UI Automation Support for the Menu Item Control Type

This topic provides information about Microsoft UI Automation support for the Menu Item control type. It describes the control's Microsoft UI Automation tree structure and provides the properties and control patterns that are required for the Menu Item control type.

A menu control allows hierarchal organization of elements associated with commands and event handlers. In a typical Microsoft Windows application, a menu bar contains several menu items (such as File, Edit, and Window), and each menu item displays a menu. A menu contains a collection of menu items (such as New, Open, and Close), which can be expanded to display additional menu items or perform a specific action when clicked.

The following sections define the required UI Automation tree structure, properties, control patterns, and events for the Menu Item control type. The UI Automation requirements apply to all list controls, whether Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), Win32, or Windows Forms.

This topic contains the following sections.

• Required UI Automation Tree Structure
• Required UI Automation Properties
• Required UI Automation Control Patterns
• UI Automation Events for Menu Item
• Required UI Automation Events
• Legacy Issues
• Related Topics

Required UI Automation Tree Structure

The following table depicts the control view and the content view of the UI Automation tree that pertains to menu item controls and describes what can be contained in each view. For more information on the UI Automation tree, see UI Automation Tree Overview.

Control View	Content View
MenuItem "Help" Menu MenuItem "Help Topics" MenuItem "About Notepad"	MenuItem "Help" MenuItem "Help Topics" MenuItem "About Notepad"

The control view of the menu item control has the UI Automation tree structure shown above. Note that the menu item for Help on the menu bar has been added to better illustrate the structure.

For the content view, Menu is absent from the UI Automation tree because it does not convey meaningful information to the end user.

Required UI Automation Properties

The UI Automation properties for the Menu Item control are listed in the following table.

Property	Value	Description
AutomationIdProperty	See notes.	The value of this property needs to be unique across all controls in an application.
BoundingRectangleProperty	See notes.	The outermost rectangle that contains the whole control.
ClickablePointProperty	See notes.	Supported if there is a bounding rectangle. If not every point within the bounding rectangle is clickable, and you perform specialized hit testing, then override and provide a clickable point.
IsKeyboardFocusableProperty	See notes.	If the control can receive keyboard focus, it must support this property.
NameProperty	"Help"	The menu item control is included in the content view of the UI Automation tree and is self labeled with a name.
LabeledByProperty	Null	No label.
ControlTypeProperty	MenuItem	This value is the same for all UI frameworks.
IsContentElementProperty	True	The menu item control is never included in the content view of the UI Automation tree.
IsControlElementProperty	True	The menu item control must always be included in the control view of the UI Automation tree.

Required UI Automation Control Patterns

The following table lists the UI Automation control patterns required to be supported by menu item controls. For more information on control patterns, see UI Automation Control Patterns Overview.

Control Pattern/Pattern Property	Support/Value	Notes
IExpandCollapseProvider	Depends	If the control can be expanded or collapsed, implement IExpandCollapseProvider.
IInvokeProvider	Depends	If the control executes a single action or command, implement IInvokeProvider.
IToggleProvider	Depends	If the control represents an option that can be turned on or off, implement IToggleProvider.
ISelectionItemProvider	Depends	If the control is used to select from a list of options among menu items, implement ISelectionItemProvider.

UI Automation Events for Menu Item

The following table lists the Microsoft UI Automation events associated with the menu item control.

Event	Support	Explanation
InvokedEvent	Depends	Must be raised if control supports Invoke control pattern.
ToggleStateProperty property-changed event.	Depends	Must be raised if control supports Toggle control pattern.
ExpandCollapseStateProperty property-changed event.	Depends	Must be raised if control supports Expand Collapse control pattern.
ElementSelectedEvent	Depends	None.

Required UI Automation Events

The following table lists the UI Automation events required to be supported by all menu item controls. For more information on events, see UI Automation Events Overview.

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UI Automation Event	Support/Value	Notes
InvokedEvent	Depends	None
ElementAddedToSelectionEvent	Depends	None
ElementRemovedFromSelectionEvent	Depends	None
ElementSelectedEvent	Depends	None
BoundingRectangleProperty property-changed event.	Required	None
IsOffscreenProperty property-changed event.	Required	None
IsEnabledProperty property-changed event.	Required	None
ExpandCollapseStateProperty property-changed event.	Depends	None
ToggleStateProperty property-changed event.	Depends	None
AutomationFocusChangedEvent	Required	None
StructureChangedEvent	Required	None

Legacy Issues

Toggle Pattern will only be supported when the Win32 menu item is checked and can be programmatically determined necessary to support Toggle Pattern. Because the Win32 menu item does not expose whether it has the ability to be checked, Invoke Pattern will be supported when the menu item is not checked. An exception will be made to always support Invoke Pattern even for menu items that should only support Toggle Pattern. This is so clients do not become confused that an element that was supporting Invoke Pattern (when menu item was unchecked) no longer supports the pattern once it becomes checked.

See Also

Reference

MenuItem

Concepts

UI Automation Control Patterns Overview
UI Automation Control Types Overview
UI Automation Overview