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Context Menu

Context Menu is a component that you can attach to any component to display a context menu.

Context Menu is a component that you can attach to any component to display a context menu. The menu appears on right (default) or left click. On a touch device, a long press opens the context menu.

Important
 Open the Context Menu by right-clicking (mouse) or long-pressing (touch) a Grid row.
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const items = [{ text: 'View' }, { text: 'Edit' }, { text: 'Delete' }];

return (
  <ContextMenu items={items}>
    <Grid allRowsVisible items={gridItems} ref={gridRef}>
      <GridColumn path="firstName" />
      <GridColumn path="lastName" />
      <GridColumn path="email" />
      <GridColumn header="Phone number" path="address.phone" />
    </Grid>
  </ContextMenu>
);

Dividers

You can use dividers to separate and group related content. Use dividers sparingly to avoid creating unnecessary visual clutter.

Important
 Open the Context Menu by right-clicking (mouse) or long-pressing (touch) a Grid row.
Open in a
new tab
<ContextMenu
  items={[
    { text: 'View' },
    { component: 'hr' },
    { text: 'Edit' },
    { text: 'Delete' },
    { component: 'hr' },
    { text: 'Email' },
    { text: 'Call' },
  ]}
>
  <Grid allRowsVisible items={gridItems} ref={gridRef}>
    <GridColumn path="firstName" />
    <GridColumn path="lastName" />
    <GridColumn path="email" />
    <GridColumn header="Phone number" path="address.phone" />
  </Grid>
</ContextMenu>

Checkable Menu Items

Checkable Menu Items can be used to toggle a setting on and off.

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const [items, setItems] = useState<ContextMenuItem[]>([
  { text: 'Abigail Lewis', checked: true },
  { text: 'Allison Torres' },
  { text: 'Anna Myers' },
  { text: 'Lauren Wright' },
  { text: 'Tamaki Ryushi' },
]);

const selectedItem = items.find((item) => item.checked);

function itemSelected(e: ContextMenuItemSelectedEvent) {
  setItems(items.map((item) => ({ ...item, checked: item === e.detail.value })));
}

return (
  <ContextMenu items={items} onItemSelected={itemSelected}>
    <span>
      Assignee: <b>{selectedItem?.text}</b>
    </span>
  </ContextMenu>
);

Hierarchical Menu

Context Menu, like Menu Bar, supports multi-level sub-menus. You can use a hierarchical menu to organize a large set of options and group related items.

Important
 Open the Context Menu by right-clicking (mouse) or long-pressing (touch) a Grid row.
Open in a
new tab
const items = [
  { text: 'Preview' },
  { text: 'Edit' },
  { component: 'hr' },
  {
    text: 'Export',
    children: [
      { text: 'Portable Document Format (.pdf)' },
      { text: 'Rich Text Format (.rtf)' },
      { text: 'Plain text (.txt)' },
    ],
  },
  { text: 'Share', children: [{ text: 'Copy link' }, { text: 'Email' }] },
  { component: 'hr' },
  { text: 'Delete' },
];

const gridItems: FileItem[] = [
  { name: 'Annual Report.docx', size: '24 MB' },
  { name: 'Financials.xlsx', size: '42 MB' },
];

return (
  <ContextMenu items={items}>
    <Grid allRowsVisible items={gridItems} ref={gridRef}>
      <GridColumn path="name" />
      <GridColumn path="size" />
    </Grid>
  </ContextMenu>
);

Custom Items

You can customize the items to include more than a single line of text.

Important
 Open the Context Menu by right-clicking (mouse) or long-pressing (touch) a Grid row.
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const contextMenuItems: ContextMenuItem[] = [
      { component: menuComponent(createItem('vaadin:file-search', 'Open')) },
      {
        component: menuComponent(createItem('vaadin:user-check', 'Assign')),
        children: [
          { component: menuComponent(<Item person={people[0]} />) },
          { component: menuComponent(<Item person={people[1]} />) },
          { component: menuComponent(<Item person={people[2]} />) },
          { component: menuComponent(<Item person={people[3]} />) },
          { component: menuComponent(<Item person={people[4]} />) },
        ],
      },
      { component: 'hr' },
      { component: menuComponent(createItem('vaadin:trash', 'Delete')) },
    ];

    setItems(contextMenuItems);
return (
  <ContextMenu items={items}>
    <Grid allRowsVisible items={gridItems} ref={gridRef}>
      <GridColumn header="Applicant">
        {({ item }) => (
          <span>
            {item.firstName} {item.lastName}
          </span>
        )}
      </GridColumn>
      <GridColumn path="email" />
      <GridColumn header="Phone number" path="address.phone" />
    </Grid>
  </ContextMenu>
);

Disabled Menu Items

You can disable menu items to show that they are unavailable.

Important
 Open the Context Menu by right-clicking (mouse) or long-pressing (touch) a Grid row.
Open in a
new tab
const items = [
  { text: 'Preview' },
  { text: 'Edit' },
  { component: 'hr' },
  {
    text: 'Export',
    children: [
      { text: 'Portable Document Format (.pdf)', disabled: true },
      { text: 'Rich Text Format (.rtf)' },
      { text: 'Plain text (.txt)' },
    ],
  },
  { text: 'Share', children: [{ text: 'Copy link' }, { text: 'Email' }] },
  { component: 'hr' },
  { text: 'Delete', disabled: true },
];

const gridItems: FileItem[] = [
  { name: 'Annual Report.pdf', size: '24 MB' },
  { name: 'Financials.pdf', size: '42 MB' },
];

return (
  <ContextMenu items={items}>
    <Grid allRowsVisible items={gridItems} ref={gridRef}>
      <GridColumn path="name" />
      <GridColumn path="size" />
    </Grid>
  </ContextMenu>
);

Left-Click

You can use left-click to open Context Menu in situations where left-click doesn’t have any other function, for example a Grid without selection support.

Important
 Open the Context Menu by clicking a Grid row.
Open in a
new tab
return (
  <ContextMenu openOn="click" items={items}>
    <Grid allRowsVisible items={gridItems} ref={gridRef}>
      <GridColumn path="firstName" />
      <GridColumn path="lastName" />
      <GridColumn path="email" />
      <GridColumn header="Phone number" path="address.phone" />
    </Grid>
  </ContextMenu>
);

Best Practices

Context Menu is used to provide shortcuts to the user. You shouldn’t use it as the only or primary means to complete a task. The primary way should be accessible elsewhere in the UI.

Important
 Open the Context Menu by right-clicking (desktop) or long-pressing (mobile) a Grid row, or use the Menu Bar in the last column.
Open in a
new tab
<ContextMenu items={items}>
  <Grid allRowsVisible items={gridItems}>
    <GridColumn path="name" />
    <GridColumn path="size" />
    <GridColumn width="70px" flexGrow={0}>
      {() => <MenuBar items={items} theme="tertiary" />}
    </GridColumn>
  </Grid>
</ContextMenu>

Context Menu vs Menu Bar

You should use Context Menu when there is no dedicated button for opening an overlay menu, such as right-clicking a grid row. When there is a dedicated element/component, such as an overflow menu, use Menu Bar.

Icons

Use icons when applicable to help improve recognition. It’s recommended to use commonly recognized icons to avoid confusion. Use icons consistently throughout a list of options.

Labelling

Suffix a menu item with “…​” when the associated action won’t be executed, but instead reveal some UI, like a dialog, for completing the action.

Component Usage recommendations

Menu Bar

Component for displaying a horizontal menu with multi-level sub-menus.