<af:menu>

UIComponent class: oracle.adf.view.rich.component.rich.RichMenu
Component type: oracle.adf.RichMenu

Unsupported agents: pda

A menu is a vertical container for menu items. A menu consists of two main parts - the menu link and the menu container. The menu link is what you click on to open the menu popup. The menu container is the popup that opens when you click on the menu link. The menu container displays the contents of the menu, which are menu items. These items are typically commandMenuItems, goMenuItems, and submenus. Menus are not rendered on printable pages.

Allowed Children

A menu is designed to only hold menus, commandMenuItems, goMenuItems, and groups of these same components. A menuBar can also dynamically add children of these allowed types using a facetRef, iterator, or switcher.

Besides these components, other types of children are not allowed. This is because the menu provides special menu functionality, like in menu type access key behavior and arrow key support that will not function correctly if other components are included in the menu.

Special Menu Functionality

Menus provide special menu functionality, including menu type access key behavior, and arrow key support.

Menu Type Access Key Behavior

With menu type access key behavior, once your keyboard focus is in a menu or menuBar, you can simply press the access key without modifiers to move the focus to the menu item in that menu or menubar with that access key.

Arrow Key Support

Arrow keys provide convenient keyboard focus movement between items in a menu and its parent menuBar. While in a menu you can press the up and down arrow keys to cycle through the menu items. If your menu is rooted in a menuBar, then pressing the left or right arrow keys closes the menu and moves the focus to the previous or next menu item on the menBar. The exception to this is pressing the right arrow key while on a submenu item, which will open that submenu instead and place focus on its first item. While inside a detachable submenu, pressing ctrl plus arrow keys will cause the detachable menu to become detached and move in the specified direction.

Grouping Items in a Menu

If you use <af:group> to group items inside a menu, the menu will include separators around the group. You should also not that the group has an effect on certain items. For example, commandMenuItems with type of radio that are grouped together are automatically considered part of the same radio group.

Menu Size and Scrolling

The number of items displayed in a menu is limited in size by the -tr-visible-items property. When there are more items than the display limit, scroll up and scroll down icons are displayedfor the menu, allowing the user to scroll through the menu contents.

Menu Types

There are several different types of menus, determined by the parent component of the menu as well as the menu's attributes.

Root Menu

Menu components that are placed inside a menuBar are called root menus. The menu item links are placed horizontally across the menuBar. When the menu item link is selected, the menu container opens up, displaying the menu contents.

Submenu

Menu components that are placed inside another menu component are called submenus. The submenu item links are placed vertically inside the parent menu. When the submenu item link is selected, the submenu container opens. There is no enforced maximum depth to the level of submenu nesting, although it is generally considered a good UI practice to limit nested menus to no more than 3 levels deep.

Detachable Submenu

A detachable submenu is a submenu that has its detachable attribute set to true. This submenu has a handle area at the top of the menu that can be used to grab the submenu and drag it to a desireable spot where it will remain open.

Menu Popup

A menu component can also be placed directly inside a popup component. This is typically called a menu popup. In the case of a menu popup, the menu component does not provide the menu item link. In otherwords, the text attribute of the menu does not appear anywhere on the page. Instead, you would create another command type component (like a commandLink or commandButton) that would be set to open the menu popup.

Context Menu

A menu popup that is set to open on a right mouse click is typically refered to as a context menu.

Geometry Management

There are two distinct parts to a menu. The menu item does not render on its own, must be inside a menu or menuBar. The menu popup (an opened menu) has its own fixed size and is not effected by layout.
The children of a menu are displayed in a popup that has its own fixed size and is not effected by layout.

