Packageflash.ui
Classpublic final class ContextMenu
InheritanceContextMenu Inheritance NativeMenu Inheritance EventDispatcher Inheritance Object

The ContextMenu class provides control over the items in the Flash Player context menu. Users open the context menu by right-clicking (Windows) or Control-clicking (Macintosh) Flash Player. You can use the methods and properties of the ContextMenu class to add custom menu items, control the display of the built-in context menu items (for example, Zoom In and Print), or create copies of menus.

In Flex, only top-level components in the application can have context menus. For example, if a DataGrid control is a child of a TabNavigator or VBox container, the DataGrid control cannot have its own context menu.

To add new items to a ContextMenu object, you create a ContextMenuItem object, and then add that object to the ContextMenu.customItems array. For more information about creating context menu items, see the ContextMenuItem class entry.

Flash Player has three types of context menus: the standard menu (which appears when you right-click in Flash Player), the edit menu (which appears when you right-click a selectable or editable text field), and an error menu (which appears when a SWF file has failed to load into Flash Player). Only the standard and edit menus can be modified with the ContextMenu class.

Custom menu items always appear at the top of the Flash Player context menu, above any visible built-in menu items; a separator bar distinguishes built-in and custom menu items. You can add no more than 15 custom items to a context menu. You cannot remove the Settings menu item from the context menu. The Settings menu item is required in Flash so that users can access the settings that affect privacy and storage on their computers. You also cannot remove the About menu item, which is required so that users can find out what version of Flash Player they are using.

You must use the ContextMenu() constructor to create a ContextMenu object before calling its methods.

View the examples

See also

ContextMenuItem class
flash.display.InteractiveObject.contextMenu


Public Properties
 PropertyDefined By
  builtInItems : ContextMenuBuiltInItems
An object that has the following properties of the ContextMenuBuiltInItems class: forwardAndBack, loop, play, print, quality, rewind, save, and zoom.
ContextMenu
 Inheritedconstructor : Object
A reference to the class object or constructor function for a given object instance.
Object
  customItems : Array
An array of ContextMenuItem objects.
ContextMenu
 InheritedAIR-onlyitems : Array
[read-only] The array of NativeMenuItem objects in this menu.
NativeMenu
 InheritedAIR-onlynumItems : int
[read-only] The number of NativeMenuItem objects in this menu.
NativeMenu
 InheritedAIR-onlyparent : NativeMenu
[read-only] The parent menu.
NativeMenu
 Inheritedprototype : Object
[static] A reference to the prototype object of a class or function object.
Object
Public Methods
 MethodDefined By
  
Creates a ContextMenu object.
ContextMenu
 Inherited
addEventListener(type:String, listener:Function, useCapture:Boolean = false, priority:int = 0, useWeakReference:Boolean = false):void
Registers an event listener object with an EventDispatcher object so that the listener receives notification of an event.
EventDispatcher
 Inherited
Adds a menu item at the bottom of the menu.
NativeMenu
 Inherited
Inserts a menu item at the specified position.
NativeMenu
 Inherited
Adds a submenu to the menu by inserting a new menu item.
NativeMenu
 Inherited
AIR-onlyaddSubmenuAt(submenu:NativeMenu, index:int, label:String):NativeMenuItem
Adds a submenu to the menu by inserting a new menu item at the specified position.
NativeMenu
 Inherited
Creates a copy of the menu and all items.
NativeMenu
 Inherited
Reports whether this menu contains the specified menu item.
NativeMenu
 Inherited
Dispatches an event into the event flow.
EventDispatcher
  
display(stage:Stage, stageX:Number, stageY:Number):void
Pops up this menu at the specified location.
ContextMenu
 Inherited
Gets the menu item at the specified index.
NativeMenu
 Inherited
Gets the menu item with the specified name.
NativeMenu
 Inherited
Gets the position of the specified item.
NativeMenu
 Inherited
Checks whether the EventDispatcher object has any listeners registered for a specific type of event.
EventDispatcher
 Inherited
Indicates whether an object has a specified property defined.
Object
  
