How to Highlight Toolbar Buttons Based on Menu Selection in Angular

Discover how to efficiently `highlight toolbar buttons` in Angular when a menu item is selected, with a step-by-step solution and code example.
---
This video is based on the question https://stackoverflow.com/q/77777452/ asked by the user 'CryAndCode' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/22734615/ ) and on the answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/77777738/ provided by the user 'CryAndCode' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/22734615/ ) at 'Stack Overflow' website. Thanks to these great users and Stackexchange community for their contributions.

Visit these links for original content and any more details, such as alternate solutions, comments, revision history etc. For example, the original title of the Question was: I want to highlight the button in toolbar when either of the menu is selected in angular

Also, Content (except music) licensed under CC BY-SA https://meta.stackexchange.com/help/l...
The original Question post is licensed under the 'CC BY-SA 4.0' ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... ) license, and the original Answer post is licensed under the 'CC BY-SA 4.0' ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... ) license.

If anything seems off to you, please feel free to write me at vlogize [AT] gmail [DOT] com.
---
How to Highlight Toolbar Buttons Based on Menu Selection in Angular

In the world of Angular applications, user interface responsiveness and clarity are paramount. A common issue developers face is the need to visually indicate which toolbar button is active based on the user's interaction with menu items. If you’re implementing a toolbar with multiple buttons that trigger a menu containing router links, you may wonder how to highlight the toolbar’s button to reflect this activity.

In this post, we will explore a straightforward solution to ensure that your toolbar button, such as the “Employee” button, highlights appropriately when a user selects any related menu option.

The Problem

When creating a toolbar, especially one that involves routing, it’s essential to give users adequate visual feedback about the current state of the interface. Our goal is to highlight the “Employee” button only when any of the related menu items from the dropdown are selected, not merely when the button itself is clicked.

Problem Example

Consider the following scenario:

Toolbar Button: Employee

Menu Items: Employees List, Add Employee

The challenge arises when attempting to highlight the "Employee" button. The initial attempt using routerLinkActive alone resulted in the button being highlighted upon click, regardless of whether an action was taken on the dropdown menu.

The Solution

After some tweaking and testing, here’s the refined approach to achieve the desired functionality:

Updated Code

Below is the enhanced code snippet to implement this feature:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Explanation of the Code

Button Setup:

The primary button is linked to the employeeMenu using the matMenuTriggerFor directive.

The routerLinkActive directive is applied to allow the button to be styled as active when in use.

Dynamic Class Binding:

The [ngClass] directive is used to toggle an active class based on the state of whether items from the menu list have been clicked.

Two references are created for the menu buttons, list and addEmp, which will dynamically check if they are active.

Menu Items:

Each menu item uses the routerLinkActive directive and assigns it to a template reference variable (list or addEmp). This will keep track of which menu items were last interacted with.

Final Outcome

With this approach, the "Employee" button will now properly highlight only when either "List" or "Add Employee" is selected from the menu and not simply upon clicking the button itself. This results in a much clearer and user-friendly interface.

Conclusion

Highlighting toolbar buttons based on menu selection adds a layer of interaction and visual clarity that greatly enhances user experience in Angular applications. By using Angular's built-in directives such as routerLinkActive and [ngClass], developers can customize the interface behavior to meet user expectations.

Try implementing this code in your Angular app and see how it can improve the relationship between your navigation elements and user actions!