🍎 iPadOS Menu Bar 📱

A custom PlatformMenuDelegate that adds iPadOS 26+ menu bar functionality to Flutter apps

📑 Table of Contents #

• 🧭 Human Interface Guidelines
• 🚀 Features
• 📦 Installation
• 🏁 Getting Started
• 🎛️ Customization Options
• 📱 Platform Support
• 🔧 Feature Roadmap
• ⚠️ API Stability Notice
• 🤝 Contributing
• 📄 License

🧭 Human Interface Guidelines #

This package follows Apple’s official Human Interface Guidelines for the iPadOS menu bar. Before designing your menus, review these resources to ensure consistency with the system experience:

• WWDC session on the iPadOS menu bar: https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2025/208/?time=624
• Apple HIG – Menu Bar: https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/the-menu-bar

🚀 Features #

Bring the native iPadOS menu bar experience to your Flutter applications with this custom PlatformMenuDelegate. This package provides seamless integration with iPadOS 26+ menu bar functionality, allowing users to access app features through the system menu bar.

📦 Installation #

Add ipados_menu_bar to your pubspec.yaml:

dependencies:
  ipados_menu_bar: ^0.0.3

Then run:

flutter pub get

🏁 Getting Started #

Basic Setup #

Initialize the iPadOS menu bar in your app's main() method:

import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
import 'package:ipados_menu_bar/ipados_menu_bar.dart';

void main() {
  WidgetsFlutterBinding.ensureInitialized();
  WidgetsBinding.instance.platformMenuDelegate = IpadOSPlatformMenuDelegate();

  runApp(MyApp());
}

class MyApp extends StatelessWidget {
  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return MaterialApp(
      title: 'iPadOS Menu Bar Demo',
      home: PlatformMenuBar(
        menus: [
          // Your custom menus here
          PlatformMenu(
            label: 'Actions',
            menus: [
              PlatformMenuItemGroup(
                members: [
                  PlatformMenuItem(
                    label: 'New Document',
                    onSelected: () {
                      // Handle action
                    },
                  ),
                  PlatformMenuItem(
                    label: 'Open Document',
                    onSelected: () {
                      // Handle action
                    },
                  ),
                ],
              ),
            ],
          ),
        ],
        child: Scaffold(
          appBar: AppBar(
            title: Text('My App'),
          ),
          body: Center(
            child: Text('Hello iPadOS Menu Bar!'),
          ),
        ),
      ),
    );
  }
}

Advanced Configuration #

You can customize default menu items behavior using the configureDefaultMenus method:

// Get instance of the Menu Delegate
_menuDelegate = WidgetsBinding.instance.platformMenuDelegate as IpadOSPlatformMenuDelegate;

// Hide default menus
await _menuDelegate.configureDefaultMenus({
    'hidden': ['format', 'edit'],
});

// Add custom items to the default iOS menu items
await _menuDelegate.configureDefaultMenus({
    'file': {
        'additionalItems': [
          {'id': 100, 'label': 'New Special File', 'enabled': true},
          {'id': 101, 'label': 'Open Special File', 'enabled': true},
        ],
    },
});

🎛️ Customization Options #

Hidden Default Menus #

The package allows you to hide default system menu items that come with iPadOS:

• File: Hide file-related actions
• Edit: Hide editing actions (cut, copy, paste, etc.)
• Format: Hide text formatting options
• View: Hide view-related controls

You can customize default menu items behavior using the configureDefaultMenus method:

// Get instance of the Menu Delegate
_menuDelegate = WidgetsBinding.instance.platformMenuDelegate as IpadOSPlatformMenuDelegate;

// Hide default menus
await _menuDelegate.configureDefaultMenus({
    'hidden': ['format', 'edit'],
});

// Add custom items to the default iOS menu items
await _menuDelegate.configureDefaultMenus({
    'file': {
        'additionalItems': [
          {'id': 100, 'label': 'New Special File', 'enabled': true},
          {'id': 101, 'label': 'Open Special File', 'enabled': true},
        ],
    },
});

Disable Menu Items #

On custom menu items, you can disable menu items by setting the onSelected or onSelectedIntent a null value:

// Controlling when an item should be clickable using a boolean
PlatformMenuItem(
  label: 'Item 0 (Enabled: $enabledBoolean)',
  onSelected: enabledBoolean
      ? () => debugPrint("Item 0 selected")
      : null,
),

This is handful when changing contexts, like opening a modal.

Menu Structure #

Create organized menu hierarchies with:

• PlatformMenu: Top-level menu categories
• PlatformMenuItemGroup: Grouped menu items with separators
• PlatformMenuItem: Individual menu actions with optional keyboard shortcuts

📱 Platform Support #

This package is specifically designed for iPadOS 26+ and provides enhanced functionality when running on compatible devices. On older iOS versions, it gracefully falls back to standard Flutter menu behavior.

🔧 Feature Roadmap #

⚠️ API Stability Notice #

Important: This package is currently in early development (version 0.x.x). The API is subject to breaking changes until it reaches a stable 1.0.0 release. Please be aware that:

• Method signatures may change
• Configuration options may be modified or removed
• New features may introduce breaking changes

We recommend pinning to a specific version in your pubspec.yaml and reviewing the changelog before updating. Once the package reaches version 1.0.0, we will follow semantic versioning for all future releases.

🤝 Contributing #

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request. For major changes, please open an issue first to discuss what you would like to change.

📄 License #

This package is licensed under MIT License.