Getting started with JavaScript ContextMenu control

08 May 2023 / 4 minutes to read

This section explains how to create a simple ContextMenu, and configure its available functionalities in TypeScript using Essential JS 2 quickstart seed repository.

Dependencies

The following list of dependencies are required to use the ContextMenu component in your application.

|-- @syncfusion/ej2-navigations
    |-- @syncfusion/ej2-base
    |-- @syncfusion/ej2-data
    |-- @syncfusion/ej2-lists
    |-- @syncfusion/ej2-inputs
    |-- @syncfusion/ej2-popups
        |-- @syncfusion/ej2-buttons

Setup your development environment

To get started with ContextMenu component, you can clone the Essential JS 2 quickstart and install the npm packages by using the following commands.

git clone https://github.com/syncfusion/ej2-quickstart.git quickstart
cd quickstart
npm install

The project is preconfigured with common settings (src/styles/styles.css, system.config.js) to start all the Essential JS 2 components.

Refer to the ContextMenu component dependencies in system.config.js configuration file.

[src/system.config.js]

System.config({
paths: {
    'npm:': './node_modules/',
    'syncfusion:': 'npm:@syncfusion/'
},
map: {
    app: 'app',

    //Syncfusion packages mapping
    "@syncfusion/ej2-base": "syncfusion:ej2-base/dist/ej2-base.umd.min.js",
    "@syncfusion/ej2-data": "syncfusion:ej2-data/dist/ej2-data.umd.min.js",
    "@syncfusion/ej2-inputs": "syncfusion:ej2-inputs/dist/ej2-inputs.umd.min.js",
    "@syncfusion/ej2-buttons": "syncfusion:ej2-buttons/dist/ej2-buttons.umd.min.js",
    "@syncfusion/ej2-splitbuttons": "syncfusion:ej2-splitbuttons/dist/ej2-splitbuttons.umd.min.js",
    "@syncfusion/ej2-lists": "syncfusion:ej2-lists/dist/ej2-lists.umd.min.js",
    "@syncfusion/ej2-popups": "syncfusion:ej2-popups/dist/ej2-popups.umd.min.js",
    "@syncfusion/ej2-dropdowns": "syncfusion:ej2-dropdowns/dist/ej2-dropdowns.umd.min.js",
},
packages: {
    'app': { main: 'app', defaultExtension: 'js' }
}
});

System.import('app.ts').catch(console.error.bind(console)).then(function () {
document.getElementById('loader').style.display = "none";
document.getElementById('container').style.visibility = "visible";
});

Add ContextMenu to the project

Add the HTML UL tag with the id attribute as #contextmenu to your index.html file and also add target element on which the ContextMenu has to be opened.

[src/index.html]

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">

<head>
<title>Essential JS 2</title>
<meta charset="utf-8" />
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, user-scalable=no" />
<meta name="description" content="Essential JS 2" />
<meta name="author" content="Syncfusion" />
<link rel="shortcut icon" href="resources/favicon.ico" />
<link href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.3.7/css/bootstrap.min.css" rel="stylesheet" />

<!--style reference from app-->
<link href="/styles/styles.css" rel="stylesheet" />

<!--system js reference and configuration-->
<script src="node_modules/systemjs/dist/system.src.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="system.config.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<style>
    #target {
        border: 1px dashed;
        height: 150px;
        padding: 10px;
        position: relative;
        text-align: justify;
        color: gray;
        user-select: none;
    }
</style>
</head>

<body>
    <!--target element-->
    <div id="target">Right click / Touch hold to open the ContextMenu</div>
    <!--element which is going to render-->
    <ul id="contextmenu"></ul>
</body>
</html>

Import the ContextMenu component in your app.ts file and initialize it with the #contextmenu and target option.

[src/app/app.ts]

import { ContextMenu, MenuItemModel, ContextMenuModel } from '@syncfusion/ej2-navigations';
import { enableRipple } from '@syncfusion/ej2-base';

enableRipple(true);

let menuItems: MenuItemModel[] = [
{
    text: 'Cut'
},
{
    text: 'Copy'
},
{
    text: 'Paste'
}];
let menuOptions: ContextMenuModel = {
    target: '#target',
    items: menuItems
};

// Initialize ContextMenu component.
let menuObj: ContextMenu = new ContextMenu(menuOptions, '#contextmenu')

Adding Style sheet to the Application

To render ContextMenu component, need to import navigations and its dependent components styles as given below in styles.css.

@import "../node_modules/@syncfusion/ej2-base/styles/material.css";
@import "../node_modules/@syncfusion/ej2-buttons/styles/material.css";
@import "../node_modules/@syncfusion/ej2-popups/styles/material.css";
@import "../node_modules/@syncfusion/ej2-lists/styles/material.css";
@import "../node_modules/@syncfusion/ej2-inputs/styles/material.css";
@import "../node_modules/@syncfusion/ej2-navigations/styles/material.css";

Run the application

Run the application in the browser using the following command:

npm start

The following example shows a basic ContextMenu component.

Source

Preview

app.ts

index.html

styles.css

import { ContextMenu, MenuItemModel, ContextMenuModel } from '@syncfusion/ej2-navigations';
import { enableRipple } from '@syncfusion/ej2-base';

enableRipple(true);

//Initialize menu items.
let menuItems: MenuItemModel[] = [
{
    text: 'Cut'
},
{
    text: 'Copy'
},
{
    text: 'Paste'
}];
// Initialize ContextMenu options.
let menuOptions: ContextMenuModel = {
    target: '#target',
    items: menuItems
};

// Initialize ContextMenu component.
let menuObj: ContextMenu = new ContextMenu(menuOptions, '#contextmenu');

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">

<head>
            
    <title>Essential JS 2</title>
    <meta charset="utf-8" />
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, user-scalable=no" />
    <meta name="description" content="Essential JS 2" />
    <meta name="author" content="Syncfusion" />
    <link href="//cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/21.2.3/ej2-base/styles/material.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <link href="//cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/21.2.3/ej2-buttons/styles/material.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <link href="//cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/21.2.3/ej2-lists/styles/material.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <link href="//cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/21.2.3/ej2-inputs/styles/material.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <link href="//cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/21.2.3/ej2-popups/styles/material.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <link href="//cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/21.2.3/ej2-navigations/styles/material.css" rel="stylesheet" />

    <!--style reference from app-->
    <link href="styles.css" rel="stylesheet" />

    <!--system js reference and configuration-->
    <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/systemjs/0.19.38/system.js"></script>
    <script src="systemjs.config.js"></script>
</head>

<body>
    <div id='loader'>LOADING....</div>
    <div id='container'>
        <!--target element-->
        <div id="target">Right click / Touch hold to open the ContextMenu</div>
        <!--element which is going to render-->
        <ul id="contextmenu"></ul>
    </div>
</body>

</html>

.shortcut {
    float: right;
    font-size: 10px;
    opacity: 0.5;
    padding-left: 50px;
}

#loader {
  color: #008cff;
  height: 40px;
  left: 45%;
  position: absolute;
  top: 45%;
  width: 30%;
}

#container {
  visibility: hidden;
}

#target {
  border: 1px dashed;
  height: 150px;
  padding: 10px;
  position: relative;
  text-align: justify;
  color: gray;
  user-select: none;
}

Rendering items with Separator

The Separators are the horizontal lines that are used to separate the menu items. You cannot select the separators. You can enable separators to group the menu items using the separator property. Cut, Copy, and Paste menu items are grouped using the separator property in the following sample.