Menus do not react when mouse hovers, unlike all other clickable components

[Chrriis]

Under FlatLaf, components change style on mouse hover: buttons get a different border, tabs get a gray background, etc. It makes the application feel "alive" too.
Menus do not react and feel "dead". I think they should get a gray background, like tabs.

I also wonder if an "tab" style would be appropriate, like toggle buttons.

Simple test case of a menu bar:

	public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
		UIManager.setLookAndFeel(new FlatLightLaf());
		JFrame frame = new JFrame();
		frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
		JMenuBar menuBar = new JMenuBar();
		JMenu menu1 = new JMenu("Menu 1");
		menu1.setMnemonic('m');
		JMenuItem subMenu1_1 = new JMenuItem("Sub Menu 1.1");
		subMenu1_1.setMnemonic('s');
		menu1.add(subMenu1_1);
		menuBar.add(menu1);
		JMenu menu2 = new JMenu("Menu 2");
		menu2.setMnemonic('n');
		JMenuItem subMenu2_1 = new JMenuItem("Sub Menu 2.1");
		subMenu2_1.setMnemonic('u');
		menu2.add(subMenu2_1);
		menuBar.add(menu2);
		frame.setJMenuBar(menuBar);
		frame.setContentPane(new JScrollPane(new JTextArea()));
		frame.setSize(400, 300);
		frame.setVisible(true);
	}

[DevCharly]

Yes, that's missing.

Now implemented in master branch 😃

[Chrriis]

Yes, much better! Thanks a lot!

What do you think of the suggestion of supporting a "tab" type for menus, similar to toggle buttons? Is it valid? Should I open a separate issue?

[DevCharly]

Something like this?

I think this may be confusing because the "tab" style is used to switch content.

[DevCharly]

hover in menu bar is implemented in 0.26

[Chrriis]

I think this may be confusing because the "tab" style is used to switch content.

Well, you are right if the hover behaved like a tab. Rather, I had the following in mind:

So:

• hover would be like now.
• click shows selection like a tab. In effect, it is selected.

[DevCharly]

But then selected menu looks like a tab...
What should then selected menu items look like?

[Chrriis]

But then selected menu looks like a tab...

True, but only when the sub-menu is showing: you know what got activated. Currently, selection behaves like a tree or a list (is that better?):

My initial reaction was that with a modern L&F like FlatLaf, something better could be found in this area than a Windows 95 kind of selection 🙂
The other candidate I could think of is the underline selection indicator. I am sure I saw it on some websites for some menus but I cannot get my hands on one of them... Nevertheless, the semantics are not far off: selection reveals a component.

This is just brainstorming, and your question is legitimate: how would sub-menus behave? Well, they could remain the same, or they could have a similar style. Here is an attempt:

Hope this helps!

[Chrriis]

I found some websites with underline menus. Here is one example: https://www.zalando.fr
You just hover to show the popup (no click), but it is definitely not a tab.

[DevCharly]

@Chrriis while working on new menu item layout to fix #3, I've also implemented your idea.
Looks nice 👍

Can be enabled with:

UIManager.put( "MenuItem.selectionType", "underline" );