MenuItem

Class: MenuItem

Add items to native application menus and context menus.

Process: Main

See Menu for examples.

[!WARNING] Electron's built-in classes cannot be subclassed in user code. For more information, see the FAQ.

new MenuItem(options)

• options Object
  • click Function (optional) - Will be called with click(menuItem, window, event) when the menu item is clicked.
    • menuItem MenuItem
    • window BaseWindow | undefined - This will not be defined if no window is open.
    • event KeyboardEvent
  • role string (optional) - Can be undo, redo, cut, copy, paste, pasteAndMatchStyle, delete, selectAll, reload, forceReload, toggleDevTools, resetZoom, zoomIn, zoomOut, toggleSpellChecker, togglefullscreen, window, minimize, close, help, about, services, hide, hideOthers, unhide, quit, showSubstitutions, toggleSmartQuotes, toggleSmartDashes, toggleTextReplacement, startSpeaking, stopSpeaking, zoom, front, appMenu, fileMenu, editMenu, viewMenu, shareMenu, recentDocuments, toggleTabBar, selectNextTab, selectPreviousTab, showAllTabs, mergeAllWindows, clearRecentDocuments, moveTabToNewWindow or windowMenu - Define the action of the menu item, when specified the click property will be ignored. See roles.
  • type string (optional)
    • normal
    • separator
    • submenu
    • checkbox
    • radio
    • header - Only available on macOS 14 and up.
    • palette - Only available on macOS 14 and up.
  • label string (optional)
  • sublabel string (optional) macOS - Available in macOS >= 14.4
  • toolTip string (optional) macOS - Hover text for this menu item.
  • accelerator string (optional) - An Accelerator string.
  • icon (NativeImage | string) (optional) - Can be a NativeImage or the file path of an icon.
  • enabled boolean (optional) - If false, the menu item will be greyed out and unclickable.
  • acceleratorWorksWhenHidden boolean (optional) macOS - default is true, and when false will prevent the accelerator from triggering the item if the item is not visible.
  • visible boolean (optional) - If false, the menu item will be entirely hidden.
  • checked boolean (optional) - Should only be specified for checkbox or radio type menu items.
  • registerAccelerator boolean (optional) Linux Windows - If false, the accelerator won't be registered with the system, but it will still be displayed. Defaults to true.
  • sharingItem SharingItem (optional) macOS - The item to share when the role is shareMenu.
  • submenu (MenuItemConstructorOptions[] | Menu) (optional) - Should be specified for submenu type menu items. If submenu is specified, the type: 'submenu' can be omitted. If the value is not a Menu then it will be automatically converted to one using Menu.buildFromTemplate.
  • id string (optional) - Unique within a single menu. If defined then it can be used as a reference to this item by the position attribute.
  • before string[] (optional) - Inserts this item before the item with the specified id. If the referenced item doesn't exist the item will be inserted at the end of the menu. Also implies that the menu item in question should be placed in the same “group” as the item.
  • after string[] (optional) - Inserts this item after the item with the specified id. If the referenced item doesn't exist the item will be inserted at the end of the menu.
  • beforeGroupContaining string[] (optional) - Provides a means for a single context menu to declare the placement of their containing group before the containing group of the item with the specified id.
  • afterGroupContaining string[] (optional) - Provides a means for a single context menu to declare the placement of their containing group after the containing group of the item with the specified id.

[!NOTE] acceleratorWorksWhenHidden is specified as being macOS-only because accelerators always work when items are hidden on Windows and Linux. The option is exposed to users to give them the option to turn it off, as this is possible in native macOS development.

Instance Properties

The following properties are available on instances of MenuItem:

menuItem.id

A string indicating the item's unique id.

This property can be dynamically changed.

menuItem.label

A string indicating the item's visible label.

This property can be dynamically changed.

menuItem.click

A Function that is fired when the MenuItem receives a click event. It can be called with menuItem.click(event, focusedWindow, focusedWebContents).

• event KeyboardEvent
• focusedWindow BaseWindow
• focusedWebContents WebContents

menuItem.submenu

A Menu (optional) containing the menu item's submenu, if present.

menuItem.type

A string indicating the type of the item. Can be normal, separator, submenu, checkbox, radio, header or palette.

[!NOTE] header and palette are only available on macOS 14 and up.

menuItem.role

A string (optional) indicating the item's role, if set. Can be undo, redo, cut, copy, paste, pasteAndMatchStyle, delete, selectAll, reload, forceReload, toggleDevTools, resetZoom, zoomIn, zoomOut, toggleSpellChecker, togglefullscreen, window, minimize, close, help, about, services, hide, hideOthers, unhide, quit, startSpeaking, stopSpeaking, zoom, front, appMenu, fileMenu, editMenu, viewMenu, shareMenu, recentDocuments, toggleTabBar, selectNextTab, selectPreviousTab, showAllTabs, mergeAllWindows, clearRecentDocuments, moveTabToNewWindow or windowMenu

menuItem.accelerator

An Accelerator | null indicating the item's accelerator, if set.

menuItem.userAccelerator Readonly macOS

An Accelerator | null indicating the item's user-assigned accelerator for the menu item.

[!NOTE] This property is only initialized after the MenuItem has been added to a Menu. Either via Menu.buildFromTemplate or via Menu.append()/insert(). Accessing before initialization will just return null.

menuItem.icon

A NativeImage | string (optional) indicating the item's icon, if set.

This property can be dynamically changed.

menuItem.sublabel

A string indicating the item's sublabel.

This property can be dynamically changed.

menuItem.toolTip macOS

A string indicating the item's hover text.

menuItem.enabled

A boolean indicating whether the item is enabled.

This property can be dynamically changed.

menuItem.visible

A boolean indicating whether the item is visible.

This property can be dynamically changed.

menuItem.checked

A boolean indicating whether the item is checked.

This property can be dynamically changed.

A checkbox menu item will toggle the checked property on and off when selected.

A radio menu item will turn on its checked property when clicked, and will turn off that property for all adjacent items in the same menu.

You can add a click function for additional behavior.

menuItem.registerAccelerator

A boolean indicating if the accelerator should be registered with the system or just displayed.

This property can be dynamically changed.

menuItem.sharingItem macOS

A SharingItem indicating the item to share when the role is shareMenu.

This property can be dynamically changed.

menuItem.commandId

A number indicating an item's sequential unique id.

menuItem.menu

A Menu that the item is a part of.