Screen Shot(s)

menu component

Code Example(s)

<af:menuBar id="mb1">
  <af:menu text="root menu" id="m2">
    <af:menu text="submenu" id="m3">
      <af:commandMenuItem text="Submenu Item" id="cmi1"/>
    </af:menu>  
    <af:group id="g1">
      <af:commandMenuItem text="Item1" id="cmi2"/>
      <af:commandMenuItem text="Item2" id="cmi3"/>
      <af:commandMenuItem text="Item3" id="cmi4"/>
    </af:group>
    <af:group id="g2">
      <af:goMenuItem text="GoItem1" id="gmi1"/>
      <af:goMenuItem text="GoItem2" id="gmi2/>
      <af:goMenuItem text="GoItem3" id="gmi3"/>
    </af:group>
  </af:menu>  

<af:popup id="popupMenu">
  <af:menu id="m4">
    <af:commandMenuItem text="Item1" id="cmi5"/>
    <af:commandMenuItem text="Item2" id="cmi6"/>
    <af:commandMenuItem text="Item3" id="cmi7"/>
  </af:menu>
</af:popup>

Events

Type	Phases	Description
org.apache.myfaces.trinidad.event.AttributeChangeEvent	Invoke Application, Apply Request Values	Event delivered to describe an attribute change. Attribute change events are not delivered for any programmatic change to a property. They are only delivered when a renderer changes a property without the application's specific request. An example of an attribute change event might include the width of a column that supported client-side resizing.

Type

Phases

Description

org.apache.myfaces.trinidad.event.AttributeChangeEvent

Invoke Application,
Apply Request Values

Event delivered to describe an attribute change. Attribute change events are not delivered for any programmatic change to a property. They are only delivered when a renderer changes a property without the application's specific request. An example of an attribute change event might include the width of a column that supported client-side resizing.

