Getting started with JavaScript Menu Bar control

17 Mar 2023 / 5 minutes to read

This section explains how to create a simple Menu, 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 Menu 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 the Menu component, clone Essential JS 2 quickstart, and install the npm packages 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 Menu 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",
    "@syncfusion/ej2-navigations": "syncfusion:ej2-navigations/dist/ej2-navigations.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 the HTML UL tag with the id attribute as menu to your index.html file.

[src/index.html]

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

<head>
<title>Essential JS 2 - Menu</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 - Menu" />
<meta name="author" content="Syncfusion" />
<link rel="shortcut icon" href="resources/favicon.ico" />

<!--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>
</head>

<body>
<ul id="menu"></ul>
</body>
</html>

Import the Menu component in your app.ts file and initialize it with the #menu.

[src/app/app.ts]

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

enableRipple(true);

//Menu items definition
let menuItems: MenuItemModel[] = [
{
    text: 'File',
    items: [
        { text: 'Open' },
        { text: 'Save' },
        { text: 'Exit' }
    ]
},
{
    text: 'Edit',
    items: [
        { text: 'Cut' },
        { text: 'Copy' },
        { text: 'Paste' }
    ]
},
{
    text: 'View',
    items: [
        { text: 'Toolbar' },
        { text: 'Sidebar' }
    ]
},
{
    text: 'Tools',
    items: [
        { text: 'Spelling & Grammar' },
        { text: 'Customize' },
        { text: 'Options' }
    ]
},
{ text: 'Go' },
{ text: 'Help' }
];

// Initialize Menu component.
let menuObj: Menu = new Menu({ items: menuItems }, '#menu');

Adding Style sheet to the Application

To render Menu 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 Menu component.

Source

Preview

app.ts

index.html

styles.css

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

enableRipple(true);

//Menu items definition
let menuItems: MenuItemModel[] = [
{
    text: 'File',
    items: [
        { text: 'Open' },
        { text: 'Save' },
        { text: 'Exit' }
    ]
},
{
    text: 'Edit',
    items: [
        { text: 'Cut' },
        { text: 'Copy' },
        { text: 'Paste' }
    ]
},
{
    text: 'View',
    items: [
        { text: 'Toolbar' },
        { text: 'Sidebar' }
    ]
},
{
    text: 'Tools',
    items: [
        { text: 'Spelling & Grammar' },
        { text: 'Customize' },
        { text: 'Options' }
    ]
},
{ text: 'Go' },
{ text: 'Help' }
];

// Initialize Menu component.
let menuObj: Menu = new Menu({ items: menuItems }, '#menu');

<!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/ej2/20.4.48/ej2-base/styles/material.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <link href="//cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/20.4.48/ej2-popups/styles/material.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <link href="//cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/20.4.48/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'>
        <div class="control-section">
            <ul id="menu"></ul>
        </div>
    </div>
</body>

</html>

body {
    margin-top: 100px;
    text-align: center;
}

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

This example demonstrates the basic rendering of Menu with items support. For more information about data source support, refer to the Data Source Binding section.

The separators are both horizontal and vertical lines used to separate the menu items. You cannot select the separators, but you can enable separators to group the menu items using the separator property. The Open and Save sub menu items are grouped using the separator property in the following sample.