, for example), set the margins property to -1.

Dynamically Generating Menu Items

You can dynamically create menu items with Instantiator or dynamic object creation.

Using Instantiator

You can dynamically generate menu items with Instantiator. The following code shows how you can implement a "Recent Files" submenu, where the items come from a list of files stored in settings:

Menu {
    title: qsTr("File")

    Menu {
        id: recentFilesMenu
        title: qsTr("Recent Files")
        enabled: recentFilesInstantiator.count > 0

        Instantiator {
            id: recentFilesInstantiator
            model: settings.recentFiles
            delegate: MenuItem {
                text: settings.displayableFilePath(modelData)
                onTriggered: loadFile(modelData)
            }

            onObjectAdded: (index, object) => recentFilesMenu.insertItem(index, object)
            onObjectRemoved: (index, object) => recentFilesMenu.removeItem(object)
        }

        MenuSeparator {}

        MenuItem {
            text: qsTr("Clear Recent Files")
            onTriggered: settings.clearRecentFiles()
        }
    }
}

Using Dynamic Object Creation

You can also dynamically load a component from a QML file using Qt.createComponent(). Once the component is ready, you can call its createObject() method to create an instance of that component.

Row {
    anchors.centerIn: parent

    Component {
        id: menuItemComponent

        MenuItem {}
    }

    Button {
        id: button
        text: "Menu"
        onClicked: menu.open()
        Menu {
            id: menu
        }
    }

    Button {
        text: "Add item"
        onClicked: {
            onClicked: {
                let menuItem = menuItemComponent.createObject(
                    menu.contentItem, { text: qsTr("New item") })
                menu.addItem(menuItem)
            }
        }
    }
}

Menu types

Since Qt 6.8, a menu offers three different implementations, depending on the platform. You can choose which one should be preferred by setting popupType. This will let you control if a menu should be shown as a separate window, as an item inside the parent window, or as a native menu. You can read more about these options here.

The default popupType is decided by the style. The macOS Style, for example, sets it to be Popup.Native, while the Imagine Style uses Popup.Window (which is the default when the style doesn't set a popup type). If you add customizations to a menu, and want those to be used regardless of the style, you should set the popup type to be Popup.Window (or Popup.Item) explicitly. Another alternative is to set the Qt::AA_DontUseNativeMenuWindows application attribute. This will disable native context menus for the whole application, irrespective of the style.

Whether a menu will be able to use the preferred type depends on the platform. Popup.Item is supported on all platforms, but Popup.Window is normally only supported on desktop platforms. Additionally, if the menu is inside a native menubar, the menu will be native as well. And if the menu is a sub-menu inside another menu, the parent (or root) menu will decide the type.

Limitations when using native menus

When setting popupType to Popup.Native there are some limitations and differences compared to using Popup.Item and Popup.Window.

API differences

When using native menus, only a subset of the Menu API is supported on all platforms:

• x
• y
• visible
• opened
• title
• count
• contentData
• contentChildren (visual children will not be visible)
• contentModel
• open()
• popup()
• close()
• opened()
• closed()
• aboutToShow()
• aboutToHide()

In addition, showing a popup (using for example open() or popup() will, on some platforms, be a blocking call. This means that the call will not return before the menu is closed again, which can affect the logic in your application. This is especially important to take into consideration if your application is targeting multiple platforms, and as such, sometimes run on platforms where native menus are not supported. In that case the popupType will fall back to Popup.Item, for example, and calls to open() will not be blocking.

Items like MenuItem will still react to clicks in the corresponding native menu item by emitting signals, for example, but will be replaced by their native counterpart.

Rendering differences

Native menus are implemented using the available native menu APIs on the platform. Those menus, and all of their contents, will therefore be rendered by the platform, and not by QML. This means that the delegate will not be used for rendering. It will, however, always be instantiated (but hidden), so that functions such as onCompleted() execute regardless of platform and popupType.

Supported platforms

Native menus are currently supported on the following platforms:

• Android
• iOS
• Linux (only available as a stand-alone context menu when running with the GTK+ platform theme)
• macOS
• Windows

See also Customizing Menu, MenuItem, Menu Controls, Popup Controls, Dynamic QML Object Creation from JavaScript, Popup type, [QML], and popupType.

Property Documentation

Menu {
    id: menu
    contentItem: ListView {
        model: menu.contentModel
    }
}

Menu {
    Action { text: "Cut" }
    Action { text: "Copy" }
    Action { text: "Paste" }
}

Method Documentation