Fix DropdownMenuEntry.style not resolved when entry is highlighted by bleroux · Pull Request #178873 · flutter/flutter

bleroux · 2025-11-20T16:11:02Z

Description

This PR adds logic to resolve DropdownMenuEntry.style properties with the correct WidgetState when an item is highlighted.

When MenuItemButton are highlighted the focused state is not added automatically because the focus does not move to the items (it stays on the TextField in order to let the user enters text to filter the items list). This PR sets the MenuItemButton.statesController with a forced focused state to let MenuItemButton know that the focused state should be use to resolve the properties.

Related Issue

Fixes DropdownMenuEntry style's text style is not resolving with states

Tests

Adds 1 tests.

gemini-code-assist

Code Review

This pull request correctly fixes an issue where DropdownMenuEntry.style properties were not being resolved for highlighted items. The approach of using a WidgetStatesController to force the :focus state is sound, and the added regression test effectively validates the fix for textStyle. I have two main points of feedback on the implementation in dropdown_menu.dart. First, the lifecycle management of the new _highlightedItemStatesController can be improved for better performance by creating it once in initState. Second, there's a pre-existing bug in how focused styles are applied that discards other state-dependent styles (like :hover), which I've provided a suggestion to fix.

gemini-code-assist · 2025-11-20T16:17:02Z

packages/flutter/lib/src/material/dropdown_menu.dart

+        _highlightedItemStatesController?.dispose();
+        _highlightedItemStatesController = WidgetStatesController(<WidgetState>{
+          WidgetState.focused,
+        });


Creating and disposing a WidgetStatesController within the build method is inefficient and an anti-pattern. This leads to unnecessary object creation and disposal on every rebuild.

A better approach is to manage the controller's lifecycle within the State object. You can create a single, final _highlightedItemStatesController instance for the _DropdownMenuState, initialize it once, and dispose of it in the dispose method. This single instance can then be reused for any highlighted item.

This would involve:

Changing the declaration in _DropdownMenuState to:
final WidgetStatesController _highlightedItemStatesController = WidgetStatesController(<WidgetState>{WidgetState.focused});

Updating dispose() to call _highlightedItemStatesController.dispose(); instead of _highlightedItemStatesController?.dispose();.

Removing these lines that create and dispose the controller inside _buildButtons.

bleroux · 2025-11-20T16:22:23Z

packages/flutter/lib/src/material/dropdown_menu.dart

+        _highlightedItemStatesController?.dispose();
+        _highlightedItemStatesController = WidgetStatesController(<WidgetState>{
+          WidgetState.focused,
+        });


I opted for the creation of a new states controller each time because I don't think WidgetStatesController are supposed to be reused across several widgets (as they have listeners and a list of states which is updated by InkWell).
For instance, each InkWell (inside each MenuItemButton) will create a Focus widget with an onFocusChange callback that might remove the focused state. If the states controller is shared and this callback is called once then the controller will no more have the focus state turned on. Currently there is an ExcludeFocus widget surrongind each MenuItemButton, so this might not happen but it seems to me that reusing states controller for different widgets can lead to subtle issues.

@justinmc Maybe I'm too cautious here? Let me know if you encountered something similar.

By "reusing it for different widgets" you just mean for each MenuItemButton that is created each time this method is called?

In the docs for statesController I see:

/// Classes based on this one can provide their own /// [WidgetStatesController] to which they've added listeners. /// They can also update the controller's [WidgetStatesController.value] /// however, this may only be done when it's safe to call /// [State.setState], like in an event handler.

It's not safe to call setState in the build phase, so I think you wouldn't be able to set the value back to focused here. So I think you are right, and you have to do it the way that you've done it here.

justinmc

LGTM 👍 . I can't think of a better way to do the WidgetStatesController than what you've done, but if you have any other ideas let me know.

justinmc · 2026-01-02T22:40:55Z

packages/flutter/lib/src/material/dropdown_menu.dart

+      if (entryIsSelected) {
+        _highlightedItemStatesController?.dispose();


Even if the entry is not selected should you still dispose _highlightedItemStatesController and set it to null?

Even if the entry is not selected should you still dispose _highlightedItemStatesController and set it to null?

It will be set to null and disposed in two cases:

when another entry is selected.

when the DropdownMenu will be disposed.

I think it's ok as either there is one entry selected and the controller will be properly destroyed or there is none and the controller will be destroyed when the DropdownMenu is (this second case seems similar to usual states controllers which have the same life time than the widget they are attached to).

justinmc · 2026-01-02T22:49:07Z

packages/flutter/lib/src/material/dropdown_menu.dart

+        _highlightedItemStatesController?.dispose();
+        _highlightedItemStatesController = WidgetStatesController(<WidgetState>{
+          WidgetState.focused,
+        });


By "reusing it for different widgets" you just mean for each MenuItemButton that is created each time this method is called?

In the docs for statesController I see:

/// Classes based on this one can provide their own /// [WidgetStatesController] to which they've added listeners. /// They can also update the controller's [WidgetStatesController.value] /// however, this may only be done when it's safe to call /// [State.setState], like in an event handler.

It's not safe to call setState in the build phase, so I think you wouldn't be able to set the value back to focused here. So I think you are right, and you have to do it the way that you've done it here.

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github-actions bot added framework flutter/packages/flutter repository. See also f: labels. f: material design flutter/packages/flutter/material repository. labels Nov 20, 2025

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bleroux commented Nov 20, 2025

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bleroux requested a review from justinmc November 20, 2025 16:27

bleroux force-pushed the fix_DropdownMenuEntry_styles_not_resolving branch 2 times, most recently from 946b2b9 to f5c7fd8 Compare November 28, 2025 09:28

bleroux force-pushed the fix_DropdownMenuEntry_styles_not_resolving branch 2 times, most recently from 38582aa to 2ab74a8 Compare December 13, 2025 08:18

justinmc approved these changes Jan 2, 2026

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Fix DropdownMenuEntry.style not resolved when entry is highlighted

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bleroux force-pushed the fix_DropdownMenuEntry_styles_not_resolving branch from 2ab74a8 to e0c2f37 Compare January 7, 2026 06:52

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Fix DropdownMenuEntry.style not resolved when entry is highlighted#178873

Fix DropdownMenuEntry.style not resolved when entry is highlighted#178873
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		if (entryIsSelected) {
		_highlightedItemStatesController?.dispose();

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bleroux commented Nov 20, 2025

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