An Overview of JMenuBar, JMenu, and JMenuItem - Swing

An Overview of JMenuBar, JMenu, and JMenuItem

Before you can create a menu, you need to know something about the three core menu classes: JMenuBar, JMenu, and JMenuItem. These form the minimum set of classes needed to construct a main menu for an application. JMenu and JMenuItem are also used by popup menus. Thus, these classes form the foundation of the menu system.

JMenuBar

As mentioned, JMenuBar is essentially a container for menus. Like all components, it inherits JComponent (which inherits Container and Component). It has only one constructor, which is the default constructor. Therefore, initially the menu bar will be empty, and you will need to populate it with menus prior to use. Each application has one and only one menu bar.

JMenuBar defines several methods, but often you will only need to use one: add( ). The add( ) method adds a JMenu to the menu bar. It is shown here:

JMenu add(JMenu menu)

Here, menu is a JMenu instance that is added to the menu bar. A reference to the menu is returned. Menus are positioned in the bar from left to right, in the order in which they are added. If you want to add a menu at a specific location, then use this version of add( ), which is inherited from Container:

Component add(Component menu, int idx)

Here, menu is added at the index specified by idx. Indexing begins at 0, with 0 being the left-most menu.

In some cases, you might want to remove a menu that is no longer needed. You can do this by calling remove( ), which is inherited from Container. It has these two forms:

void remove(Component menu) void remove(int idx)

Here, menu is a reference to the menu to remove, and idx is the index of the menu to remove. Indexing begins at zero.

Another method that is sometimes useful is getMenuCount( ), shown here: int getMenuCount( )

It returns the number of elements contained within the menu bar.

JMenuBar defines some other methods that you might find helpful in specialized applications. For example, you can obtain an array of references to the menus in the bar by calling getSubElements( ). You can determine if a menu is selected by calling isSelected( ). Once a menu bar has been created and populated, it is added to a JFrame by calling

setJMenuBar( ) on the JFrame instance. (Menu bars are not added to the content pane.) The setJMenuBar( ) method is shown here:

void setJMenuBar(JMenuBar mb)

Here, mb is a reference to the menu bar. The menu bar will be displayed in a position determined by the look and feel. Usually, this is at the top of the window.

JMenu

JMenu encapsulates a menu, which is populated with JMenuItems. As mentioned, it is derived from JMenuItem. This means that one JMenu can be a selection in another JMenu. This enables one menu to be a submenu of another. JMenu defines a number of constructors. For example, here is the one used in the examples in this chapter:

JMenu(String name)

This constructor creates a menu that has the title specified by name. Of course, you don’t have to give a menu a name. To create an unnamed menu, you can use the default constructor:

JMenu( )

Other constructors are also supported. In each case, the menu is empty until menu items are added to it.

JMenu defines many methods. Here is a brief description of some commonly used ones. To add an item to the menu, use the add( ) method, which has a number of forms, including the two shown here:

JMenuItem add(JMenuItem item) JMenuItem add(Component item, int idx)

Here, item is the menu item to add. The first form adds the item to the end of the menu. The second form adds the item at the index specified by idx. As expected, indexing starts at zero. Both forms return a reference to the item added. As a point of interest, you can also use insert( ) to add menu items to a menu.

You can add a separator (an object of type JSeparator) to a menu by calling addSeparator( ), shown here:

void addSeparator( )

The separator is added onto the end of the menu. You can insert a separator into a menu by calling insertSeparator( ), shown next:

void insertSeparator(int idx)

Here, idx specifies the zero-based index at which the separator will be added.

You can remove an item from a menu by calling remove( ). Two of its forms are shown here:

void remove(JMenuItem menu) void remove(int idx)

In this case, menu is a reference to the item to remove and idx is the index of the item to remove.

You can obtain the number of items in the menu by calling getMenuComponentCount( ), shown here:

int getMenuComponentCount( )

You can get an array of the items in the menu by calling getMenuComponents( ), shown next: Component[ ] getMenuComponents( )

An array containing the components is returned.

JMenuItem

JMenuItem encapsulates an element in a menu. This element can be a selection linked to some program action, such as Save or Close, or it can cause a submenu to be displayed. As mentioned, JMenuItem is derived from AbstractButton, and every item in a menu can be thought of as a special kind of button. Therefore, when a menu item is selected, an action event is generated. (This is similar to the way a JButton fires an action event when it is pressed.) JMenuItem defines many constructors. The ones used in this chapter are shown here:

JMenuItem(String name) JMenuItem(Icon image) JMenuItem(String name, Icon image) JMenuItem(String name, int mnem) JMenuItem(Action action)

The first constructor creates a menu item with the name specified by name. The second creates a menu item that displays the image specified by image. The third creates a menu item with the name specified by name and the image specified by image. The fourth creates a menu item with the name specified by name and uses the keyboard mnemonic specified by mnem. This mnemonic enables you to select an item from the menu by pressing the specified key. The last constructor creates a menu item using the information specified in action. A default constructor is also supported.

Because menu items inherit AbstractButton, you have access to the functionality provided by AbstractButton. One such method that is often useful with menus is setEnabled( ), which you can use to enable or disable a menu item. It is shown here:

void setEnabled(boolean enable)

If enable is true, the menu item is enabled. If enable is false, the item is disabled and cannot be selected.