How to get accentColor background for menu items in SwiftUI with reduced transparency? - swift

Question

Using AppKit you can add NSMenuItems to an NSMenu. I saw that there is something similar to NSMenu in SwiftUI, namely MenuButton. But I cannot find any documentation on how it works.
I tried the following:
MenuButton("+") {
Button("New contact") { print("Create new contact") }
Button("New group") { print("Create new group") }
}
And that gives me this
It looks almost OK but when I enable the "Reduce transparency" in system preferences
The buttons have a different background color than the menu (notice the slightly lighter color above and beneath the menu items).
When I hover the menu items, their background color doesn't change like a normal macOS menu. See the image below:
I also tried to change the background color manually using the .background() modifier but that doesn't affect the full width of the menu item.
MenuButton("+") {
Button("New contact") { print("Create new contact") }
.background(Color.accentColor)
Button("New group") { print("Create new group") }
}
I suppose this is because I am placing Buttons inside the MenuButton while it is probably expecting some other SwiftUI element. What elements should I place inside MenuButtons to create a normal looking macOS menu like the one below?
[Update] macOS Big Sur
I also tried this out in Big Sur. While the background renders correctly, in Big Sur, the text color is messed up now. 🤯

Answer 1

I think I found a partial solution to this by configuring a ButtonStyle and applying it to the MenuButton generic structure. Note however that the conditional change of .foregroundColor isn't inherited by the individual's Button()'s Text(). Also the color ain't right.
Perhaps someone wants to improve on this.
struct DetectHover: ButtonStyle {
#State private var hovering: Bool = false
public func makeBody(configuration: DetectHover.Configuration) -> some View {
configuration.label
.foregroundColor(self.hovering ? Color.white : Color.primary)
.background(self.hovering ? Color.blue : Color.clear)
.onHover { hover in
self.hovering = hover
}
}
}
MenuButton(label: Image(nsImage: NSImage(named: NSImage.actionTemplateName)!)) {
// Buttons
}.buttonStyle(DetectHover())

Answer 2

I’ve got something that nearly looks right. I have created a custom button which does change appearance when hovered.
I am very new to both Swift and SwiftUI, so the following may be clumsy. I would welcome any improvements.
struct HoverButton: View {
var text = "Hover Button"
var action = {}
#State private var hovering = false
var body: some View {
Button(text, action: action )
.padding(.horizontal, 6)
.padding(.vertical, 2)
.buttonStyle(PlainButtonStyle())
.frame(minWidth: 0, maxWidth: .infinity)
.background(self.hovering ? Color(.selectedMenuItemColor) : Color(.clear))
.onHover { hover in
self.hovering = hover
}
}
}
// Usage:
MenuButton("Test") {
HoverButton(text: "Apple", action: {
print("Apple")
})
HoverButton(text: "Banana", action: {
print("Banana")
})
}
.font(.system(size: 14, /* weight: .heavy, */ design: .default))
.menuButtonStyle(BorderlessButtonMenuButtonStyle())
The whole point in creating the custom button is to have access to Self so that I can change its appearance. However, there are some serious shortcomings:
The main problem is that the buttons don’t take the full width of the menu body. I have no idea how to fix that.
The menu buttons are centered. I tried using a HStack with a Spacer() but that didn’t help.
I have no idea how to omit the first parameter name as for a real Button