Question

I found Bind ASP.NET Menu control to XML question helpful in find my problem. Now the problem I am facing is my menu looks like this (even the main menu as expanding menu attached to it. I want it to have a regular drop down. Can I achieve it?

My xmlfile is attached. I tried removing the root tag but than it is not a xml file and it breaks the code.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<menu>
    <menuItem>
        <text>
            &lt;img align="middle" src="images/new.gif" width="32"
            height="16" /&gt; What's New? &lt;img align="middle"
            src="images/right.gif" width="16" height="16" /&gt;
        </text>
        <subMenu>
            <menuItem>
                <text>&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;New Articles</text>
                <url>/suboption1.1.html</url>
            </menuItem>
            <menuItem>
                <text>&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;New FAQs</text>
                <commandName>NewFAQ</commandName>
            </menuItem>
        </subMenu>
    </menuItem>
    <menuItem>
        <text>
            &lt;img align="middle" src="images/paw.gif" width="20"
            height="16" /&gt; Animal Facts &lt;img align="middle"
            src="images/right.gif" width="16" height="16" /&gt;
        </text>
        <url>/option2.html</url>
        <subMenu>
            <menuItem>
                <text>
                    <![CDATA[<img align="middle" src="images/paw.gif" 
              width="20" height="16" /> Animal Facts <img 
              align="middle" src="images/right.gif" width="16" 
              height="16" />]]>
                </text>
                <url>/suboption2.1.html</url>
                <subMenu>
                    <menuItem>
                        <text>Facts about Terriers</text>
                        <url>/suboption2.1.1</url>
                    </menuItem>
                    <menuItem>
                        <text>Facts about Beagles</text>
                        <url>/suboption2.1.2</url>
                    </menuItem>
                    <menuItem>
                        <text>Facts about Great Danes</text>
                        <url>/suboption2.1.3</url>
                    </menuItem>
                    <menuItem>
                        <text>Facts about Poodles</text>
                        <url>/suboption2.1.4</url>
                    </menuItem>
                </subMenu>
            </menuItem>
            <menuItem>
                <text>
                    &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Facts About
                    Goats
                </text>
                <url>/suboption2.2.html</url>
            </menuItem>
            <menuItem>
                <text>
                    &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Facts About
                    Snakes
                </text>
                <url>/suboption3.2.html</url>
            </menuItem>
        </subMenu>
    </menuItem>
    <menuItem>
        <text>
            &lt;img align="middle" src="images/email.gif" width="18"
            height="18" /&gt; Contact
        </text>
        <url>mailto:[e-mail]</url>
    </menuItem>
</menu>

Adding Code

protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{

    if (!Page.IsPostBack)
    {
        MainMenu.DataSource = GetSiteMapDataSource("firtmenu.xml");
        MainMenu.DataBind();
    }
}

private XmlDataSource GetSiteMapDataSource(string siteMapFileName)
{
    if (siteMapFileName != string.Empty)
    {
        XmlDataSource xmlSource = new XmlDataSource();
        xmlSource.DataFile = siteMapFileName;
        xmlSource.DataBind();
        return xmlSource;
    }
    else
    { return null; }
}

Answer 1

Looks like it is not possible.

Microsoft at this link says, the XML must have a root element and a proper structure of xml with menu,menuitem, and properties.

The Menu class contains a DataSource property that can accept either a
string path to an XML file or an XmlDocument instance that has already
loaded the proper XML data. Specifically, the XML data must have a
root element of with an arbitrary number of
elements. Each element must have a element that
specifies the text to display for the menu item, as well as optional
and elements. If the menu item has a submenu, the
element should contain a element, which, like the
element, can have an arbitrary number of elements.

Further …

I found a similar thread on sitepoint, who asked the same question. The solution there is using XPATH to filter the result. In my example case, you will use

XmlDataSource xmlSource = new XmlDataSource();              
xmlSource.XPath = "/menu/menuItem"; // Notice XPAth filter in this line
xmlSource.DataFile = siteMapFileName;

It does filter the XML but it produces more problems. That is

1. The root element is not shown (we need a heading for menu like Edit, File etc)
2. All submenu are automatically expanded. If you hover over it, it will then expand the submenus.

Looks like another poor implementation of Microsoft. It is rather not an implementation but just a bogus do this and that and then result, there is not result.