How to make jQuery UI nav menu horizontal

Question

I love the jQuery UI stuff   I like the navigation menu  but I can t seem to get it horizontal  I ve got to be missing something that s a cinch   Anyone know how to change the CSS  I tried this but it is for an older version and doesn t work  since there is no longer  clear  to keep them on top of each other   Relevant CSS    ui-menu   list-style none  padding  2px  margin  0  display block  outline  none     ui-menu  ui-menu   margin-top  -3px  position  absolute     ui-menu  ui-menu-item   margin  0  padding  0  zoom  1  width  100      ui-menu  ui-menu-divider   margin  5px -2px 5px -2px  height  0  font-size  0  line-height  0  border-width  1px 0 0 0     ui-menu  ui-menu-item a   text-decoration  none  display  block  padding  2px  4em  line-height  1 5  zoom  1  font-weight  normal     ui-menu  ui-menu-item a ui-state-focus   ui-menu  ui-menu-item a ui-state-active   font-weight  normal  margin  -1px      ui-menu  ui-state-disabled   font-weight  normal  margin   4em 0  2em  line-height  1 5     ui-menu  ui-state-disabled a   cursor  default      Thanks for the help

User · Accepted Answer

You can do this      Clearfix for the menu     ui-menu after       content           display  block      clear  both      visibility  hidden      line-height  0      height  0      and also set    ui-menu  ui-menu-item       display  inline-block      float  left      margin  0      padding  0      width  auto

User · Answer

I just been for 3 days looking for a jquery UI and CSS solution, I merge some code I saw, fix a little, and finally (along the other codes) I could make it work!

http://jsfiddle.net/Moatilliatta/97m6ty1a/

<ul id="nav" class="testnav">
    <li><a class="clk" href="#">Item 1</a></li>
    <li><a class="clk" href="#">Item 2</a></li>
    <li><a class="clk" href="#">Item 3</a>
        <ul class="sub-menu">
            <li><a href="#">Item 3-1</a>
                <ul class="sub-menu">
                    <li><a href="#">Item 3-11</a></li>
                    <li><a href="#">Item 3-12</a>
                        <ul>
                            <li><a href="#">Item 3-111</a></li>                         
                            <li><a href="#">Item 3-112</a>
                                <ul>
                                    <li><a href="#">Item 3-1111</a></li>                            
                                    <li><a href="#">Item 3-1112</a></li>                            
                                    <li><a href="#">Item 3-1113</a>
                                        <ul>
                                            <li><a href="#">Item 3-11131</a></li>                           
                                            <li><a href="#">Item 3-11132</a></li>                           
                                        </ul>
                                    </li>                           
                                </ul>
                            </li>
                            <li><a href="#">Item 3-113</a></li>
                        </ul>
                    </li>
                    <li><a href="#">Item 3-13</a></li>
                </ul>
            </li>
            <li><a href="#">Item 3-2</a>
                <ul>
                    <li><a href="#."> Item 3-21 </a></li>
                    <li><a href="#."> Item 3-22 </a></li>
                    <li><a href="#."> Item 3-23 </a></li>
                </ul>   
            </li>
            <li><a href="#">Item 3-3</a></li>
            <li><a href="#">Item 3-4</a></li>
            <li><a href="#">Item 3-5</a></li>
        </ul>
    </li>
    <li><a class="clk" href="#">Item 4</a>
        <ul class="sub-menu">
            <li><a href="#">Item 4-1</a>
                <ul class="sub-menu">
                    <li><a href="#."> Item 4-11 </a></li>
                    <li><a href="#."> Item 4-12 </a></li>
                    <li><a href="#."> Item 4-13 </a>
                        <ul>
                            <li><a href="#."> Item 4-131 </a></li>
                            <li><a href="#."> Item 4-132 </a></li>
                            <li><a href="#."> Item 4-133 </a></li>
                        </ul>
                    </li>
                </ul>
            </li>
            <li><a href="#">Item 4-2</a></li>
            <li><a href="#">Item 4-3</a></li>
        </ul>
    </li>
    <li><a class="clk" href="#">Item 5</a></li>
</ul>

javascript

$(document).ready(function(){

var menu = "#nav";
var position = {my: "left top", at: "left bottom"};

$(menu).menu({

    position: position,
    blur: function() {
        $(this).menu("option", "position", position);
        },
    focus: function(e, ui) {

        if ($(menu).get(0) !== $(ui).get(0).item.parent().get(0)) {
            $(this).menu("option", "position", {my: "left top", at: "right top"});
            }
    }
});     });

CSS

.ui-menu {width: auto;}.ui-menu:after {content: ".";display: block;clear: both;visibility: hidden;line-height: 0;height: 0;}.ui-menu .ui-menu-item {display: inline-block;margin: 0;padding: 0;width: auto;}#nav{text-align: center;font-size: 12px;}#nav li {display: inline-block;}#nav li a span.ui-icon-carat-1-e {float:right;position:static;margin-top:2px;width:16px;height:16px;background:url(https://www.drupal.org/files/issues/ui-icons-222222-256x240.png) no-repeat -64px -16px;}#nav li ul li {width: 120px;border-bottom: 1px solid #ccc;}#nav li ul {width: 120px; }.ui-menu .ui-menu-item li a span.ui-icon-carat-1-e {background:url(https://www.drupal.org/files/issues/ui-icons-222222-256x240.png) no-repeat -32px -16px !important;

User · Answer

Just think about the jquery-ui menu as being the verticle dropdown when you hover over a topic on your main horizonal menu. That way, you have a separate jquery ui menu for each topic on your main menu. The horizonal main menu is just a collection of float:left divs wrapped in a mainmenu div. You then use the hover in and hover out to pop up each menu.

$('.mainmenuitem').hover(
    function(){ 
        $(this).addClass('ui-state-focus');
        $(this).addClass('ui-corner-all');
        $(this).addClass('ui-state-hover');
        $(this).addClass('ui-state-active');
        $(this).addClass('mainmenuhighlighted');
        // trigger submenu
        var position=$(this).offset();
        posleft=position.left;
        postop=position.top;
        submenu=$(this).attr('submenu');
        showSubmenu(posleft,postop,submenu);    
    },
    function(){ 
        $(this).removeClass('ui-state-focus');
        $(this).removeClass('ui-corner-all');
        $(this).removeClass('ui-state-hover');
        $(this).removeClass('ui-state-active');
        $(this).removeClass('mainmenuhighlighted');
        // remove submenu
        $('.submenu').hide();
    }
    );

The showSubmenu function is simple - it just positions the submenu and shows it.

function showSubmenu(left,top,submenu){
    var tPosX=left;
    var tPosY=top+28;
    $('#'+submenu).css({left:tPosX, top:tPosY,position:'absolute'});
    $('#'+submenu).show();
}

You then need to make sure the submenu is visible while your cursor is on it and disappears when you leave (this should be in your document.ready function.

$('.submenu').hover(
            function(){ 
                $(this).show();
            },
            function(){ 
                $(this).hide();
            }
            );

Also don't forget to hide your submenus to start with - in the document.ready function

$(".submenu" ).hide();

See the full code here

http://jsfiddle.net/R4nyn/

User · Answer

Adding on to Mihalis Bagos answer  I have ended up doing the following    lt style gt   ui-menu     z-index  1000      menubar-layout-container  gt   ui-menu after       content           display  block      clear  both      visibility  hidden      line-height  0      height  0      menubar-layout-container  gt   ui-menu  gt   ui-menu-item       display  inline-block      float  left      margin  0      padding  0      width  auto      ui-menu  ui-menu-icon     display  none     lt  style gt    This makes the top level menu horizontal but leaves any sub menus vertical   I had to remove the icons as this was messing up the layout  There also seems to be a problem with the sub menu positioning

User · Answer

I m new to stackoverflow  so please be nice    however turning to the problem of horizontal jQuery ui menu  the only way I could manage to resolve the problem  refering to this  was to set    nav li  width  auto  clear  none  float  left   nav ul li  width  auto  clear  none  float none

User · Answer

To get a horizontal nav bar with vertical dropdowns, use a combination of a table and unordered lists.

The level 1 items are represented by table cells, subsequent levels are represented by unordered lists.

The positioning of the child menus was a problem. The default is to have them appear directly alongside, but when on a top level item, that was obscuring the subsequent items in the horizontal nav bar. Having them appear below was ok for a single dropdown menu, but if there was a second level beneath, then that 2nd level would obscure the rest of the first. The solution is to have the menu open below and somewhat to the right, see the "position" option in the menu invocation.

<style type="text/css">
  #trJMenu td { white-space: nowrap; width: auto; }
  #trJMenu li { white-space: nowrap; width: auto; }
</style>


<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">
  $(document).ready(function(){
    $("#trJMenu").menu( { position: { my: "left top", at: "center bottom" } } );          
  });
</script>


<table>
  <tr id='trJMenu'>
    <td>
      <a href='#'>Timesheets</a>
      <ul>
        <li><a href='#'>Labour</a></li>
        <li><a href='#'>Chargeout Report</a></li>
      </ul>
    </td>
    <td>
      <a href='#'>Activity Management</a>
      <ul>
        <li><a href='#'>Activities</a></li>
        <li><a href='#'>Proposals</a></li>
      </ul>
    </td>
  </tr>
</table>

User · Answer

changing    ui-menu  ui-menu-item        margin  0       padding  0       zoom  1       width  100        to    ui-menu  ui-menu-item        margin  0       padding  0       zoom  1       width  auto       float left        should start you off

User · Answer

The best option I found is a plugin called jMenu.

Main: http://www.myjqueryplugins.com/jquery-plugin/jmenu
Demo: http://demos.myjqueryplugins.com/jmenu/
GitHub: https://github.com/alpixel/jMenu

Screenshot:
demo menu

User · Answer

This post has inspired me to try the jQuery ui menu.

http://jsfiddle.net/7Bvap/

<ul id="nav">
    <li><a href="#">Item 1</a></li>
    <li><a href="#">Item 2</a></li>
    <li><a href="#">Item 3</a>
        <ul>
            <li><a href="#">Item 3-1</a>
            <ul>
                <li><a href="#">Item 3-11</a></li>
                <li><a href="#">Item 3-12</a></li>
                <li><a href="#">Item 3-13</a></li>
            </ul>
            </li>
            <li><a href="#">Item 3-2</a></li>
            <li><a href="#">Item 3-3</a></li>
            <li><a href="#">Item 3-4</a></li>
            <li><a href="#">Item 3-5</a></li>
        </ul>
    </li>
    <li><a href="#">Item 4</a></li>
    <li><a href="#">Item 5</a></li>
</ul>


.ui-menu { 
    overflow: hidden;
}
.ui-menu .ui-menu {
    overflow: visible !important;
}
.ui-menu > li { 
    float: left;
    display: block;
    width: auto !important;
}
.ui-menu ul li {
    display:block;
    float:none;
}
.ui-menu ul li ul {
    left:120px !important;
    width:100%;
}
.ui-menu ul li ul li {
    width:auto;
}
.ui-menu ul li ul li a {
    float:left;
}
.ui-menu > li {
    margin: 5px 5px !important;
    padding: 0 0 !important;
}
.ui-menu > li > a { 
    float: left;
    display: block;
    clear: both;
    overflow: hidden;
}
.ui-menu .ui-menu-icon { 
    margin-top: 0.3em !important;
}
.ui-menu .ui-menu .ui-menu li { 
    float: left;
    display: block;
}


$( "#nav" ).menu({position: {at: "left bottom"}});

http://jsfiddle.net/vapD7/

<ul id="nav">
    <li><a href="#">Item 1</a></li>
    <li><a href="#">Item 2</a></li>
    <li><a href="#">Item 3</a>
        <ul>
            <li><a href="#">Item 3-1</a>
            <ul>
                <li><a href="#">Item 3-11</a></li>
                <li><a href="#">Item 3-12</a></li>
                <li><a href="#">Item 3-13</a></li>
            </ul>
            </li>
            <li><a href="#">Item 3-2</a></li>
            <li><a href="#">Item 3-3</a></li>
            <li><a href="#">Item 3-4</a></li>
            <li><a href="#">Item 3-5</a></li>
        </ul>
    </li>
    <li><a href="#">Item 4</a></li>
    <li><a href="#">Item 5</a></li>
</ul>

