In this quick tutorial, we will see how to use the JavaFX MenuBar control with an example.

MenuBar consists of Menu objects, which hold MenuItem objects—the commands of the application. It is traditionally placed at the top of the application window.

The JavaFX MenuBar is represented by the class javafx.scene.control.MenuBar.

JavaFX MenuBar Example

The example contains one menu in the menubar. The menu holds four menu items and one separator.


import javafx.application.Application;
import javafx.application.Platform;
import javafx.event.ActionEvent;
import javafx.event.EventHandler;
import javafx.scene.Scene;
import javafx.scene.control.Alert;
import javafx.scene.control.Alert.AlertType;
import javafx.scene.control.Menu;
import javafx.scene.control.MenuBar;
import javafx.scene.control.MenuItem;
import javafx.scene.control.SeparatorMenuItem;
import javafx.scene.layout.HBox;
import javafx.stage.Stage;

public class Main extends Application {

    @Override
    public void start(Stage stage) {

        initUI(stage);
    }

    private void initUI(Stage stage) {

        var root = new HBox();

        var mbar = new MenuBar();
        mbar.prefWidthProperty().bind(stage.widthProperty());

        var handler = new MyMenuHandler();

        var fileMenu = new Menu("File");
        mbar.getMenus().add(fileMenu);

        var nmi = new MenuItem("New");
        nmi.setOnAction(handler);
        fileMenu.getItems().add(nmi);

        var omi = new MenuItem("Open");
        omi.setOnAction(handler);
        fileMenu.getItems().add(omi);

        var smi = new MenuItem("Save");
        smi.setOnAction(handler);
        fileMenu.getItems().add(smi);

        fileMenu.getItems().add(new SeparatorMenuItem());

        var emi = new MenuItem("Exit");
        emi.setOnAction((ActionEvent event) -> Platform.exit());

        fileMenu.getItems().add(emi);

        root.getChildren().add(mbar);

        var scene = new Scene(root, 300, 250);

        stage.setTitle("MenuBar");
        stage.setScene(scene);
        stage.show();
    }

    private class MyMenuHandler implements EventHandler<ActionEvent> {

        @Override
        public void handle(ActionEvent event) {

            doShowMessageDialog(event);
        }

        private void doShowMessageDialog(ActionEvent event) {

            var mi = (MenuItem) event.getSource();
            String item = mi.getText();

            var alert = new Alert(AlertType.INFORMATION);
            alert.setTitle("Information dialog");
            alert.setHeaderText("Menu item selection information");
            alert.setContentText(item + " menu item selected");

            alert.showAndWait();
        }
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        launch(args);
    }
}

Output: