menulist

An element that can be used for drop-down choice lists. The user may select one of the elements displayed in the menulist. The currently selected choice is displayed on the menulist element. To create the drop-down, put a menupopup inside the menulist containing the choices as menuitem elements. The command event may be used to execute code when the menulist selection changes.

More information is available in the XUL tutorial.

Attributes
accesskey, crop, disableautoselect, disabled, editable, focused, image, label, oncommand, open, preference, readonly, sizetopopup, tabindex, value
Properties
accessibleType, crop, description, disableautoselect, disabled, editable, editor, image, inputField, itemCount, label, menuBoxObject, menupopup, open, selectedIndex, selectedItem, tabIndex, value
Methods
appendItem, contains, getIndexOfItem, getItemAtIndex, insertItemAt, removeAllItems, removeItemAt, select

Examples

menulist.png

<menulist>
  <menupopup>
    <menuitem label="option 1" value="1"/>
    <menuitem label="option 2" value="2"/>
    <menuitem label="option 3" value="3"/>
    <menuitem label="option 4" value="4"/>
  </menupopup>
</menulist>

Attributes

accesskey
Type: character
This should be set to a character that is used as a shortcut key. This should be one of the characters that appears in the label label for the element.

 

crop
Type: one of the values below
If the label of the element is too big to fit in its given space, the text will be cropped on the side specified by the crop attribute. An ellipsis will be used in place of the cropped text. If the box direction is reversed, the cropping is reversed.
start
The text will be cropped on its left side in left-to-right text locales, and the right side in right-to-left locales.
end
The text will be cropped on its right side in left-to-right text locales, and the right side in right-to-left locales.
left
The text will be cropped on its left side.
right
The text will be cropped on its right side.
center
The text will be cropped in the middle, showing both the start and end of the text normally.
none
The text will be not be cropped using an ellipsis. However, the text will simply be cut off if it is too large. The side depends on the CSS text alignment.
Depending on the platform and theme being used, some elements will have set a maximum width so they will always appear cropped. If you wish to use the value none and the displayed text is larger than this maximum width, you may be able to use the max-width CSS property (or the maxwidth attribute) to override this size. For example, for a menuitem in a menu you can add the following CSS rule when you want to use the value none:
menupopup > menuitem, menupopup > menu { max-width: none; }
disableautoselect
Type: boolean
If this attribute is true or omitted, the selected item on the menu will update to match what the user entered in the textbox. If the text does not match any of the items in the list, the menu selection is cleared. If this attribute is false, the selection is never updated to match the text box. This attribute applies only to editable menulists.
disabled
Type: boolean
Indicates whether the element is disabled or not. If this element is set to true the element is disabled. Disabled elements are usually drawn with grayed-out text. If the element is disabled, it does not respond to user actions, it cannot be focused, and the command event will not fire.
Visible controls have a disabled property which, except for menus and menuitems, is normally preferred to use of the attribute, as it may need to update additional state.
editable
Type: boolean
Indicates that the value of the menulist can be modified by typing directly into the value field. This is rendered as a textbox with a drop-down arrow beside it. The user may enter text into the textbox or select one of the choices by clicking from the drop-down.
focused
Type: boolean
This attribute is true if the element is focused.
image
Type: URI
The URI of the image to appear on the element. If this attribute is empty or left out, no image appears. The position of the image is determined by the dir and orient attributes.
label
Type: string
The label that will appear on the element. If this is left out, no text appears. For an editable menuitem element the value of this attribute is copied to the menulist.value property upon user selection of the menuitem.

 

oncommand
Type: script code
This event handler is called when the command is activated. This occurs when a user selects a menu item or presses a keyboard shortcut attached to the command.
open
Type: boolean
For the menu type buttons, the open attribute is set to true when the menu is open. The open attribute is not present if the menu is closed.

 

preference
Type: id
Connects the element to a corresponding preference. This attribute only has any effect when used inside a prefwindow. More information is available in the Preferences System article.
readonly
Type: boolean
If set to true, then the user cannot change the value of the element. However, the value may still be modified by a script.
sizetopopup
Type: one of the values below
Indicates how the menu width and the menupopup width are determined. If the sizetopopup attribute is left out or set to none, the menu will be its preferred width and the popup may extend outside of this width, unaffected by the maximum width of the menu itself. Otherwise, the menu will size itself to at least the size of the popup. If the menu has a maximum width, the popup will also be this width.
none
The width of the popup will not be constrained to the size of the menu.
pref
The preferred width of the menu label or button will be the size needed for the popup contents. This is the default value for menulists.
always
Both the preferred and minimum width of the menu label or button will be the same as that necessary for the menupopup.
tabindex
Type: integer
The tab order of the element. The tab order is the order in which the focus is moved when the user presses the "tab" key. Elements with a higher tabindex are later in the tab sequence.
value
Type: string
The string attribute allows you to associate a data value with an element. It is not used for any specific purpose, but you can access it with a script for your own use. Be aware, however, that some elements, such as textbox will display the value visually, so in order to merely associate data with an element, you could 1) Use another attribute like "value2" or "data-myAtt" (as in the HTML5 draft), as XUL does not require validation (less future-proof); 2) Use setAttributeNS() to put custom attributes in a non-XUL namespace (serializable and future-proof); 3) Use setUserData() (future-proof and clean, but not easily serializable). For user editable menulist elements, the contents, as visible to the user, are read and set using the Menulist.value syntax. For those elements, setAttribute("value", myValue) and getAttribute("value") do not access or affect the contents displayed to the user.

