How to add space between menus in javafx - menu

Question

I am trying to implement a menu. This is my code :
Menu menuFile1 = new Menu("ADD");
Menu menuFile2 = new Menu("EDIT");
Menu menuFile3 = new Menu("VIEW");
Menu menuFile4 = new Menu("HELP");
How can I put some space between each menu (that is between ADD,EDIT,VIEW and HELP) ?

Answer 1

Answer
Space around menus is controlled by padding (see the Region css guide).
For example:
menu.setStyle("-fx-padding: 5 10 8 10;");
sets the padding around the menu to 5 pixels on the top, 10 pixels on the right, 8 pixels on the bottom and 10 pixels on the left.
Sample
The following is a bit overcomplicated for a code sample to demonstrate this effect, but you could run it to see the effect of varying padding values.
import javafx.application.Application;
import javafx.beans.binding.Bindings;
import javafx.beans.binding.StringExpression;
import javafx.geometry.Insets;
import javafx.scene.Scene;
import javafx.scene.control.*;
import javafx.scene.layout.Priority;
import javafx.scene.layout.VBox;
import javafx.stage.Stage;
public class SpacedOut extends Application {
#Override
public void start(final Stage stage) {
MenuBar menuBar = createMenuBar();
VBox controlPane = createControlPane(menuBar);
VBox layout = new VBox(10,
menuBar,
controlPane
);
VBox.setVgrow(controlPane, Priority.ALWAYS);
stage.setScene(new Scene(layout, 400, 200));
stage.show();
}
private MenuBar createMenuBar() {
MenuBar menuBar = new MenuBar();
menuBar.getMenus().addAll(
new Menu("ADD"),
new Menu("EDIT"),
new Menu("VIEW"),
new Menu("HELP")
);
return menuBar;
}
private VBox createControlPane(MenuBar menuBar) {
CheckBox useCustomPadding = new CheckBox("Use Custom Padding");
useCustomPadding.setSelected(false);
Slider padAmount = new Slider(0, 30, 15);
padAmount.setShowTickMarks(true);
padAmount.setShowTickLabels(true);
padAmount.setMajorTickUnit(10);
padAmount.setMaxWidth(200);
padAmount.disableProperty().bind(
useCustomPadding.selectedProperty().not()
);
VBox contentPane = new VBox(10,
useCustomPadding,
padAmount
);
contentPane.setPadding(new Insets(10));
StringExpression paddingExpression = Bindings.concat(
"-fx-padding: ", padAmount.valueProperty(), "px;"
);
menuBar.getMenus().forEach(
menu -> menu.styleProperty().bind(
Bindings
.when(useCustomPadding.selectedProperty())
.then(paddingExpression)
.otherwise("")
)
);
return contentPane;
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
launch(args);
}
}

Answer 2

With the setStyle() Method you can pass one or more css styles in one string.
Like menuFile1.setStyle("-fx-border-color: red; -fx-effect: dropshadow( one-pass-box , red , 10,0.5,0,0 );");
Alternatively you could put your style information inside a css file and add it to the Scene through.
Scene somescene = new Scene(root)
somescene.getStylesheets().add("your.css");
See the css reference of Java FX 2 or this tutorial.