menu_bar 0.1.1

A customizable application menu bar with submenus for your Flutter Desktop apps.

A customizable application menu bar with submenus for your Flutter Desktop apps.

The menu bar is rendered inside your Flutter app (i.e. not as a native menu bar like in macOS). Native menu bars (at least for macOS) are currently in development by Flutter, see #23600. In the future, a native option in this plugin could get added.

Table of Contents

• Preview
• Features
• Usage
  1. Integrate the menu bar
  2. Create your menus
• Customization
  • Bar
  • Bar buttons
  • Menu and submenu
  • Menu and submenu buttons

Preview

Features

• Application menu bar for Flutter Desktop
• Nested submenus support
• Dividers to structure submenus
• Icon in submenu buttons (optional)
• Shortcut text in submenu buttons (optional)
• Open menus and submenus on hover or on click
• Fully customizable
• Easy to implement
• Rich widget documentation

Usage

First, download and import the package:

import 'package:menu_bar/menu_bar.dart';

1. Integrate the menu bar

Wrap your application around the MenuBar widget and add an empty list to barButtons so that you have assigned the 2 necessary fields. The child is your application under the menu bar:

MenuBar(
    barButtons: [],
    child: Scaffold(...),
),

You should now see an empty menu bar above your application. To add buttons with menus, read step 2.

2. Create your menus

To add buttons with menus, use the following widget structure:

MenuBar
    BarMenuButton
        MenuBarSubMenu
            MenuButton
            MenuButton
            ...
    BarMenuButton
        MenuBarSubMenu
            MenuButton
            MenuButton
            ...

In this example, we will add the following menu bar:

return MaterialApp(
    home: MenuBar(
    // Add a list of [BarMenuButton]. The buttons in this List are displayed as the buttons on the bar itself
    barButtons: [
        BarMenuButton(
            text: const Text('File', style: TextStyle(color: Colors.white)),
            submenu: MenuBarSubMenu(
                menuItems: [
                    MenuButton(
                        onTap: () {},
                        text: const Text('Save'),
                        shortcutText: 'Ctrl+S',
                        icon: const Icon(Icons.save),
                    ),
                    const MenuDivider(),
                    MenuButton(
                        onTap: () {},
                        shortcutText: 'Ctrl+Q',
                        text: const Text('Exit'),
                        icon: const Icon(Icons.exit_to_app),
                    ),
                ],
            ),
        ),
        BarMenuButton(
            text: const Text('Help', style: TextStyle(color: Colors.white)),
            submenu: MenuBarSubMenu(
            menuItems: [
                MenuButton(
                onTap: () {},
                text: const Text('View License'),
                ),
                MenuButton(
                onTap: () {},
                icon: const Icon(Icons.info),
                text: const Text('About'),
                ),
            ],
            ),
        ),
    ],

    // Set the child, i.e. the application under the menu bar
    child: Scaffold(...),
    ),
);

3. Customize the menu bar

For customization options, see #Customization below or hover over the widgets for all the options in your preferred IDE when integrating the menu bar.

For a complete example, check out example.dart

Customization

Bar customization

Name	Type	Default	Description
height	double	28.0	Height of the menu bar
mainAxisAlignment	MainAxisAlignment	MainAxisAlignment.start	Horizontal alignment of the bar buttons
backgroundColor	Color	Color(0xFF424242)	Background color of the bar
gap	double	0.0	Gap between the bar buttons
padding	EdgeInsets	EdgeInsets.symmetric(horizontal: 0.0)	Padding inside the bar row
closeMenuOnHoverLeave	bool	true	Close the all menus on hover leave
openMenuOnHover	bool	false	Open the bar button menus on hover
closeMenuOnHoverDelay	Duration	Duration(milliseconds: 400)	Close duration on hover leave

---

Bar button customization

Name	Type	Default	Description
backgroundColor	Color	Colors.transparent	Bar button background color
padding	EdgeInsets	EdgeInsets.symmetric(horizontal: 6.0)	Padding inside the bar buttons

---

Menu and submenu customization

Name	Type	Default	Description
width	double	200.0	Width of the menus and submenus
openSubmenusOnHover	bool	true	Open the submenus on hover
backgroundColor	Color	Colors.white	Background color of the menus and submenus
padding	EdgeInsets	EdgeInsets.symmetric(vertical: 8.0)	Padding inside the menus and submenus

---

Menu and submenu buttons customization

Name	Type	Default	Description
closeMenuOnClick	bool	true	Close the all menus on a button click
backgroundColor	Color	Colors.white	Background color of the submenu buttons
height	double	28.0	Height of the submenu buttons
padding	EdgeInsets	EdgeInsets.symmetric(horizontal: 12.0)	Padding inside the submenu buttons
shortcutTextStyle	TextStyle	TextStyle(fontSize: 15.0, color: Colors.grey)	Shortcut text style
showSubmenuIcon	bool	true	Show an submenu icon if a submenu is assigned
submenuIcon	Widget	Icon(Icons.keyboard_arrow_right)	Set the submenu icon