electron/docs/api/menu.md

# Menu

> Create native application menus and context menus.

This module is a main process module which can be used in a render process via
the `remote` module.

Each menu consists of multiple [menu items](menu-item.md) and each menu item can
have a submenu.

Below is an example of creating a menu dynamically in a web page
(render process) by using the [remote](remote.md) module, and showing it when
the user right clicks the page:

```html
<!-- index.html -->
<script>
const {remote} = require('electron');
const {Menu, MenuItem} = remote;

const menu = new Menu();
menu.append(new MenuItem({label: 'MenuItem1', click() { console.log('item 1 clicked'); }}));
menu.append(new MenuItem({type: 'separator'}));
menu.append(new MenuItem({label: 'MenuItem2', type: 'checkbox', checked: true}));

window.addEventListener('contextmenu', (e) => {
  e.preventDefault();
  menu.popup(remote.getCurrentWindow());
}, false);
</script>
```

An example of creating the application menu in the render process with the
simple template API:

```javascript
const template = [
  {
    label: 'Edit',
    submenu: [
      {
        role: 'undo'
      },
      {
        role: 'redo'
      },
      {
        type: 'separator'
      },
      {
        role: 'cut'
      },
      {
        role: 'copy'
      },
      {
        role: 'paste'
      },
      {
        role: 'pasteandmatchstyle'
      },
      {
        role: 'delete'
      },
      {
        role: 'selectall'
      },
    ]
  },
  {
    label: 'View',
    submenu: [
      {
        label: 'Reload',
        accelerator: 'CmdOrCtrl+R',
        click(item, focusedWindow) {
          if (focusedWindow) focusedWindow.reload();
        }
      },
      {
        role: 'togglefullscreen'
      },
      {
        label: 'Toggle Developer Tools',
        accelerator: process.platform === 'darwin' ? 'Alt+Command+I' : 'Ctrl+Shift+I',
        click(item, focusedWindow) {
          if (focusedWindow)
            focusedWindow.webContents.toggleDevTools();
        }
      },
    ]
  },
  {
    role: 'window',
    submenu: [
      {
        role: 'minimize'
      },
      {
        role: 'close'
      },
    ]
  },
  {
    role: 'help',
    submenu: [
      {
        label: 'Learn More',
        click() { require('electron').shell.openExternal('http://electron.atom.io'); }
      },
    ]
  },
];

if (process.platform === 'darwin') {
  const name = require('electron').remote.app.getName();
  template.unshift({
    label: name,
    submenu: [
      {
        role: 'about'
      },
      {
        type: 'separator'
      },
      {
        role: 'services',
        submenu: []
      },
      {
        type: 'separator'
      },
      {
        role: 'hide'
      },
      {
        role: 'hideothers'
      },
      {
        role: 'unhide'
      },
      {
        type: 'separator'
      },
      {
        role: 'quit'
      },
    ]
  });
  // Window menu.
  template[3].submenu = [
    {
      label: 'Close',
      accelerator: 'CmdOrCtrl+W',
      role: 'close'
    },
    {
      label: 'Minimize',
      accelerator: 'CmdOrCtrl+M',
      role: 'minimize'
    },
    {
      label: 'Zoom',
      role: 'zoom'
    },
    {
      type: 'separator'
    },
    {
      label: 'Bring All to Front',
      role: 'front'
    }
  ];
}

const menu = Menu.buildFromTemplate(template);
Menu.setApplicationMenu(menu);
```

## Class: Menu

### `new Menu()`

Creates a new menu.

## Methods

The `menu` class has the following methods:

### `Menu.setApplicationMenu(menu)`

* `menu` Menu

Sets `menu` as the application menu on macOS. On Windows and Linux, the `menu`
will be set as each window's top menu.

**Note:** This API has to be called after the `ready` event of `app` module.

### `Menu.getApplicationMenu()`

Returns the application menu (an instance of `Menu`), if set, or `null`, if not set.

### `Menu.sendActionToFirstResponder(action)` _macOS_

* `action` String

Sends the `action` to the first responder of application. This is used for
emulating default Cocoa menu behaviors, usually you would just use the
`role` property of `MenuItem`.

See the [macOS Cocoa Event Handling Guide](https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Cocoa/Conceptual/EventOverview/EventArchitecture/EventArchitecture.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/10000060i-CH3-SW7)
for more information on macOS' native actions.

