Menubar

Desktop-application-style menu bar (File / Edit / View) with nested submenus, keyboard shortcuts display, and full WAI-ARIA menubar keyboard navigation.

Components

Menubar

navigation

interactive

beta

<arc-menubar>

Overview

Menubar renders the horizontal command bar familiar from desktop applications: a row of top-level menus like File, Edit, and View, each opening a vertical dropdown of commands. The entire structure is data-driven — assign an array to the `items` property via JavaScript and the component renders triggers, menus, submenus, dividers, and right-aligned keyboard shortcut hints. Menu entries can nest one further level: an item with its own `items` array becomes a submenu parent, rendered with a caret indicator. Submenus open to the right of their parent item and automatically flip to the left when they would overflow the viewport. Entries with `{ divider: true }` render as separator lines, `disabled` entries are skipped by keyboard navigation, and `shortcut` strings display in muted monospace (display only — the component does not bind global hotkeys). Interaction follows the WAI-ARIA menubar pattern faithfully. The bar exposes a single tab stop with roving focus: ArrowLeft/ArrowRight move across top-level items, ArrowDown or Enter opens a menu, ArrowUp opens it focused on the last item. Inside menus, arrows move and wrap past dividers and disabled items, ArrowRight enters a submenu, ArrowLeft steps back out (or over to the previous top-level menu), typeahead jumps to items by first letter, and Escape unwinds one level at a time, restoring focus to the trigger. With the pointer, clicking a trigger toggles its menu, hovering other triggers switches menus once one is open, and hovering a submenu parent opens it after a short delay. Activating a leaf fires `arc-select` with the full label path from root to leaf.

Guidelines

When to use

Assign `items` via JavaScript — it is a property, not an HTML attribute
Group related commands with `{ divider: true }` entries, mirroring desktop app conventions
Use `shortcut` strings that match your actual key bindings — the menubar displays them but you must register the hotkeys yourself
Keep top-level labels to single words (File, Edit, View) so the bar scans like a native app
Listen to `arc-select` and branch on the label path array to route commands

When not to use

Do not use Menubar for site navigation — use navigation-menu or top-bar; menubars are for application commands
Do not nest submenus more than one level below a menu — deep chains are hard to traverse with a pointer
Do not put destructive actions directly next to common ones without a divider between them
Do not rely on shortcut hints as functionality — they are display-only text
Avoid more than 7-8 top-level menus; consolidate rare commands into a submenu instead

Features

Data-driven: one `items` array describes triggers, menus, submenus, dividers, shortcuts, and disabled states
Faithful WAI-ARIA menubar pattern: `role="menubar"`, `role="menu"`, `role="menuitem"`, roving tabindex with a single tab stop
Full 2D keyboard navigation: arrows in both axes, Home/End, Enter/Space, Escape unwinding one level at a time
Typeahead: printable characters jump to the next matching item in the open menu, or across the menubar when closed
Standard menubar pointer behavior: click to toggle, hover to switch open menus, ~150ms hover-intent delay on submenus
Submenus flip from right to left automatically when they would overflow the viewport
`arc-select` event carries the full label path from root to leaf (e.g. `["File", "Export", "PNG"]`)
CSS parts for `bar`, `trigger`, `menu`, `item`, and `shortcut` enable external styling

Preview

selected: —

Usage

This component requires JavaScript. No pure HTML/CSS version is available — use the Web Component directly or a framework wrapper.

<arc-menubar id="app-menubar"></arc-menubar>

<script>
  const menubar = document.getElementById('app-menubar');
  menubar.items = [
    { label: 'File', items: [
      { label: 'New File', shortcut: '⌘N' },
      { label: 'Open…', shortcut: '⌘O' },
      { divider: true },
      { label: 'Export', items: [
        { label: 'PNG' },
        { label: 'SVG' }
      ] }
    ] },
    { label: 'Edit', items: [
      { label: 'Undo', shortcut: '⌘Z' },
      { label: 'Redo', shortcut: '⇧⌘Z', disabled: true }
    ] }
  ];

  menubar.addEventListener('arc-select', (e) => {
    console.log('command:', e.detail.path); // e.g. ['File', 'Export', 'PNG']
  });
</script>

import { Menubar } from '@arclux/arc-ui-react';

const items = [
  { label: 'File', items: [
    { label: 'New File', shortcut: '⌘N' },
    { label: 'Open…', shortcut: '⌘O' },
    { divider: true },
    { label: 'Export', items: [
      { label: 'PNG' },
      { label: 'SVG' }
    ] }
  ] },
  { label: 'Edit', items: [
    { label: 'Undo', shortcut: '⌘Z' },
    { label: 'Redo', shortcut: '⇧⌘Z', disabled: true }
  ] }
];

<Menubar
  items={items}
  onArcSelect={(e) => console.log('command:', e.detail.path)}
/>

<script setup>
import { Menubar } from '@arclux/arc-ui-vue';

const items = [
  { label: 'File', items: [
    { label: 'New File', shortcut: '⌘N' },
    { divider: true },
    { label: 'Export', items: [{ label: 'PNG' }, { label: 'SVG' }] }
  ] },
  { label: 'Edit', items: [
    { label: 'Undo', shortcut: '⌘Z' }
  ] }
];
</script>

<template>
  <Menubar :items="items" @arc-select="(e) => console.log(e.detail.path)" />
</template>

<script>
  import { Menubar } from '@arclux/arc-ui-svelte';

  const items = [
    { label: 'File', items: [
      { label: 'New File', shortcut: '⌘N' },
      { divider: true },
      { label: 'Export', items: [{ label: 'PNG' }, { label: 'SVG' }] }
    ] },
    { label: 'Edit', items: [
      { label: 'Undo', shortcut: '⌘Z' }
    ] }
  ];
</script>

<Menubar {items} on:arc-select={(e) => console.log(e.detail.path)} />

import { Component } from '@angular/core';
import { Menubar } from '@arclux/arc-ui-angular';

@Component({
  imports: [Menubar],
  template: `
    <arc-menubar [items]="items" (arcSelect)="onSelect($event)"></arc-menubar>
  `,
})
export class AppMenubarComponent {
  items = [
    { label: 'File', items: [
      { label: 'New File', shortcut: '⌘N' },
      { divider: true },
      { label: 'Export', items: [{ label: 'PNG' }, { label: 'SVG' }] }
    ] },
    { label: 'Edit', items: [
      { label: 'Undo', shortcut: '⌘Z' }
    ] }
  ];

  onSelect(e: CustomEvent) {
    console.log(e.detail.path);
  }
}

API

items Array<{label:string,disabled?:boolean,items:Array<{label?:string,shortcut?:string,disabled?:boolean,divider?:boolean,items?:Array<{label:string,shortcut?:string,disabled?:boolean}>}>}> =[]: The menu structure. Entries with an `items` array become submenus (one further nesting level supported); `{ divider: true }` renders a separator. Set via JavaScript — this is a property, not an HTML attribute.

Events

arc-select: Fired when a leaf menu item is activated. `detail.path` is the array of labels from the top-level menu to the selected leaf, e.g. `["File", "Export", "PNG"]`.

Menubar

Overview

Guidelines

When to use

When not to use

Features

Preview

Usage

API

Events

See Also

Docs

Project

Arclight