Attributes

Name	Type	Supports EL?	Description
accessKey	char	Yes	a character used to gain quick access to this menu. If the same access key appears in multiple input fields in the same page of output, the rendering user agent will cycle among the elements accessed by the similar keys. Note that user agents are inconsistent about dealing with two links having same access key, and so the cycling behavior is dependent on what the user agent provides. This attribute is sometimes referred to as the "mnemonic". The character specified by this attribute must exist in the `Text` attribute of this button instance. If it does not, the user will receive no visual indication of the existence of the accessKey. The easiest, and most convenient way to specify both the text and the mnemonic together is to use textAndAccessKey. Note that the accessKey is triggered by browser-specific and platform-specific modifier keys. It even has browser-specific meaning. For example, Internet Explorer will set focus when you press Alt+<accessKey>. Firefox sets focus on some operating systems when you press Alt+Shift+<accessKey>. Firefox on other operating systems sets focus when you press Control+<accessKey>. Refer to your browser's documentation for how it treats access keys. Beyond normal type menu access key behavior, menus and commandMenuItems support menu-type access key behavior when the focus is currently in a menu or menuBar. Menu-type access key behavior allows access to contained menus, submenus, and commandMenuItems without the need for any keyboard modifiers. When the focus is inside a menu or menuBar, you can simply press the accessKey, without modifiers, for a menu or commandMenuItem accessible within the menu or menuBar to immediately move focus to that menu item.
attributeChangeListener	javax.el.MethodExpression	Only EL	a method reference to an attribute change listener. Attribute change events are not delivered for any programmatic change to a property. They are only delivered when a renderer changes a property without the application's specific request. An example of an attribute change events might include the width of a column that supported client-side resizing.
binding	oracle.adf.view.rich.component.rich.RichMenu	Only EL	an EL reference that will store the component instance on a bean. This can be used to give programmatic access to a component from a backing bean, or to move creation of the component to a backing bean.
clientComponent	boolean	Yes	whether a client-side component will be generated. A component may be generated whether or not this flag is set, but if client Javascript requires the component object, this must be set to true to guarantee the component's presence. Client component objects that are generated today by default may not be present in the future; setting this flag is the only way to guarantee a component's presence, and clients cannot rely on implicit behavior. However, there is a performance cost to setting this flag, so clients should avoid turning on client components unless absolutely necessary.
contentDelivery	String	Yes	Valid Values: immediate, lazy whether the menu content is delivered with the initial page. When contentDelivery is "immediate", the content is inlined into the initial page. If contentDelivery is "lazy", the menu's content will be delivered to the client only after the first request to show that menu. By default, contentDelivery is immediate, which means the menu content will be sent to the client on initial rendering. Note that for a menu popup (a menu component placed directly inside a popup component) both the menu and the popup have a content delivery setting. In this case the popup's contentDelivery setting has precedence, and the menu's content delivery setting is ignored.
customizationId	String	Yes	This attribute is deprecated. The 'id' attribute should be used when applying persistent customizations. This attribute will be removed in the next release.
detachable	boolean	Yes	whether the menu is detachable. Detachable is always considered 'false' in screen reader mode and on iOS (Apple mobile devices).
disabled	boolean	Yes	whether the menu should be disabled.
icon	String	Yes	the URI of an image to be displayed on the menu item. This attribute supports these various types of URIs: absolute - an absolute path to the image, like "http://oracleimg.com/admin/images/ocom/hp/oralogo_small.gif" relative - a path located relatively to the source page, like "bullet.jpg" context relative - a path relatively based on the web application's context root, like "/images/error.png" server relative - a path relatively based on the web server by application name, like "//adf-richclient-demo-context-root/images/error.png" As icon does not allow alternative text to be provided for the image, in order to create an accessible product icon must only be used when its use is purely decorative.
id	String	No	the identifier for the component. The identifier must follow a subset of the syntax allowed in HTML: Must not be a zero-length String. First character must be an ASCII letter (A-Za-z) or an underscore ('_'). Subsequent characters must be an ASCII letter or digit (A-Za-z0-9), an underscore ('_'), or a dash ('-').
inlineStyle	String	Yes	the CSS styles to use for this component. This is intended for basic style changes. The inlineStyle is a set of CSS styles that are applied to the root DOM element of the component. Be aware that because of browser CSS precedence rules, CSS rendered on a DOM element takes precedence over external stylesheets like the skin file. Therefore skins will not be able to override what you set on this attribute. If the inlineStyle's CSS properties do not affect the DOM element you want affected, then you will have to create a skin and use the skinning keys which are meant to target particular DOM elements, like ::label or ::icon-style.
partialTriggers	String[]	Yes	the IDs of the components that should trigger a partial update. This component will listen on the trigger components. If one of the trigger components receives an event that will cause it to update in some way, this component will request to be updated too. Identifiers are relative to the source component (this component), and must account for NamingContainers. If your component is already inside of a naming container, you can use a single colon to start the search from the root of the page, or multiple colons to move up through the NamingContainers - "::" will pop out of the component's naming container (or itself if the component is a naming container) and begin the search from there, ":::" will pop out of two naming containers (including itself if the component is a naming container) and begin the search from there, etc.
rendered	boolean	Yes	whether the component is rendered. When set to false, no output will be delivered for this component (the component will not in any way be rendered, and cannot be made visible on the client). If you want to change a component's rendered attribute from false to true using PPR, set the partialTrigger attribute of its parent component so the parent refreshes and in turn will render this component.
shortDesc	String	Yes	the short description of the component. This text is commonly used by user agents to display tooltip help text, in which case the behavior for the tooltip is controlled by the user agent, e.g. Firefox 2 truncates long tooltips. For form components, the shortDesc is displayed in a note window. For components that support the helpTopicId attribute it is recommended that helpTopicId is used as it is more flexible and is more accessibility-compliant.
styleClass	String	Yes	a CSS style class to use for this component. The style class can be defined in your jspx page or in a skinning CSS file, for example, or you can use one of our public style classes, like 'AFInstructionText'.
text	String	Yes	the text of the item
textAndAccessKey	String	Yes	an attribute that will simultaneously set both the "text" and "accessKey" attributes from a single value, using conventional ampersand ('&') notation. For example, setting this attribute to "T&ext" will set the text to "Text" and the access key to 'e'.
unsecure	java.util.Set	Yes	A whitespace separated list of attributes whose values ordinarily can be set only on the server, but need to be settable on the client. Currently, this is supported only for the "disabled" attribute. Note that when you are able to set a property on the client, you will be allowed to by using the the .setProperty('attribute', newValue) method, but not the .setXXXAttribute(newValue) method. For example, if you have unsecure="disabled", then on the client you can use the method .setProperty('disabled', false), while the method .setDisabled(false) will not work and will provide a javascript error that setDisabled is not a function.
visible	boolean	Yes	the visibility of the component. If it is "false", the component will be hidden on the client. Unlike "rendered", this does not affect the lifecycle on the server - the component may have its bindings executed, etc. - and the visibility of the component can be toggled on and off on the client, or toggled with PPR. When "rendered" is false, the component will not in any way be rendered, and cannot be made visible on the client. In most cases, use the "rendered" property instead of the "visible" property. Not supported on the following renderkits: org.apache.myfaces.trinidad.core

