HTML 5 <menuitem> Tag

This tag has now been removed from the HTML5 specification (which is still in draft status at time of writing). Rather than remove this article altogether, I have decided to keep it here for reference.

The HTML <menuitem> tag is used for specifying a command that the user can invoke from a popup menu (either a context menu or the menu of a menu button).

You can use one or more type, label, icon, disabled, checked, and radiogroup attributes to set a new command. Otherwise you can use the command attribute to reference another command. This way, you can define a command once, set its state (e.g. whether it is active or disabled) in one place, and have all references to that command in the user interface change at the same time.

The <menuitem> tag is not included in the W3C HTML5 specification. However, it is included in the HTML 5.1 draft specification, as well as the WHATWG HTML Living Specification.

Also see <menu> tag.

Attributes

HTML tags can contain one or more attributes. Attributes are added to a tag to provide the browser with more information about how the tag should appear or behave. Attributes consist of a name and a value separated by an equals (=) sign, with the value surrounded by double quotes. Here's an example, style="color:black;".

There are 3 kinds of attributes that you can add to your HTML tags: Element-specific, global, and event handler content attributes.

The attributes that you can add to this tag are listed below.

Element-Specific Attributes

The following table shows the attributes that are specific to this tag/element.

AttributeDescription
typeSpecifies the type of command.

Possible values:

  • command (default value). This value means that element represents a normal command with an associated action.
  • checkbox The element represents a state or option that can be toggled.
  • radio Means that the element represents a selection of one item from a list of items.
labelSpecifies the name of the command, as shown to the user.
iconSpecifies the URI (or IRI) of graphical image that represents the action.
disabledSpecifies if the command is disabled or not.

This is a boolean attribute. If the attribute is present, its value must either be the empty string or a value that is an ASCII case-insensitive match for the attribute's canonical name, with no leading or trailing whitespace (i.e. either disabled or disabled="disabled").

Possible values:

  • [Empty string]
  • disabled
checkedIndicates whether the command is selected or not. This attribute can only be used when the type attribute is either checkbox or radio.

This is a boolean attribute. If the attribute is present, its value must either be the empty string or a value that is an ASCII case-insensitive match for the attribute's canonical name, with no leading or trailing whitespace (i.e. either checked or checked="checked").

Possible values:

  • [Empty string]
  • checked
radiogroupSpecifies the name of the group of commands that will be toggled when the command itself is toggled, for commands whose type attribute has the value "radio".
defaultSpecifies that the command is the one that would have been invoked if the user had directly activated the menu's subject instead of using the menu.

This is a boolean attribute. If the attribute is present, its value must either be the empty string or a value that is an ASCII case-insensitive match for the attribute's canonical name, with no leading or trailing whitespace (i.e. either default or default="default").

Possible values:

  • [Empty string]
  • default
commandHere's what the W3C HTML5 specification says about the command attribute:

If the element's Disabled State is false (enabled) then the element's activation behavior depends on the element's type and command attributes, as follows:

If the element has a master command set by its command attribute
The user agent must run synthetic click activation steps on the element's master command.

If the type attribute is in the Checkbox state
If the element has a checked attribute, the UA must remove that attribute. Otherwise, the UA must add a checked attribute, with the literal value checked.

If the type attribute is in the Radio state
If the element has a parent, then the UA must walk the list of child nodes of that parent element, and for each node that is a menuitem element, if that element has a radiogroup attribute whose value exactly matches the current element's (treating missing radiogroup attributes as if they were the empty string), and has a checked attribute, must remove that attribute.

Then, the element's checked attribute must be set to the literal value checked.

Otherwise
The element's activation behavior is to do nothing.

Global Attributes

The following attributes are standard across all HTML 5 tags (although the tabindex attribute does not apply to dialog elements).

For a full explanation of these attributes, see HTML 5 global attributes.

Event Handler Content Attributes

Event handler content attributes enable you to invoke a script from within your HTML. The script is invoked when a certain "event" occurs. Each event handler content attribute deals with a different event.

For a full list of event handlers, see HTML 5 event handler content attributes.