 

Properties

accessibleType
Type: integer
A value indicating the type of accessibility object for the element.
crop
Type: string
Gets and sets the value of the crop attribute.
description
Type: string
Set to the description of the currently selected menuitem.
disableautoselect
Type: boolean
Gets and sets the value of the disableautoselect attribute.
disabled
Type: boolean
Gets and sets the value of the disabled attribute.
editable
Type: boolean
Returns true if the element is editable. Autocomplete fields are editable so this property always returns true for those.

 

editor
Type: nsIEditor
A reference to the nsIEditor for editable text. This property is read only.
image
Type: image URL
The image associated with the currently selected item.
inputField
Type: textbox element
A reference to the textbox element used for editable menu lists. This property is read only and applies to editable menulists only.
itemCount
Type: integer
Read only property holding the number of child items.
label
Type: string
Gets and sets the value of the label attribute.
menuBoxObject
Type: nsIMenuBoxObject
A reference to the nsIMenuBoxObject which implements the menu.
menupopup
Type: menupopup element
A reference to the menupopup used by the menu or menulist. This property is read-only.
open
Type: boolean
Gets and sets the value of the open attribute.
selectedIndex
Type: integer
Returns the index of the currently selected item. You may select an item by assigning its index to this property. By assigning -1 to this property, all items will be deselected. Returns -1 if no items are selected
selectedItem
Type: element
Holds the currently selected item. If no item is currently selected, this value will be null. You can select an item by setting this value. A select event will be sent to the controlling container (i.e. the listbox, richlistbox, radiogroup, etc., not the list item that was selected) when it is changed either via this property, the selectedIndex property, or changed by the user.
tabIndex
Type: integer
Gets and sets the value of the tabindex attribute.
value
Type: string
Gets and sets the value of the value attribute. For textbox and user editable menulist elements, the contents, as visible to the user, are read and set using the Textbox.value and Menulist.value syntax.

 

Methods

Inherited Methods
addEventListener(), appendChild(), blur, click, cloneNode(), compareDocumentPosition, dispatchEvent(), doCommand, focus, getAttribute(), getAttributeNode(), getAttributeNodeNS(), getAttributeNS(), getBoundingClientRect(), getClientRects(), getElementsByAttribute, getElementsByAttributeNS, getElementsByClassName(), getElementsByTagName(), getElementsByTagNameNS(), getFeature(), getUserData, hasAttribute(), hasAttributeNS(), hasAttributes(), hasChildNodes(), insertBefore(), isDefaultNamespace(), isEqualNode, isSameNode, isSupported(), lookupNamespaceURI, lookupPrefix, normalize(), querySelector(), querySelectorAll(), removeAttribute(), removeAttributeNode(), removeAttributeNS(), removeChild(), removeEventListener(), replaceChild(), setAttribute(), setAttributeNode(), setAttributeNodeNS(), setAttributeNS(), setUserData

appendItem( label, value, description )
Return type: element
Creates a new menuitem element and adds it to the end of the menulist. You may optionally set a value and description. The function returns the new item.
contains( item )
Return type: boolean
Returns true if the menulist contains the specified menuitem as one of its items.
getIndexOfItem( item )
Return type: integer
Returns the zero-based position of the specified item. Items are numbered starting at the first item displayed in the list.
getItemAtIndex( index )
Return type: element
Returns the element that is at the specified index.
insertItemAt( index, label, value )
Return type: element
This method creates a new item and inserts it at the specified position. You may optionally set a value. The new item element is returned.
removeAllItems()
Return type: no return value
Removes all of the items in the menu.
removeItemAt( index )
Return type: element
Removes the child item in the element at the specified index. The method returns the removed item.
select()
Return type: no return value
Select all the text in the menulist's textbox. This method applies to editable menulists only.

Elements
menu, menubar, menuitem, menupopup, menuseparator
Interfaces
nsIAccessibleProvider, nsIDOMXULMenuListElement

Document Tags and Contributors

 Contributors to this page: Sheppy, pippijn, trevorh, ericpp, diyoji, Mgjbot, Enn, DJAssi, Derickso, Dao, Marsf, Walidaly, Ptak82, Dria, Pmash
 Last updated by: Sheppy,