How to create a flyout menu with Tailwind CSS and JavaScript

Live Demo Get the code

And today Friday, we’re going to build a simple flyout menu with Tailwind CSS and JavaScript. The same as we did with Alpinejs, but with javaScript.

What are Fluyout Menus?

A flyout menu is a type of menu that appears when a user clicks on a button or icon. It is typically used to display additional information or options related to a specific item or action.

Use Cases:

Navigation menus: Flyout menus are commonly used in navigation menus to display additional options or sub-menus when a user clicks on a specific item.
Product listings: Flyout menus can be used to display additional information or options related to a specific product or category.
Forms: Flyout menus can be used to display additional fields or options for a form, such as a dropdown or checkbox.
Tooltips: Flyout menus can be used to display additional information or options when a user hovers over a specific element.

And more…

Let’s write the markup

This is the structure of the project: Understanding the code:

id="flyoutButton": This is the button that toggles the flyout menu.
id="flyoutMenu": This is the element that contains the flyout menu.

absolute: This is the positioning of the flyout menu.
z-10: This is the z-index of the flyout menu, this is important for the flyout menu to appear on top of other elements.
max-w-xs: This is the maximum width of the flyout menu, this is important for the flyout menu to fit within the screen.
hidden: This is the condition that determines whether the flyout menu is hidden or not.

Classes and irrelevant content are removed for brevity, but I’ll keep those classes relevant to the tutorial.

<!-- Button to toggle the dropdown menu visibility -->
<button id="flyoutButton"> I am your flyout menu </button>
<!-- Dropdown Menu -->
<div id="flyoutMenu" class="absolute z-10 max-w-xs    hidden">
  <!-- Dr<div>
      opdown content goes here -->
</div>

The JavaScript

document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", function() {: This is the event listener that runs when the page is loaded.
const button = document.getElementById("flyoutButton");: This is the variable that holds the button element.
const menu = document.getElementById("flyoutMenu");: This is the variable that holds the flyout menu element.
button.addEventListener("click", function(event) {: This is the event listener that runs when the button is clicked.
event.stopPropagation();: This is a function that stops the event from bubbling up to the parent element.
menu.classList.toggle("hidden");: This is the action that toggles the hidden class from the flyout menu.
document.addEventListener("click", function(event) {: This is the event listener that runs when the user clicks outside of the flyout menu.
if (!menu.contains(event.target)) {: This is the condition that determines whether the user clicked outside of the flyout menu.
menu.classList.add("hidden");: This is the action that adds the hidden class to the flyout menu.
}: This is the end of the event listener.

document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", function() {
    const button = document.getElementById("flyoutButton");
    const menu = document.getElementById("flyoutMenu");
    button.addEventListener("click", function(event) {
        event.stopPropagation(); // Prevent click event from bubbling up
        menu.classList.toggle("hidden");
    });
    document.addEventListener("click", function(event) {
        if (!menu.contains(event.target)) {
            menu.classList.add("hidden");
        }
    });
});

Conclusion

This is a simple flyout menu that uses Tailwind CSS and JavaScript. It’s a great starting point for building more complex flyout menus and checkout the other tutorials for more advanced examples.

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial and have a great day!

/Michael Andreuzza

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