Need MouseOutEvent of MenuBar to detect click: GWT

Question

I am a beginner using GWT. I have a menubar which I want to retain on the screen even if the mouse is not over it. However when the mouse is not over the menubar and clicked somewhere on the screen then I want the menubar to disappear. I tried using the MouseOutEvent but I need it to fire only when the mouse is clicked not just out. Any help would be appreciated.

this.menu.addDomHandler(menuHoverOutHandler, MouseOutEvent.getType());

 MouseOutHandler menuHoverOutHandler = new MouseOutHandler() {
       public void onMouseOut(MouseOutEvent event) {
            Window.alert("I am outside the region");
        }
    };

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 02 '15 at 01:27

Below is a fully working answer taken from my live app:

The way I solved the menu close on mouse out was to run a boolean variable "isMouseOut" in the top of the constructor to keep track, and then allocate the MouseListener in a more OO friendly way to keep track of the multiple MouseIn-MouseOut events as a user interacts with the menu. Which calls a separate menuClear method acting upon the state of the boolean "isMouseOut". The class implements MouseListener. This is how its done.

Create an ArrayList adding all the menu items to this array first. Like so:

    Font menuFont = new Font("Arial", Font.PLAIN, 12);
    JMenuBar menuBar = new JMenuBar();
    getContentPane().add(menuBar, BorderLayout.NORTH); 

// Array of MenuItems
    ArrayList<JMenuItem> aMenuItms = new ArrayList<JMenuItem>();
    JMenuItem mntmRefresh = new JMenuItem("Refresh");
    JMenuItem mntmNew = new JMenuItem("New");
    JMenuItem mntmNormal = new JMenuItem("Normal");
    JMenuItem mntmMax = new JMenuItem("Max");
    JMenuItem mntmStatus = new JMenuItem("Status");
    JMenuItem mntmFeedback = new JMenuItem("Send Feedback");
    JMenuItem mntmEtsyTWebsite = new JMenuItem("EtsyT website");
    JMenuItem mntmAbout = new JMenuItem("About");

    aMenuItms.add(mntmRefresh);
    aMenuItms.add(mntmNew);
    aMenuItms.add(mntmNormal);
    aMenuItms.add(mntmMax);
    aMenuItms.add(mntmStatus);
    aMenuItms.add(mntmFeedback);
    aMenuItms.add(mntmEtsyTWebsite);
    aMenuItms.add(mntmAbout);

then iterate over the arrayList at this stage adding a MouseListener using the for() loop:

  for (Component c : aMenuItms) {
        if (c instanceof JMenuItem) {
            c.addMouseListener(ml);
        }
    }

Now set JMenu parents for the MenuBar:

// Now set JMenu parents on MenuBar
    final JMenu mnFile = new JMenu("File");
    menuBar.add(mnFile).setFont(menuFont);
    final JMenu mnView = new JMenu("View");
    menuBar.add(mnView).setFont(menuFont);
    final JMenu mnHelp = new JMenu("Help");
    menuBar.add(mnHelp).setFont(menuFont);

Then add the dropdown menuItems children to the JMenu parents:

// Now set menuItems as children of JMenu parents
    mnFile.add(mntmRefresh).setFont(menuFont);
    mnFile.add(mntmNew).setFont(menuFont);
    mnView.add(mntmNormal).setFont(menuFont);
    mnView.add(mntmMax).setFont(menuFont);
    mnHelp.add(mntmStatus).setFont(menuFont);
    mnHelp.add(mntmFeedback).setFont(menuFont);
    mnHelp.add(mntmEtsyTWebsite).setFont(menuFont);
    mnHelp.add(mntmAbout).setFont(menuFont);

Add the mouseListeners to the JMenu parents as a separate step:

    for (Component c : menuBar.getComponents()) {
        if (c instanceof JMenu) {
            c.addMouseListener(ml);
        }
    }

Now that the child menuItem elements all have their own listeners that are separate to the parent JMenu elements and the MenuBar itself - It is important to identify the object type within the MouseListener() instantiation so that you get the menu auto opening on mouseover (in this example the 3x JMenu parents) BUT ALSO avoids child exception errors and allows clean identification of mouseOUT of the menu structure without trying to monitor where the mouse position is. The MouseListener is as follows:

MouseListener ml = new MouseListener() {
        public void mouseClicked(MouseEvent e) {
        }

        public void mousePressed(MouseEvent e) {
        }

        public void mouseReleased(MouseEvent e) {
        }

        public void mouseExited(MouseEvent e) {
            isMouseOut = true;
            timerMenuClear();
        }

        public void mouseEntered(MouseEvent e) {
            isMouseOut = false;
            Object eSource = e.getSource();
            if(eSource == mnHelp || eSource == mnView || eSource == mnFile){
                ((JMenu) eSource).doClick();
            }
        }
    };

The above only simulates the mouse click into the JMenu 'parents' (3x in this example) as they are the triggers for the child menu dropdowns. The timerMenuClear() method calls on the MenuSelectionManager to empty whatever selectedpath point was live at the time of real mouseOUT:

public void timerMenuClear(){
    ActionListener task = new ActionListener() {
      public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
          if(isMouseOut == true){
              System.out.println("Timer");
          MenuSelectionManager.defaultManager().clearSelectedPath();
          }
      }
  };        
    //Delay timer half a second to ensure real mouseOUT
  Timer timer = new Timer(1000, task); 
  timer.setInitialDelay(500);        
  timer.setRepeats(false);
  timer.start();
}

It took me a little testing, monitoring what values I could access within the JVM during its development - but it Works a treat! even with nested menus :) I hope many find this full example very useful.

score -1 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 22 '13 at 02:52

-1

Use widget's blur handler. It detects when the widget lost focus.

answered Jan 22 '13 at 02:52

SwiftMango

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MenuBar does not have a blur handler. – Engineer2021 Oct 09 '14 at 13:05

Need MouseOutEvent of MenuBar to detect click: GWT

2 Answers2