JMenu ActionListener

Question

I was wondering if can you test to see if a JMenu (not JMenuItem) has been clicked. I tried adding an ActionListener to it but it doesn't seem to recognize it. I just need it to preform an action when the JMenu button is pressed so that I can change the JMenuItems for that menu befor it opens. All work arrounds to get this result are welcome too!

Thanks

Have you tried [`addMenuListener`](http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/javax/swing/JMenu.html#addMenuListener(javax.swing.event.MenuListener))? — assylias, Mar 25 '12 at 17:13
No I'm using addActionListener right now but to add that I run into some problems, shouldn't actionListener work aswell though? — clankfan1, Mar 25 '12 at 17:20
Why change the menu items on JMenu click? Why not change it before the click? What is your "use case" here? — Hovercraft Full Of Eels, Mar 25 '12 at 17:28
mre, that only works for JMenuItems I need a listener for a JMenu — clankfan1, Mar 25 '12 at 17:33
Hovercraft, I'm using it to determine whether or not certain JMenuItems are enabled and I thought it would be an easy way to test it without using threads... — clankfan1, Mar 25 '12 at 17:36
*"determine whether or not certain JMenuItems are enabled"* `setEnabled(boolean)` is not enough? — Andrew Thompson, Mar 25 '12 at 17:46
I'm still not quite sure what your goal is. You can trap Menu clicks with a ChangeListener, however the rationale has a funny smell to me. — Hovercraft Full Of Eels, Mar 25 '12 at 18:22

score 21 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 10:29

for JMenu use MenuListener

code

import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import javax.swing.event.*;

public class ActionExample {

    public ActionExample() {

        JMenu menu = new JMenu("Menu");
        menu.setMnemonic(KeyEvent.VK_M);
        menu.addMenuListener(new SampleMenuListener());
        JMenu menu1 = new JMenu("Tool");
        menu1.setMnemonic(KeyEvent.VK_T);
        menu1.addMenuListener(new SampleMenuListener());
        JFrame f = new JFrame("ActionExample");
        JMenuBar mb = new JMenuBar();
        mb.add(menu);
        mb.add(menu1);
        f.setJMenuBar(mb);
        f.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        f.pack();
        f.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
        f.setVisible(true);
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {

            @Override
            public void run() {
                ActionExample actionExample = new ActionExample();
            }
        });
    }
}

class SampleMenuListener implements MenuListener {

    @Override
    public void menuSelected(MenuEvent e) {
        System.out.println("menuSelected");
    }

    @Override
    public void menuDeselected(MenuEvent e) {
        System.out.println("menuDeselected");
    }

    @Override
    public void menuCanceled(MenuEvent e) {
        System.out.println("menuCanceled");
    }
}

for JMenuItem use only ButtonModel

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 29 '21 at 21:56

I think it's possible to use a MouseListener to fire actions in JMenu without JMenuItem.

JMenu myMenu = new JMenu("My menu");

myMenu.addMouseListener(new MouseListener() {
  @Override
  public void mouseClicked(MouseEvent e) {
    // action here
  }

  @Override
  public void mousePressed(MouseEvent e) {
  }

  @Override
  public void mouseReleased(MouseEvent e) {
  }

  @Override
  public void mouseEntered(MouseEvent e) {
  }

  @Override
  public void mouseExited(MouseEvent e) {
  }
});

menuBar.add(myMenu);

In this case, where we're only overriding a single method, use `MouseAdapter` for cleaner code. — Hummeling Engineering BV, Jun 02 '22 at 06:13

score -1 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 23 '17 at 18:52

-1

With an instance of JMenu you can't add an ActionListener, only with JMenuItem you can do it.

answered Jan 23 '17 at 18:52

Antonio1996

736
2
7
22

We can add an `ActionListener` to `JMenu`, but it just doesn't have any effect. JMenu opens its child `JMenu`s and `JMenuItem`s when the mouse hovers over it. I think the question is about the extra functionality to perform an action when clicking on the `JMenu`. – Hummeling Engineering BV Jun 02 '22 at 06:18

JMenu ActionListener

3 Answers3

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