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Class: MenuItem

Class: MenuItem​

Add items to native application menus and context menus.

Process: Main

See Menu for examples.

warning

Electron's built-in classes cannot be subclassed in user code. For more information, see the FAQ.

new MenuItem(options)​

  • options Object
    • click Function (optional) - Will be called with click(menuItem, window, event) when the menu item is clicked.
      • menuItem MenuItem
      • window BaseWindow | undefined - This will not be defined if no window is open.
      • event KeyboardEvent
    • role string (optional) - Can be undo, redo, cut, copy, paste, pasteAndMatchStyle, delete, selectAll, reload, forceReload, toggleDevTools, resetZoom, zoomIn, zoomOut, toggleSpellChecker, togglefullscreen, window, minimize, close, help, about, services, hide, hideOthers, unhide, quit, showSubstitutions, toggleSmartQuotes, toggleSmartDashes, toggleTextReplacement, startSpeaking, stopSpeaking, zoom, front, appMenu, fileMenu, editMenu, viewMenu, shareMenu, recentDocuments, toggleTabBar, selectNextTab, selectPreviousTab, showAllTabs, mergeAllWindows, clearRecentDocuments, moveTabToNewWindow or windowMenu - Define the action of the menu item, when specified the click property will be ignored. See roles.
    • type string (optional)
      • normal
      • separator
      • submenu
      • checkbox
      • radio
      • header - Only available on macOS 14 and up.
      • palette - Only available on macOS 14 and up.
    • label string (optional)
    • sublabel string (optional) macOS - Available in macOS >= 14.4
    • toolTip string (optional) macOS - Hover text for this menu item.
    • accelerator Accelerator (optional)
    • icon (NativeImage | string) (optional)
    • enabled boolean (optional) - If false, the menu item will be greyed out and unclickable.
    • acceleratorWorksWhenHidden boolean (optional) macOS - default is true, and when false will prevent the accelerator from triggering the item if the item is not visible.
    • visible boolean (optional) - If false, the menu item will be entirely hidden.
    • checked boolean (optional) - Should only be specified for checkbox or radio type menu items.
    • registerAccelerator boolean (optional) Linux Windows - If false, the accelerator won't be registered with the system, but it will still be displayed. Defaults to true.
    • sharingItem SharingItem (optional) macOS - The item to share when the role is shareMenu.
    • submenu (MenuItemConstructorOptions[] | Menu) (optional) - Should be specified for submenu type menu items. If submenu is specified, the type: 'submenu' can be omitted. If the value is not a Menu then it will be automatically converted to one using Menu.buildFromTemplate.
    • id string (optional) - Unique within a single menu. If defined then it can be used as a reference to this item by the position attribute.
    • before string[] (optional) - Inserts this item before the item with the specified id. If the referenced item doesn't exist the item will be inserted at the end of the menu. Also implies that the menu item in question should be placed in the same “group” as the item.
    • after string[] (optional) - Inserts this item after the item with the specified id. If the referenced item doesn't exist the item will be inserted at the end of the menu.
    • beforeGroupContaining string[] (optional) - Provides a means for a single context menu to declare the placement of their containing group before the containing group of the item with the specified id.
    • afterGroupContaining string[] (optional) - Provides a means for a single context menu to declare the placement of their containing group after the containing group of the item with the specified id.
note

acceleratorWorksWhenHidden is specified as being macOS-only because accelerators always work when items are hidden on Windows and Linux. The option is exposed to users to give them the option to turn it off, as this is possible in native macOS development.

Roles​

Roles allow menu items to have predefined behaviors.

It is best to specify role for any menu item that matches a standard role, rather than trying to manually implement the behavior in a click function. The built-in role behavior will give the best native experience.

The label and accelerator values are optional when using a role and will default to appropriate values for each platform.

Every menu item must have either a role, label, or in the case of a separator a type.

The role property can have following values:

  • undo
  • about - Trigger a native about panel (custom message box on Window, which does not provide its own).
  • redo
  • cut
  • copy
  • paste
  • pasteAndMatchStyle
  • selectAll
  • delete
  • minimize - Minimize current window.
  • close - Close current window.
  • quit - Quit the application.
  • reload - Reload the current window.
  • forceReload - Reload the current window ignoring the cache.
  • toggleDevTools - Toggle developer tools in the current window.
  • togglefullscreen - Toggle full screen mode on the current window.
  • resetZoom - Reset the focused page's zoom level to the original size.
  • zoomIn - Zoom in the focused page by 10%.
  • zoomOut - Zoom out the focused page by 10%.
  • toggleSpellChecker - Enable/disable builtin spell checker.
  • fileMenu - Whole default "File" menu (Close / Quit)
  • editMenu - Whole default "Edit" menu (Undo, Copy, etc.).
  • viewMenu - Whole default "View" menu (Reload, Toggle Developer Tools, etc.)
  • windowMenu - Whole default "Window" menu (Minimize, Zoom, etc.).