.ui-menu { list-style:none; padding: 2px; margin: 0; display:block; outline: none; }
.ui-menu .ui-menu { margin-top: -3px; position: absolute; }
.ui-menu .ui-menu-item {
    display: inline-block;
    float: left;
    margin: 0;
    padding: 0;
    width: auto;
}
.ui-menu .ui-menu-divider { margin: 5px -2px 5px -2px; height: 0; font-size: 0; line-height: 0; border-width: 1px 0 0 0; }
.ui-menu .ui-menu-item a { text-decoration: none; display: block; padding: 2px .4em; line-height: 1.5; zoom: 1; font-weight: normal; }
.ui-menu .ui-menu-item a.ui-state-focus,
.ui-menu .ui-menu-item a.ui-state-active { font-weight: normal; margin: -1px; }

.ui-menu .ui-state-disabled { font-weight: normal; margin: .4em 0 .2em; line-height: 1.5; }
.ui-menu .ui-state-disabled a { cursor: default; }
.ui-menu:after {
    content: ".";
    display: block;
    clear: both;
    visibility: hidden;
    line-height: 0;
    height: 0;
}

$( "#nav" ).menu({position: {at: "left bottom"}});

User · Answer

I admire all these efforts to convert a menu to a menubar because I detest trying to hack CSS. It just feels like I'm meddling with powers I can't possibly ever understand! I think it's much easier to add the menubar files available at the menubar branch of jquery ui.

I downloaded the full jquery ui css bundled file from the jquery ui download site

In the head of my document I put the jquery ui css file that contains everything (I'm on version 1.9.x at the moment) followed by the specific CSS file for the menubar widget downloaded from the menubar branch of jquery ui

<link type="text/css" href="css/jquery-ui.css" rel="stylesheet" />
<link type="text/css" href="css/jquery.ui.menubar.css" rel="stylesheet" />

Don't forget the images folder with all the little icons used by jQuery UI needs to be in the same folder as the jquery-ui.css file.

Then at the end the body I have:

<script type="text/javascript" src="js/jquery-1.8.2.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="js/jquery-ui-1.9.0.custom.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="js/menubar/jquery.ui.menubar.js"></script>

That's a copy of an up-to-date version of jQuery, followed by a copy of the jQuery UI file, then the menubar module downloaded from the menubar branch of jquery ui

The menubar CSS file is refreshingly short:

.ui-menubar { list-style: none; margin: 0; padding-left: 0; }
.ui-menubar-item { float: left; }
.ui-menubar .ui-button { float: left; font-weight: normal; border-top-width: 0 !important; border-bottom-width: 0 !important; margin: 0; outline: none; }
.ui-menubar .ui-menubar-link { border-right: 1px dashed transparent; border-left: 1px dashed transparent; }
.ui-menubar .ui-menu { width: 200px; position: absolute; z-index: 9999; font-weight: normal; }

but the menubar JavaScript file is 328 lines - too long to quote here. With it, you can simply call menubar() like this example:

$("#menu").menubar({
    autoExpand: true,
    menuIcon: true,
    buttons: true,
    select: select
});

As I said, I admire all the attempts to hack the menu object to turn it into a horizontal bar, but I found all of them lacked some standard feature of a horizontal menu bar. I'm not sure why this widget is not bundled with jQuery UI yet, but presumably there are still some bugs to iron out. For instance, I tried it in IE 7 Quirks Mode and the positioning was strange, but it looks great in Firefox, Safari and IE 8+.

User · Answer

I know this is an old thread but I was digging into the jQuery UI source code and built upon Rowan's answer which was closer to what I had been looking for. Only I needed the carrots as I felt it was important to have a visual indicator of possible submenus. From looking at the source code (both .js and .css) I came up with this that allows the carrot be visiable without messing with design (height) and also alowing menu to appear vertical below the parent item.

In the jquery-ui.js do a search to find $.widget( "ui.menu") and change postition to:

position: {
my: "center top",
at: "center bottom"
}

And in your css add:

#nav > .ui-menu:after {
    content: ".";
    display: block;
    clear: both;
    visibility: hidden;
    line-height: 0;
    height: 0;
}

#nav > .ui-menu > .ui-menu-item {
    display: inline-block;
    float: left;

    margin: 0;
    padding: 3px;

    width: auto;
}

.ui-menu .ui-menu-item a {
    padding: 0;
}

.ui-menu .ui-menu-icon{
    position: relative;
    left: 1px;
    top: 6px;
}

End Result will be a jQuery UI Menu horizontal with sub menus being displayed veriticaly below the parent menu item.

[css] How to make jQuery UI nav menu horizontal?

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