Hides all built-in menu items (except Settings) in the specified ContextMenu object.
ContextMenu
 Inherited
Indicates whether an instance of the Object class is in the prototype chain of the object specified as the parameter.
Object
 Inherited
Indicates whether the specified property exists and is enumerable.
Object
 Inherited
removeEventListener(type:String, listener:Function, useCapture:Boolean = false):void
Removes a listener from the EventDispatcher object.
EventDispatcher
 Inherited
Removes the specified menu item.
NativeMenu
 Inherited
Removes and returns the menu item at the specified index.
NativeMenu
 Inherited
Moves a menu item to the specified position.
NativeMenu
 Inherited
Sets the availability of a dynamic property for loop operations.
Object
 Inherited
Returns the string representation of the specified object.
Object
 Inherited
Returns the primitive value of the specified object.
Object
 Inherited
Checks whether an event listener is registered with this EventDispatcher object or any of its ancestors for the specified event type.
EventDispatcher
Events
 Event Summary Defined By
 Inherited Dispatched when Flash Player or an AIR application gains operating system focus and becomes active.EventDispatcher
 Inherited Dispatched when Flash Player or an AIR application loses operating system focus and is becoming inactive.EventDispatcher
 Inherited Dispatched by this NativeMenu object immediately before the menu is to be displayed.NativeMenu
   Dispatched when a user first generates a context menu but before the contents of the context menu are displayed.ContextMenu
 Inherited
AIR-onlyselect
Dispatched by this NativeMenu object when one of its menu items or an item in one of its descendant submenus is selected.NativeMenu
Property Detail
builtInItemsproperty
builtInItems:ContextMenuBuiltInItems  [read-write]

An object that has the following properties of the ContextMenuBuiltInItems class: forwardAndBack, loop, play, print, quality, rewind, save, and zoom. Setting these properties to false removes the corresponding menu items from the specified ContextMenu object. These properties are enumerable and are set to true by default.


Implementation
    public function get builtInItems():ContextMenuBuiltInItems
    public function set builtInItems(value:ContextMenuBuiltInItems):void

See also

customItemsproperty 
customItems:Array  [read-write]

An array of ContextMenuItem objects. Each object in the array represents a context menu item that you have defined. Use this property to add, remove, or modify these custom menu items.

To add new menu items, you create a ContextMenuItem object and then add it to the customItems array (for example, by using Array.push()). For more information about creating menu items, see the ContextMenuItem class entry.


Implementation
    public function get customItems():Array
    public function set customItems(value:Array):void

See also

Constructor Detail
ContextMenu()Constructor
public function ContextMenu()

Creates a ContextMenu object.

See also

Method Detail
display()method
public override function display(stage:Stage, stageX:Number, stageY:Number):void

Pops up this menu at the specified location.

Parameters

stage:Stage — The Stage object on which to display this menu.
 
stageX:Number — The number of horizontal pixels, relative to the origin of stage, at which to display this menu.
 
stageY:Number — The number of vertical pixels, relative to the origin of stage, at which to display this menu.

hideBuiltInItems()method 
public function hideBuiltInItems():void

Hides all built-in menu items (except Settings) in the specified ContextMenu object. If the debugger version of Flash Player is running, the Debugging menu item appears, although it is dimmed for SWF files that do not have remote debugging enabled.

This method hides only menu items that appear in the standard context menu; it does not affect items that appear in the edit and error menus.

This method works by setting all the Boolean members of my_cm .builtInItems to false. You can selectively make a built-in item visible by setting its corresponding member in my_cm .builtInItems to true.

See also

Event Detail
menuSelect Event
Event Object Type: flash.events.ContextMenuEvent
ContextMenuEvent.type property = flash.events.ContextMenuEvent.MENU_SELECT

Dispatched when a user first generates a context menu but before the contents of the context menu are displayed. This allows your program to modify the set of context menu items before displaying the menu. The user generates the context menu by right-clicking the pointing device.

Defines the value of the type property of a menuSelect event object.