The following additional roles are available on macOS:

  • appMenu - Whole default "App" menu (About, Services, etc.)
  • hide - Map to the hide action.
  • hideOthers - Map to the hideOtherApplications action.
  • unhide - Map to the unhideAllApplications action.
  • showSubstitutions - Map to the orderFrontSubstitutionsPanel action.
  • toggleSmartQuotes - Map to the toggleAutomaticQuoteSubstitution action.
  • toggleSmartDashes - Map to the toggleAutomaticDashSubstitution action.
  • toggleTextReplacement - Map to the toggleAutomaticTextReplacement action.
  • startSpeaking - Map to the startSpeaking action.
  • stopSpeaking - Map to the stopSpeaking action.
  • front - Map to the arrangeInFront action.
  • zoom - Map to the performZoom action.
  • toggleTabBar - Map to the toggleTabBar action.
  • selectNextTab - Map to the selectNextTab action.
  • selectPreviousTab - Map to the selectPreviousTab action.
  • showAllTabs - Map to the showAllTabs action.
  • mergeAllWindows - Map to the mergeAllWindows action.
  • moveTabToNewWindow - Map to the moveTabToNewWindow action.
  • window - The submenu is a "Window" menu.
  • help - The submenu is a "Help" menu.
  • services - The submenu is a "Services" menu. This is only intended for use in the Application Menu and is not the same as the "Services" submenu used in context menus in macOS apps, which is not implemented in Electron.
  • recentDocuments - The submenu is an "Open Recent" menu.
  • clearRecentDocuments - Map to the clearRecentDocuments action.
  • shareMenu - The submenu is share menu. The sharingItem property must also be set to indicate the item to share.

When specifying a role on macOS, label and accelerator are the only options that will affect the menu item. All other options will be ignored. Lowercase role, e.g. toggledevtools, is still supported.

note

The enabled and visibility properties are not available for top-level menu items in the tray on macOS.

Instance Properties​

The following properties are available on instances of MenuItem:

A string indicating the item's unique id, this property can be dynamically changed.

A string indicating the item's visible label.

A Function that is fired when the MenuItem receives a click event. It can be called with menuItem.click(event, focusedWindow, focusedWebContents).

A Menu (optional) containing the menu item's submenu, if present.

A string indicating the type of the item. Can be normal, separator, submenu, checkbox, radio, header or palette.

note

header and palette are only available on macOS 14 and up.

A string (optional) indicating the item's role, if set. Can be undo, redo, cut, copy, paste, pasteAndMatchStyle, delete, selectAll, reload, forceReload, toggleDevTools, resetZoom, zoomIn, zoomOut, toggleSpellChecker, togglefullscreen, window, minimize, close, help, about, services, hide, hideOthers, unhide, quit, startSpeaking, stopSpeaking, zoom, front, appMenu, fileMenu, editMenu, viewMenu, shareMenu, recentDocuments, toggleTabBar, selectNextTab, selectPreviousTab, showAllTabs, mergeAllWindows, clearRecentDocuments, moveTabToNewWindow or windowMenu

An Accelerator (optional) indicating the item's accelerator, if set.

An Accelerator | null indicating the item's user-assigned accelerator for the menu item.

note

This property is only initialized after the MenuItem has been added to a Menu. Either via Menu.buildFromTemplate or via Menu.append()/insert(). Accessing before initialization will just return null.

A NativeImage | string (optional) indicating the item's icon, if set.

A string indicating the item's sublabel.

A string indicating the item's hover text.

A boolean indicating whether the item is enabled, this property can be dynamically changed.

A boolean indicating whether the item is visible, this property can be dynamically changed.

A boolean indicating whether the item is checked, this property can be dynamically changed.

A checkbox menu item will toggle the checked property on and off when selected.

A radio menu item will turn on its checked property when clicked, and will turn off that property for all adjacent items in the same menu.

You can add a click function for additional behavior.

A boolean indicating if the accelerator should be registered with the system or just displayed.

This property can be dynamically changed.

A SharingItem indicating the item to share when the role is shareMenu.

This property can be dynamically changed.

A number indicating an item's sequential unique id.

A Menu that the item is a part of.