### `Menu.buildFromTemplate(template)`

* `template` Array

Generally, the `template` is just an array of `options` for constructing a
[MenuItem](menu-item.md). The usage can be referenced above.

You can also attach other fields to the element of the `template` and they
will become properties of the constructed menu items.

## Instance Methods

The `menu` object has the following instance methods:

### `menu.popup([browserWindow, x, y, positioningItem])`

* `browserWindow` BrowserWindow (optional) - Default is `null`.
* `x` Number (optional) - Default is -1.
* `y` Number (**required** if `x` is used) - Default is -1.
* `positioningItem` Number (optional) _macOS_ - The index of the menu item to
  be positioned under the mouse cursor at the specified coordinates. Default is
  -1.

Pops up this menu as a context menu in the `browserWindow`. You can optionally
provide a `x, y` coordinate to place the menu at, otherwise it will be placed
at the current mouse cursor position.

### `menu.append(menuItem)`

* `menuItem` MenuItem

Appends the `menuItem` to the menu.

### `menu.insert(pos, menuItem)`

* `pos` Integer
* `menuItem` MenuItem

Inserts the `menuItem` to the `pos` position of the menu.

## Instance Properties

`menu` objects also have the following properties:

### `menu.items`

Get an array containing the menu's items.

## Notes on macOS Application Menu

macOS has a completely different style of application menu from Windows and
Linux, here are some notes on making your app's menu more native-like.

### Standard Menus

On macOS there are many system defined standard menus, like the `Services` and
`Windows` menus. To make your menu a standard menu, you should set your menu's
`role` to one of following and Electron will recognize them and make them
become standard menus:

* `window`
* `help`
* `services`

### Standard Menu Item Actions

macOS has provided standard actions for some menu items, like `About xxx`,
`Hide xxx`, and `Hide Others`. To set the action of a menu item to a standard
action, you should set the `role` attribute of the menu item.

### Main Menu's Name

On macOS the label of application menu's first item is always your app's name,
no matter what label you set. To change it you have to change your app's name
by modifying your app bundle's `Info.plist` file. See [About Information
Property List Files][AboutInformationPropertyListFiles] for more information.

## Setting Menu for Specific Browser Window (*Linux* *Windows*)

The [`setMenu` method][setMenu] of browser windows can set the menu of certain
browser window.

## Menu Item Position

You can make use of `position` and `id` to control how the item will be placed
when building a menu with `Menu.buildFromTemplate`.

The `position` attribute of `MenuItem` has the form `[placement]=[id]`, where
`placement` is one of `before`, `after`, or `endof` and `id` is the unique ID of
an existing item in the menu:

* `before` - Inserts this item before the id referenced item. If the
  referenced item doesn't exist the item will be inserted at the end of
  the menu.
* `after` - Inserts this item after id referenced item. If the referenced
  item doesn't exist the item will be inserted at the end of the menu.
* `endof` - Inserts this item at the end of the logical group containing
  the id referenced item (groups are created by separator items). If
  the referenced item doesn't exist, a new separator group is created with
  the given id and this item is inserted after that separator.

When an item is positioned, all un-positioned items are inserted after
it until a new item is positioned. So if you want to position a group of
menu items in the same location you only need to specify a position for
the first item.

### Examples

Template:

```javascript
[
  {label: '4', id: '4'},
  {label: '5', id: '5'},
  {label: '1', id: '1', position: 'before=4'},
  {label: '2', id: '2'},
  {label: '3', id: '3'}
]
```

Menu:

```
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
```

Template:

```javascript
[
  {label: 'a', position: 'endof=letters'},
  {label: '1', position: 'endof=numbers'},
  {label: 'b', position: 'endof=letters'},
  {label: '2', position: 'endof=numbers'},
  {label: 'c', position: 'endof=letters'},
  {label: '3', position: 'endof=numbers'}
]
```

Menu:

```
- ---
- a
- b
- c
- ---
- 1
- 2
- 3
```

[AboutInformationPropertyListFiles]: https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/general/Reference/InfoPlistKeyReference/Articles/AboutInformationPropertyListFiles.html
[setMenu]: https://github.com/electron/electron/blob/master/docs/api/browser-window.md#winsetmenumenu-linux-windows