Object menu

An object menu is a menu that lets the user directly manipulate objects without having to open them and navigate deeper into a view hierarchy.

• Deleting a photo by selecting its thumbnail, instead of by opening the full image first.
• Flagging an email by selecting its preview instead of by first opening the email.
• Calling a contact by selecting their name, instead of by opening their detailed contact information then pressing a "Call" button.

Object menus are currently implemented as a special case of action menu; this will evolve over time. For now, see the action menu coding guide for information on how to implement an object menu.

Characteristics

• Object menus are accessed using a "press-and-hold" gesture on a selectable object, such as a list row, phone number, URL, or the like.
• An object menu contains one or more items.
• Object menus expand in height to accomodate their contents, to a maximum of the height of the screen; at that point, the contents of the menu scroll. As a rule of thumb, you should try to avoid having more than five items in the menu.
• Unlike action menus, object menus do not have titles.
• You implement object menus using the same code and style as for action menus.

Visuals

Interaction

Here you see a user press-and-old on an email message. As a result, an object menu appears prompting the user with various tasks they can perform on that message.

See also

• Coding guide (this is the action menu coding guide; don't forget not to use a title!)
• Firefox OS user experience