Create the simplest drop down menu in React

Abstract

Hello everyone it’s me candle. In this time we will make a most simple drop down menu.

Condition

1. Knowledge of react

Preparation

We create a react project with the below command.

create-react-app hello-menu

Open src/App.js and write this.

import React, { Component } from 'react'

class App extends Component {
  render() {
    return (
      <div>
        <p>hello menu</p>
      </div>
    )
  }
}

export default App

Create a components directory in the src directory.

mkdir src/components

Create a DropDownMenu.js file in the src/components directory.

touch src/components/DropDownMenu.js

Now on ready.

Create a Drop down menu

Open the src/components/DropDownMenu.js and write these.

import React from 'react'

class DropDownMenu extends React.Component {
  constructor(props) {
    super(props)
    this.state = {
      listOpen: false,
    }
  }

  toggleList() {
    this.setState(prevState => ({
      listOpen: !prevState.listOpen,
    }))
  }

  handleClickMenu(val) {
    this.setState({
      listOpen: false,
    })
    alert(val)
  }

  render() {
    const { listOpen } = this.state
    return (
      <div style={styles.dropDownMenu}>
        <div onClick={this.toggleList.bind(this)} style={styles.menuButton}>
          menu
        </div>
        {listOpen && (
          <div style={styles.menuBox}>
            <div style={styles.menuContent}>
              <div onClick={this.handleClickMenu.bind(this, 1)}>menu 1</div>
            </div>
            <div style={styles.menuContent}>
              <div onClick={this.handleClickMenu.bind(this, 2)}>menu 2</div>
            </div>
            <div style={styles.lastMenuContent}>
              <div onClick={this.handleClickMenu.bind(this, 3)}>menu 3</div>
            </div>
          </div>
        )}
      </div>
    )
  }
}

const styles = {
  dropDownMenu: {
    position: 'relative',
  },
  menuButton: {
    display: 'inline',
    cursor: 'pointer',
    border: '1px solid black',
    padding: '3px 5px',
  },
  menuBox: {
    position: 'absolute',
    top: '23px',
    width: '120px',
    zIndex: 1,
    cursor: 'pointer',
    border: '1px solid black',
  },
  menuContent: {
    padding: '3px 5px',
    borderBottom: '1px solid black',
  },
  lastMenuContent: {
    padding: '3px 5px',
  },
}

export default DropDownMenu

Next open the src/App.js and edit like this.

import React, { Component } from 'react'
import DropDownMenu from './components/DropDownMenu'

class App extends Component {
  render() {
    return (
      <div>
        <p>hello menu</p>
        <DropDownMenu />
      </div>
    )
  }
}

export default App

Launch server.

yarn run start

Click the “menu” button and the menu appears, and click the “menu” button again then close it.

Click the contents of menu, an alert window displays and close the dropdown menu.

Click outside the menu to close

After clicking the “menu” button, you need to click the “menu” button again to close it again. But many sites tend to be closed easily by clicking on other parts.

You can make it using react-onclickoutside easily.

yarn add react-onclickoutside

Open src/components/DropDownMenu.js and edit.
Write this at the top of file.

import onClickOutside from 'react-onclickoutside'

Create a new function.

  handleClickOutside() {
    this.setState({
      listOpen: false,
    })
  }

Edit the part of export default DropDownMenu at the bottom of file.

export default onClickOutside(DropDownMenu)

Please check with the browser. After opening the menu, click on the outside to close the menu.

This is the finished code.

import React from 'react'
import onClickOutside from 'react-onclickoutside'

class DropDownMenu extends React.Component {
  constructor(props) {
    super(props)
    this.state = {
      listOpen: false,
    }
  }

  toggleList() {
    this.setState(prevState => ({
      listOpen: !prevState.listOpen,
    }))
  }

  handleClickMenu(val) {
    this.setState({
      listOpen: false,
    })
    alert(val)
  }

  handleClickOutside() {
    this.setState({
      listOpen: false,
    })
  }

  render() {
    const { listOpen } = this.state
    return (
      <div style={styles.dropDownMenu}>
        <div onClick={this.toggleList.bind(this)} style={styles.menuButton}>
          menu
        </div>
        {listOpen && (
          <div style={styles.menuBox}>
            <div style={styles.menuContent}>
              <div onClick={this.handleClickMenu.bind(this, 1)}>menu 1</div>
            </div>
            <div style={styles.menuContent}>
              <div onClick={this.handleClickMenu.bind(this, 2)}>menu 2</div>
            </div>
            <div style={styles.lastMenuContent}>
              <div onClick={this.handleClickMenu.bind(this, 3)}>menu 3</div>
            </div>
          </div>
        )}
      </div>
    )
  }
}

const styles = {
  dropDownMenu: {
    position: 'relative',
  },
  menuButton: {
    display: 'inline',
    cursor: 'pointer',
    border: '1px solid black',
    padding: '3px 5px',
  },
  menuBox: {
    position: 'absolute',
    top: '23px',
    width: '120px',
    zIndex: 1,
    cursor: 'pointer',
    border: '1px solid black',
  },
  menuContent: {
    padding: '3px 5px',
    borderBottom: '1px solid black',
  },
  lastMenuContent: {
    padding: '3px 5px',
  },
}

export default onClickOutside(DropDownMenu)

Conclusion

When you use it in your project, you should edit the design, and use in combination with other libraries, for example link of react-router. Please challenge and try creating an easy-to-use drop down menu.