This event has the following properties:

PropertyValue
bubblesfalse
cancelablefalse; there is no default behavior to cancel.
contextMenuOwnerThe display list object to which the menu is attached.
currentTargetThe object that is actively processing the Event object with an event listener.
mouseTargetThe display list object on which the user right-clicked to display the context menu.
targetThe ContextMenu object that is about to be displayed. The target is not always the object in the display list that registered the event listener. Use the currentTarget property to access the object in the display list that is currently processing the event.
Examples How to use examples
ContextMenuExample.as

The following example uses the class ContextMenuExample to remove the default context menu items from the Stage and add a new menu item, which, if clicked, changes the color of a square on the Stage. This is accomplished with the following steps:
  1. A property myContextMenu is declared and then assigned to a new ContextMenu object and a property redRectangle of type Sprite is declared.
  2. The method removeDefaultItems() is called, which removes all built-in context menu items except Print.
  3. The method addCustomMenuItems() is called, which places a menu item called Red to Black menu selection into the defaultItems array by using the push() method of Array. A menuItemSelect event listener is added to the ContextMenuItem object and the associated method is called menuItemSelectHandler(). This method prints out some statements using trace() whenever the context menu is accessed and Red to Black is selected. Also the red square is removed and replaced with a black one.
  4. An event listener of type menuSelect is added, along with the associated method menuSelectHandler, which simply prints out three statements using trace() every time an item in the context menu is opened.
  5. Then addChildren() draws a red square and adds it to the display list, where it is immediately displayed.
  6. Finally, myContextMenu is assigned to the context menu of the redRectangle sprite so that the custom context menu is displayed only when the mouse pointer is over the square.
package {
    import flash.ui.ContextMenu;
    import flash.ui.ContextMenuItem;
    import flash.ui.ContextMenuBuiltInItems;
    import flash.events.ContextMenuEvent;
    import flash.events.ContextMenuEvent;
    import flash.display.Sprite;
    import flash.display.Shape;
    import flash.text.TextField;

    public class ContextMenuExample extends Sprite {
        private var myContextMenu:ContextMenu;
        private var menuLabel:String = "Reverse Colors";
        private var textLabel:String = "Right Click";
        private var redRectangle:Sprite;
        private var label:TextField;
        private var size:uint = 100;
        private var black:uint = 0x000000;
        private var red:uint = 0xFF0000;

        public function ContextMenuExample() {
            myContextMenu = new ContextMenu();
            removeDefaultItems();
            addCustomMenuItems();
            myContextMenu.addEventListener(ContextMenuEvent.MENU_SELECT, menuSelectHandler);

            addChildren();
            redRectangle.contextMenu = myContextMenu;
        }

        private function addChildren():void {
            redRectangle = new Sprite();
            redRectangle.graphics.beginFill(red);
            redRectangle.graphics.drawRect(0, 0, size, size);
            addChild(redRectangle);
            redRectangle.x = size;
            redRectangle.y = size;
            label = createLabel();
            redRectangle.addChild(label);
        }

        private function removeDefaultItems():void {
            myContextMenu.hideBuiltInItems();
            var defaultItems:ContextMenuBuiltInItems = myContextMenu.builtInItems;
            defaultItems.print = true;
        }

        private function addCustomMenuItems():void {
            var item:ContextMenuItem = new ContextMenuItem(menuLabel);
            myContextMenu.customItems.push(item);
            item.addEventListener(ContextMenuEvent.MENU_ITEM_SELECT, menuItemSelectHandler);
        }

        private function menuSelectHandler(event:ContextMenuEvent):void {
            trace("menuSelectHandler: " + event);
        }

        private function menuItemSelectHandler(event:ContextMenuEvent):void {
            trace("menuItemSelectHandler: " + event);
            var textColor:uint = (label.textColor == black) ? red : black;
            var bgColor:uint = (label.textColor == black) ? black : red;
            redRectangle.graphics.clear();
            redRectangle.graphics.beginFill(bgColor);
            redRectangle.graphics.drawRect(0, 0, size, size);
            label.textColor = textColor;
        }

        private function createLabel():TextField {
            var txtField:TextField = new TextField();
            txtField.text = textLabel;
            return txtField;
        }
    }
}