netbeans.apache.org/src/content/wiki/DevFaqUsingSubmenus.asciidoc

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= DevFaqUsingSubmenus
:jbake-type: wiki
:jbake-tags: wiki, devfaq, needsreview
:jbake-status: published
:keywords: Apache NetBeans wiki DevFaqUsingSubmenus
:description: Apache NetBeans wiki DevFaqUsingSubmenus
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=== Can I add submenus to context or main menus, instead of single menu items?

Yes, any place where the APIs expect to have an item
installed into a context or main menu, you can provide a submenu
instead.

Provide a dummy `Action` (it can be a do-nothing subclass of `javax.swing.AbstractAction`), or in some cases the class need not even be an `Action` at all. For context menus, implement the interface `link:http://www.netbeans.org/download/dev/javadoc/org-openide-util/org/openide/util/actions/Presenter.Popup.html[Presenter.Popup]` on your `Action`, and have it return a `JMenu` from `getPopupPresenter()`.

Similarly, you can implement other subinterfaces of `link:http://www.netbeans.org/download/dev/javadoc/org-openide-util/org/openide/util/actions/Presenter.html[Presenter]` to provide a different component to display in toolbars or the main menu.

*Note about using alternate components in the main menu:* If you want your action to work properly on Mac OS, you probably don't want to return anything other than a `JMenu` or `JMenuItem` from `getMenuPresenter()` if you implement link:http://www.netbeans.org/download/dev/javadoc/org-openide-util/org/openide/util/actions/Presenter.Menu.html[Presenter.Menu].  In general, Swing allows you to treat menu popups as generic Swing containers you can put what you like into.  This is not true at all of the Mac OS screen menu bar - it expects normal menu items, and will not handle unusual contents for menus.

If you just return a `JMenu` from `getPopupPresenter` or `getMenuPresenter` it will always be displayed, though you can conditionally disable it. If you wish to sometimes hide (not just disable) the submenu, make it implement link:http://www.netbeans.org/download/dev/javadoc/org-openide-awt/org/openide/awt/DynamicMenuContent.html[DynamicMenuContent] and you can make the submenu appear or disappear whenever you like (or even provide more than one menu item / submenu).

=== Apache Migration Information

The content in this page was kindly donated by Oracle Corp. to the
Apache Software Foundation.

This page was exported from link:http://wiki.netbeans.org/DevFaqUsingSubmenus[http://wiki.netbeans.org/DevFaqUsingSubmenus] , 
that was last modified by NetBeans user Admin 
on 2009-11-06T16:04:48Z.


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