Menu: show multi-column menu off of DropDownButton etc.

[David Schwartz]

There are times when a large number of choices is available within a menu. While there are generally means of avoiding this, occasions do arise when they are necessary.

DropDownButton? should allow for multiple columns of choices as in:

[bill]

This would actually be an enhancement to the Menu widget. Not sure what exactly the spec would be, probably the items would flow like:

1                 6
2                 7
3                 8
4                 9
5                 10

rather than

1                2
3                4
5                6
...

[bill]

I've thought about this a bit more... it's more complicated than I initially considered.

The first question is keyboard support... how does the user navigate between entries in the left and right columns? I assume using the left/right arrow keys. But then, what if there is a submenu off of one of the choices in the left column? Perhaps we just don't support nested menus.

This also opens the question of what the layout rules are. Does it show up like a table with entries in the left and right columns aligned? They might become misaligned if left column has a thin separator bar, or a larger font for one of the menu items.

Also note that a full implementation would need to handle addChild()/removeChild() which would need to reflow the existing items (when an item was added/removed from the middle of the list).

[David Schwartz]

The main purpose is to provide a flat list as in the example above or a site map in which there might be headings and indented items within the sections as in the figure below. In the flat listing, CursorUp? and CursorDown? would follow the first pattern you documented above. I think it would be fine not to support nested menus here.

[[Image( [dojo-multi-col-menu.gif])]]

Regarding this figure, CursorRight? from Heading 2 or Choice 2.1 would move the focus to Heading 4 (the spaces are not cursorable). Accordingly, CursorDown? from Choice 1.2 moves the focus to Heading 2. CursorDown? from Choice 2.3 moves the cursor to Heading 3.

[bill]

Hmm, not sure why I marked this as "Dijit - Form" or assigned to Doug. Anyway I am marking as "patch welcome" since we don't have any plans to implement this. I'm also not sure it would go into dijit/, rather than dojox/form.