How to add event handling for a menu?

Question

hi,
I have created a menu and few mneu items.
for eachmenu itme , i did event handling and it is workign fine.
it was like this
menuItem = new JMenuItem("Exit",KeyEvent.VK_X);
menuItem.setAccelerator(KeyStroke.getKeyStroke(KeyEvent.VK_X, ActionEvent.ALT_MASK));
menuItem.addActionListener(this);
menu.add(menuItem);
     public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e)
JMenuItem source = (JMenuItem)(e.getSource());
String s = "Action event detected. Event source: " + source.getText();
System.out.println(s);     
public void itemStateChanged(ItemEvent e)
JMenuItem source = (JMenuItem)(e.getSource());
String s = "Item event detected. Event source: " + source.getText();
System.out.println(s);
now int he second menu i don't have any menu item and i want to do the event handling for the menu itself. any ideas how to do it. following is the code for the menu
//Build the second menu.
menu2 = new JMenu("Options");
menu2.setMnemonic(KeyEvent.VK_O);
menuBar.add(menu2);
menu2.addActionListener(this);     //this does nto work

Answer 1

You were on the right track. However, selecting a menu is different from selecting a menu item. MenuItem chucks an ActionEvent and Menu will send an ItemEvent.
If you pile all action output to one actionPerformed method then be careful of your assumptions on what the source type will be. If by any chance the Menu has sent an ActinoEvent then your code will have caused a ClassCastException.
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.*;
public class MenuTest implements ActionListener, ItemListener {
    JMenuItem menuItem;
    JMenu menu1, menu2;
    JMenuBar menubar;
    JFrame frame;
    public MenuTest() {
        frame = new JFrame("MenuTest");
        frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(frame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        menubar = new JMenuBar();
        frame.setJMenuBar(menubar);
        menu1 = new JMenu("File");
        menu1.setMnemonic(KeyEvent.VK_F);
        menuItem = new JMenuItem("Exit",KeyEvent.VK_X);
        menuItem.setAccelerator(KeyStroke.getKeyStroke(KeyEvent.VK_X, ActionEvent.ALT_MASK));
        menuItem.addActionListener(this);
        menu1.addItemListener(this);
        menu1.add(menuItem);
        menubar.add(menu1);
        //Build the second menu.
        menu2 = new JMenu("Options");
        menu2.setMnemonic(KeyEvent.VK_O);
        menu2.addActionListener(this); //this does not work
        menu2.addItemListener(this); // use this instead
        menubar.add(menu2);
        JPanel panel = new JPanel();
        panel.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(100,100));
        frame.getContentPane().add(panel);
        frame.pack();
        frame.show();
    public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e)
        String s = "Action event detected. Event source: " + e.getSource();
        System.out.println(s);
    public void itemStateChanged(ItemEvent e)
        String s = "Item event detected. Event source: " + e.getSource();
        System.out.println(s);
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        new MenuTest();
}