Dynamic database-driven menu in ASP (C#)

Question

Hi,

I'm trying to create a database driven dropdown menu. For now i'm using a EO.WEB third party component for ASP, which is preety good, but it doesen't give me quite what I need (design-wise). I have a SQL procedure written which gives me the child node names for the menu and their links (eg. CAST(('showInfo.aspx?cityId='+''+CAST(dbo.city.id AS varchar(50))+'&'+'typeId='+CAST(dbo.object_type.id AS varchar(50))) AS varchar(50)) AS 'WebSiteLink') I just need to find the simplest way to implement it and customize as much as possible.

A reference to a third party component or some other app or anything would be most helpfull!

Thanks in advance for the anwsers!

Answer 1

ASP.NET has a built in menu control, which you can do a lot with. You can bind it to your data or add MenuItems one at a time in the codebehind.

 <asp:menu id="NavigationMenu" CssClass="NavigationMenu" 
    staticdisplaylevels="2" DynamicHorizontalOffset="1"
    staticsubmenuindent="1px" MaximumDynamicDisplayLevels="4"
    orientation="Horizontal"  
    DynamicPopOutImageUrl="~/Images/right-arrow.gif"
    StaticPopOutImageUrl="~/Images/drop-arrow.gif"
    datasourceid="MenuSource"   
    runat="server" Height="30px">
    <staticmenuitemstyle ItemSpacing="10" CssClass="staticMenuItemStyle"/>
    <statichoverstyle CssClass="staticHoverStyle" />
    <StaticSelectedStyle CssClass="staticMenuItemSelectedStyle"/>
    <DynamicMenuItemStyle CssClass="dynamicMenuItemStyle" />     
    <dynamichoverstyle CssClass="menuItemMouseOver" />
    <DynamicMenuStyle CssClass="menuItem" />
    <DynamicSelectedStyle CssClass="menuItemSelected" />
    <DataBindings>       
         <asp:MenuItemBinding DataMember="siteMapNode"
            NavigateUrlField="url" TextField="title" 
                ToolTipField="description" />
    </DataBindings>
  </asp:menu>