electron-context-menu

Context menu for your Electron app

Electron doesn't have a built-in context menu. You're supposed to handle that yourself. But it's both tedious and hard to get right. This module gives you a nice extensible context menu with spellchecking and items like Cut/Copy/Paste for text, Save Image for images, and Copy Link for links. It also adds an Inspect Element menu item when in development to quickly view items in the inspector like in Chrome.

This package can only be used in the main process.

Install

$ npm install electron-context-menu

Requires Electron 10 or later.

Usage

const {app, BrowserWindow} = require('electron');
const contextMenu = require('electron-context-menu');

contextMenu({
	showSaveImageAs: true
});

let mainWindow;
(async () => {
	await app.whenReady();

	mainWindow = new BrowserWindow({
		webPreferences: {
			spellcheck: true
		}
	});
})();

Advanced example:

const {app, BrowserWindow, shell} = require('electron');
const contextMenu = require('electron-context-menu');

contextMenu({
	prepend: (defaultActions, parameters, browserWindow) => [
		{
			label: 'Rainbow',
			// Only show it when right-clicking images
			visible: parameters.mediaType === 'image'
		},
		{
			label: 'Search Google for “{selection}”',
			// Only show it when right-clicking text
			visible: parameters.selectionText.trim().length > 0,
			click: () => {
				shell.openExternal(`https://google.com/search?q=${encodeURIComponent(parameters.selectionText)}`);
			}
		}
	]
});

let mainWindow;
(async () => {
	await app.whenReady();

	mainWindow = new BrowserWindow({
		webPreferences: {
			spellcheck: true
		}
	});
})();

The return value of contextMenu() is a function that disposes of the created event listeners:

const dispose = contextMenu();

dispose();

API

contextMenu(options?)

Creates a context menu and returns a dispose function.

options

Type: object

window

Type: BrowserWindow | BrowserView | WebViewTag | WebContents

Window or WebView to add the context menu to.

When not specified, the context menu will be added to all existing and new windows.

prepend

Type: Function

Should return an array of MenuItem's to be prepended to the context menu.

The first argument is an array of default actions that can be used. The second argument is this parameters object. The third argument is the BrowserWindow the context menu was requested for. The fourth argument is the context menu event.

MenuItem labels may contain the placeholder {selection} which will be replaced by the currently selected text as described in options.labels.

append

Type: Function

Should return an array of MenuItem's to be appended to the context menu.

The first argument is an array of default actions that can be used. The second argument is this parameters object. The third argument is the BrowserWindow the context menu was requested for. The fourth argument is the context menu event.

MenuItem labels may contain the placeholder {selection} which will be replaced by the currently selected text as described in options.labels.

showLearnSpelling

Type: boolean
Default: true

Show the Learn Spelling {selection} menu item when right-clicking text.

Even if true, the spellcheck preference in browser window must still be enabled. It will also only show when right-clicking misspelled words.

showLookUpSelection

Type: boolean
Default: true

Show the Look Up {selection} menu item when right-clicking text.

showSearchWithGoogle

Type: boolean
Default: true

Show the Search with Google menu item when right-clicking text.

showSelectAll

Type: boolean
Default: false on macOS, true on Windows and Linux

Show the Select All menu item when right-clicking in a window.

showCopyImage

Type: boolean
Default: true

Show the Copy Image menu item when right-clicking on an image.

showCopyImageAddress

Type: boolean
Default: false

Show the Copy Image Address menu item when right-clicking on an image.

showSaveImage

Type: boolean
Default: false

Show the Save Image menu item when right-clicking on an image.

showSaveImageAs

Type: boolean
Default: false

Show the Save Image As… menu item when right-clicking on an image.

showCopyVideoAddress

Type: boolean
Default: false

Show the Copy Video Address menu item when right-clicking on a video.

showSaveVideo

Type: boolean
Default: false

Show the Save Video menu item when right-clicking on a video.

showSaveVideoAs

Type: boolean
Default: false

Show the Save Video As… menu item when right-clicking on a video.

showCopyLink

Type: boolean
Default: true

Show the Copy Link menu item when right-clicking on a link.

showSaveLinkAs

Type: boolean
Default: false

Show the Save Link As… menu item when right-clicking on a link.

showInspectElement

Type: boolean
Default: Only in development

Force enable or disable the Inspect Element menu item.

showServices

Type: boolean
Default: false

Show the system Services submenu when right-clicking text on macOS.