Name

Type

Supports EL?

Description

accessKey

char

Yes

a character used to gain quick access to this menu.

If the same access key appears in multiple input fields in the same page of output, the rendering user agent will cycle among the elements accessed by the similar keys. Note that user agents are inconsistent about dealing with two links having same access key, and so the cycling behavior is dependent on what the user agent provides.

This attribute is sometimes referred to as the "mnemonic".

The character specified by this attribute must exist in the Text attribute of this button instance. If it does not, the user will receive no visual indication of the existence of the accessKey. The easiest, and most convenient way to specify both the text and the mnemonic together is to use textAndAccessKey.

Note that the accessKey is triggered by browser-specific and platform-specific modifier keys. It even has browser-specific meaning. For example, Internet Explorer will set focus when you press Alt+<accessKey>. Firefox sets focus on some operating systems when you press Alt+Shift+<accessKey>. Firefox on other operating systems sets focus when you press Control+<accessKey>. Refer to your browser's documentation for how it treats access keys.

Beyond normal type menu access key behavior, menus and commandMenuItems support menu-type access key behavior when the focus is currently in a menu or menuBar. Menu-type access key behavior allows access to contained menus, submenus, and commandMenuItems without the need for any keyboard modifiers. When the focus is inside a menu or menuBar, you can simply press the accessKey, without modifiers, for a menu or commandMenuItem accessible within the menu or menuBar to immediately move focus to that menu item.

attributeChangeListener

javax.el.MethodExpression

Only EL

a method reference to an attribute change listener. Attribute change events are not delivered for any programmatic change to a property. They are only delivered when a renderer changes a property without the application's specific request. An example of an attribute change events might include the width of a column that supported client-side resizing.

binding

oracle.adf.view.rich.component.rich.RichMenu

Only EL

an EL reference that will store the component instance on a bean. This can be used to give programmatic access to a component from a backing bean, or to move creation of the component to a backing bean.

clientComponent

boolean

Yes

whether a client-side component will be generated. A component may be generated whether or not this flag is set, but if client Javascript requires the component object, this must be set to true to guarantee the component's presence. Client component objects that are generated today by default may not be present in the future; setting this flag is the only way to guarantee a component's presence, and clients cannot rely on implicit behavior. However, there is a performance cost to setting this flag, so clients should avoid turning on client components unless absolutely necessary.

contentDelivery

String

Yes

Valid Values: immediate, lazy

whether the menu content is delivered with the initial page. When contentDelivery is "immediate", the content is inlined into the initial page. If contentDelivery is "lazy", the menu's content will be delivered to the client only after the first request to show that menu. By default, contentDelivery is immediate, which means the menu content will be sent to the client on initial rendering.

Note that for a menu popup (a menu component placed directly inside a popup component) both the menu and the popup have a content delivery setting. In this case the popup's contentDelivery setting has precedence, and the menu's content delivery setting is ignored.

customizationId

String

Yes

This attribute is deprecated. The 'id' attribute should be used when applying persistent customizations. This attribute will be removed in the next release.

detachable

boolean

Yes

whether the menu is detachable.

