Introducing Swing Menus

CHAPTER 33

Introducing Swing Menus

This chapter introduces another fundamental aspect of the Swing GUI environment: the menu. Menus form an integral part of many applications because they present the program’s functionality to the user. Because of their importance, Swing provides extensive support for menus. They are an area in which Swing’s power is readily apparent.

The Swing menu system supports several key elements, including

        The menu bar, which is the main menu for an application.

        The standard menu, which can contain either items to be selected or other menus (submenus).

        The popup menu, which is usually activated by right-clicking the mouse.

        The toolbar, which provides rapid access to program functionality, often paralleling menu items.

        The action, which enables two or more different components to be managed by a single object. Actions are commonly used with menus and toolbars.

Swing menus also support accelerator keys, which enable menu items to be selected without having to activate the menu, and mnemonics, which allow a menu item to be selected by the keyboard once the menu options are displayed.