Note: Due to a bug in the Electron implementation, this menu is not identical to the "Services" submenu in the context menus of native apps. Instead, it looks the same as the "Services" menu in the main App Menu. For this reason, it is currently disabled by default.

labels

Type: object
Default: {}

Override labels for the default menu items. Useful for i18n.

The placeholder {selection} may be used in any label, and will be replaced by the currently selected text, trimmed to a maximum of 25 characters length. This is useful when localizing the Look Up “{selection}” menu item, but can also be used in custom menu items, for example, to implement a Search Google for “{selection}” menu item. If there is no selection, the {selection} placeholder will be replaced by an empty string. Normally this placeholder is only useful for menu items which will only be shown when there is text selected. This can be checked using visible: parameters.selectionText.trim().length > 0 when implementing a custom menu item, as shown in the usage example above.

Format:

{
	labels: {
		copy: 'Copiar',
		saveImageAs: 'Guardar imagen como…',
		lookUpSelection: 'Consultar “{selection}”'
	}
}

shouldShowMenu

Type: Function

Determines whether or not to show the menu. Can be useful if you for example have other code presenting a context menu in some contexts.

The second argument is this parameters object.

Example:

{
	// Doesn't show the menu if the element is editable
	shouldShowMenu: (event, parameters) => !parameters.isEditable
}

menu

Type: Function

This option lets you manually pick what menu items to include. It's meant for advanced needs. The default menu with the other options should be enough for most use-cases, and it ensures correct behavior, for example, correct order of menu items. So prefer the append and prepend option instead of menu whenever possible.

The function passed to this option is expected to return MenuItem[]. The first argument the function receives is an array of default actions that can be used. These actions are functions that can take an object with a transform property (except for separator and inspect). The transform function will be passed the content of the action and can modify it if needed. If you use transform on cut, copy, or paste, they will convert rich text to plain text. The second argument is this parameters object. The third argument is the BrowserWindow the context menu was requested for. The fourth argument is an Array of menu items for dictionary suggestions. This should be used if you wish to implement spellcheck in your custom menu. The last argument is the context menu event.

Even though you include an action, it will still only be shown/enabled when appropriate. For example, the saveImage action is only shown when right-clicking an image.

MenuItem labels may contain the placeholder {selection} which will be replaced by the currently selected text as described in options.labels.

To get spellchecking, “Correct Automatically”, and “Learn Spelling” in the menu, please enable the spellcheck preference in browser window: new BrowserWindow({webPreferences: {spellcheck: true}})

The following options are ignored when menu is used:

• showLookUpSelection
• showSearchWithGoogle
• showSelectAll
• showCopyImage
• showCopyImageAddress
• showSaveImageAs
• showCopyVideoAddress
• showSaveVideo
• showSaveVideoAs
• showCopyLink
• showSaveLinkAs
• showInspectElement
• showServices

Default actions:

• spellCheck
• learnSpelling
• separator
• lookUpSelection
• searchWithGoogle
• cut
• copy
• paste
• selectAll
• saveImage
• saveImageAs
• saveVideo
• saveVideoAs
• copyImage
• copyImageAddress
• copyVideoAddress
• copyLink
• saveLinkAs
• inspect
• services

Example for actions:

{
	menu: (actions, props, browserWindow, dictionarySuggestions) => [
		...dictionarySuggestions,
		actions.separator(),
		actions.copyLink({
			transform: content => `modified_link_${content}`
		}),
		actions.separator(),
		{
			label: 'Unicorn'
		},
		actions.separator(),
		actions.copy({
			transform: content => `modified_copy_${content}`
		}),
		{
			label: 'Invisible',
			visible: false
		},
		actions.paste({
			transform: content => `modified_paste_${content}`
		})
	]
}

onShow

Type: Function

Called when the context menu is shown.

The function receives an Event object.

onClose

Type: Function

Called when the context menu is closed.

The function receives an Event object.

Related

• electron-util - Useful utilities for developing Electron apps and modules
• electron-debug - Adds useful debug features to your Electron app
• electron-store - Save and load data like user preferences, app state, cache, etc
• electron-reloader - Simple auto-reloading for Electron apps during development
• electron-serve - Static file serving for Electron apps
• electron-unhandled - Catch unhandled errors and promise rejections in your Electron app