Detachable is always considered 'false' in screen reader mode and on iOS (Apple mobile devices).

disabled

boolean

Yes

whether the menu should be disabled.

icon

String

Yes

the URI of an image to be displayed on the menu item. This attribute supports these various types of URIs:

absolute - an absolute path to the image, like "http://oracleimg.com/admin/images/ocom/hp/oralogo_small.gif"
relative - a path located relatively to the source page, like "bullet.jpg"
context relative - a path relatively based on the web application's context root, like "/images/error.png"
server relative - a path relatively based on the web server by application name, like "//adf-richclient-demo-context-root/images/error.png"

As icon does not allow alternative text to be provided for the image, in order to create an accessible product icon must only be used when its use is purely decorative.

String

the identifier for the component. The identifier must follow a subset of the syntax allowed in HTML:

Must not be a zero-length String.
First character must be an ASCII letter (A-Za-z) or an underscore ('_').
Subsequent characters must be an ASCII letter or digit (A-Za-z0-9), an underscore ('_'), or a dash ('-').

inlineStyle

String

Yes

the CSS styles to use for this component. This is intended for basic style changes. The inlineStyle is a set of CSS styles that are applied to the root DOM element of the component. Be aware that because of browser CSS precedence rules, CSS rendered on a DOM element takes precedence over external stylesheets like the skin file. Therefore skins will not be able to override what you set on this attribute. If the inlineStyle's CSS properties do not affect the DOM element you want affected, then you will have to create a skin and use the skinning keys which are meant to target particular DOM elements, like ::label or ::icon-style.

partialTriggers

String[]

Yes

the IDs of the components that should trigger a partial update. This component will listen on the trigger components. If one of the trigger components receives an event that will cause it to update in some way, this component will request to be updated too. Identifiers are relative to the source component (this component), and must account for NamingContainers. If your component is already inside of a naming container, you can use a single colon to start the search from the root of the page, or multiple colons to move up through the NamingContainers - "::" will pop out of the component's naming container (or itself if the component is a naming container) and begin the search from there, ":::" will pop out of two naming containers (including itself if the component is a naming container) and begin the search from there, etc.

rendered

boolean

Yes

whether the component is rendered. When set to false, no output will be delivered for this component (the component will not in any way be rendered, and cannot be made visible on the client). If you want to change a component's rendered attribute from false to true using PPR, set the partialTrigger attribute of its parent component so the parent refreshes and in turn will render this component.

shortDesc

String

Yes

the short description of the component. This text is commonly used by user agents to display tooltip help text, in which case the behavior for the tooltip is controlled by the user agent, e.g. Firefox 2 truncates long tooltips. For form components, the shortDesc is displayed in a note window. For components that support the helpTopicId attribute it is recommended that helpTopicId is used as it is more flexible and is more accessibility-compliant.

styleClass

String

Yes

a CSS style class to use for this component. The style class can be defined in your jspx page or in a skinning CSS file, for example, or you can use one of our public style classes, like 'AFInstructionText'.

text

String

Yes

the text of the item

textAndAccessKey

String

Yes

an attribute that will simultaneously set both the "text" and "accessKey" attributes from a single value, using conventional ampersand ('&') notation.

For example, setting this attribute to "T&ext" will set the text to "Text" and the access key to 'e'.

unsecure

java.util.Set

Yes

A whitespace separated list of attributes whose values ordinarily can be set only on the server, but need to be settable on the client. Currently, this is supported only for the "disabled" attribute. Note that when you are able to set a property on the client, you will be allowed to by using the the .setProperty('attribute', newValue) method, but not the .setXXXAttribute(newValue) method. For example, if you have unsecure="disabled", then on the client you can use the method .setProperty('disabled', false), while the method .setDisabled(false) will not work and will provide a javascript error that setDisabled is not a function.

visible

boolean

Yes

the visibility of the component. If it is "false", the component will be hidden on the client. Unlike "rendered", this does not affect the lifecycle on the server - the component may have its bindings executed, etc. - and the visibility of the component can be toggled on and off on the client, or toggled with PPR. When "rendered" is false, the component will not in any way be rendered, and cannot be made visible on the client. In most cases, use the "rendered" property instead of the "visible" property.
Not supported on the following renderkits: org.apache.myfaces.trinidad.core