YUI Library Examples: Menu Family: Multi-tiered Menu From JavaScript

Creating a Menu with submenus from JavaScript

To create a Menu with no pre-existing markup on the page, call the Menu constructor (YAHOO.widget.Menu) passing the id of the Menu element to be created as the first argument.

Next, define an array of MenuItem configuration properties. Add a submenu to a MenuItem by setting the MenuItem instance's "submenu" configuration property to an object literal that specifies values for both the "id" and "itemdata" properties. The "id" property specifies the id of the Menu to be created, while the "itemdata" property accepts an array of MenuItem configuration properties, each of which is used to configure the individual items in the Menu. Once defined, pass the array of MenuItem configuration properties to the addItems method of Menu.

Finally, it is necessary to call the render method passing the id of, or reference to the element the Menu should be appended to. Just as with creating a Menu hierarchy via existing HTML, it is only necessary to instantiate and render the root Menu as each submenu is automatically instantiated and rendered with the root Menu as a convenience.

/*
     Define an array of object literals, each containing 
     the configuration properties necessary to create a MenuItem and 
     its corresponding submenu.
*/

var aItems = [

{
        text: "Communication", 
        url: "#communication", 
        submenu: { 
        
            id: "communication", 
            itemdata: [ 
    
                { text: "360", url: "http://360.yahoo.com" },
                { text: "Alerts", url: "http://alerts.yahoo.com" },
                { text: "Avatars", url: "http://avatars.yahoo.com" },
                { text: "Groups", url: "http://groups.yahoo.com " },
                { text: "Internet Access", url: "http://promo.yahoo.com/broadband" },
                {
                    text: "PIM", 
                    url: "#pim", 
                    submenu: {
                        id: "pim", 
                        itemdata: [

{ text: "Yahoo! Mail", url: "http://mail.yahoo.com" },
                            { text: "Yahoo! Address Book", url: "http://addressbook.yahoo.com" },
                            { text: "Yahoo! Calendar",  url: "http://calendar.yahoo.com" },
                            { text: "Yahoo! Notepad", url: "http://notepad.yahoo.com" }

] 
                    }
                
                }, 
                { text: "Member Directory", url: "http://members.yahoo.com" },
                { text: "Messenger", url: "http://messenger.yahoo.com" },
                { text: "Mobile", url: "http://mobile.yahoo.com" },
                { text: "Flickr Photo Sharing", url: "http://www.flickr.com" }
    
            ] 
        
        } 
    
    },

{
        text: "Shopping", 
        url: "http://shopping.yahoo.com", 
        submenu: {
            id: "shopping", 
            itemdata: [

{ text: "Auctions", url: "http://auctions.shopping.yahoo.com" },
                { text: "Autos", url: "http://autos.yahoo.com" },
                { text: "Classifieds", url: "http://classifieds.yahoo.com" },
                { text: "Flowers & Gifts", url: "http://shopping.yahoo.com/b:Flowers%20%26%20Gifts:20146735" },
                { text: "Real Estate", url: "http://realestate.yahoo.com" },
                { text: "Travel", url: "http://travel.yahoo.com" },
                { text: "Wallet", url: "http://wallet.yahoo.com" },
                { text: "Yellow Pages", url: "http://yp.yahoo.com" }
    
            ] 
        } 
    },

{
        text: "Entertainment", 
        url: "http://entertainment.yahoo.com", 
        submenu: { 
            id: "entertainment", 
            itemdata: [
    
                { text: "Fantasy Sports", url: "http://fantasysports.yahoo.com" },
                { text: "Games", url: "http://games.yahoo.com" },
                { text: "Kids", url: "http://www.yahooligans.com" },
                { text: "Music", url: "http://music.yahoo.com" },
                { text: "Movies", url: "http://movies.yahoo.com" },
                { text: "Radio", url: "http://music.yahoo.com/launchcast" },
                { text: "Travel", url: "http://travel.yahoo.com" },
                { text: "TV", url: "http://tv.yahoo.com" }              
            ] 
        } 
    },

{
        text: "Information", 
        url: "#information", 
        submenu: {
            id: "information", 
            itemdata: [
    
                { text: "Downloads", url: "http://downloads.yahoo.com" },
                { text: "Finance", url: "http://finance.yahoo.com" },
                { text: "Health", url: "http://health.yahoo.com" },
                { text: "Local", url: "http://local.yahoo.com" },
                { text: "Maps & Directions", url: "http://maps.yahoo.com" },
                { text: "My Yahoo!", url: "http://my.yahoo.com" },
                { text: "News", url: "http://news.yahoo.com" },
                { text: "Search", url: "http://search.yahoo.com" },
                { text: "Small Business", url: "http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com" },
                { text: "Weather", url: "http://weather.yahoo.com" }
    
            ]
        } 
    }            
];

/*
	Instantiate a Menu:  The first argument passed to the constructor
	is the id for the Menu element to be created, the second is an 
	object literal of configuration properties.
*/

var oMenu = new YAHOO.widget.Menu("productsandservices", { fixedcenter: true });

/*
    Add items to the Menu instance by passing an array of object literals 
    (each of which represents a set of YAHOO.widget.MenuItem 
    configuration properties) to the "addItems" method.
*/

oMenu.addItems(aItems);

/*
    Since this Menu instance is built completely from script, call the 
    "render" method passing in the DOM element that it should be 
    appended to.
*/

oMenu.render("rendertarget");

Menu Family Examples:

More Menu Family Resources:

All YUI 2.x users should review the YUI 2.8.2 security bulletin, which discusses a vulnerability present in YUI 2.4.0-2.8.1.