QML: How to hide a Menu item from the ApplicationWindow MenuBar

Question

In QML/Qt6.5 I try to add/remove a Menu from the MenuBar of a ApplicationWindow dynamically and I don't find a solution. I can hide MenuItems but not the Menu itself.

ApplicationWindow
{
    id: mainWindow
    width: 600
    height: 400
    visible: true

    menuBar: MenuBar {
        id: mainMenuBar

        // this item should be shown/hidden at runtime
        Menu {
            id: subMenu
            title: "Menu to hide"

            MenuItem {
                text: "Menu Item"
            }
        }
    }
}

I have tried several things. Best so far was setting the title to an empty string, but in this case the Menu is still there (you can see it if you hover the area). Anyone having a solution for that?

Setting the height to 0 is also not working properly.

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 27 '23 at 16:09

You can use takeMenu() and insertMenu(), but this feels like a hack. In my opinion it isn't good UX to show/hide menus I would rather disable them if not applicable. This way the user knows there is a menu, but it currently doesn't apply to the situation.

import QtQuick
import QtQuick.Controls
import QtQuick.Window

ApplicationWindow {
    id: window
    width: 320
    height: 260
    visible: true

    menuBar: MenuBar {
        Menu {
            id: menu1
            title: qsTr("&File")
            Action { text: qsTr("&New...") }
            Action { text: qsTr("&Open...") }
            Action { text: qsTr("&Save") }
            Action { text: qsTr("Save &As...") }
            MenuSeparator { }
            Action { text: qsTr("&Quit") }
        }
        Menu {
            id: menu2
            title: qsTr("&Edit")
            Action { text: qsTr("Cu&t") }
            Action { text: qsTr("&Copy") }
            Action { text: qsTr("&Paste") }
        }
        Menu {
            id: menu3
            title: qsTr("&Help")
            Action { text: qsTr("&About") }
        }

        onMenusChanged: checkMenu()
        Component.onCompleted: checkMenu()

        function checkMenu() {
            if (window.menuBar.menuAt(1) === menu2) {
                removeButton.enabled = true
                addButton.enabled = false
            } else {
                removeButton.enabled = false
                addButton.enabled = true
            }
        }
    }

    Column {
        anchors.centerIn: parent
        spacing: 6

        Button {
            id:  removeButton
            text: "Remove"
            onClicked: {
                window.menuBar.takeMenu(1)
            }
        }

        Button {
            id: addButton
            text: "Add"
            onClicked: {
                window.menuBar.insertMenu(1, menu2)
            }
        }
    }
}

We want to hide as much information as possible from "normal" users, so I prefer the hiding mechanism and just add the menus if a super user logs in. — Jürgen Lutz, Jul 31 '23 at 10:12
Then you could have 2 menu bars one for super user and one for normal users and just replace them if needed. — iam_peter, Jul 31 '23 at 10:29

QML: How to hide a Menu item from the ApplicationWindow MenuBar

1 Answers1