Question

I searched SO and Google for answers so please don’t be upset that I didn’t find what I’m looking for! 🙂

In a HTML page (using ASP .NET 4.5) what type should I be using for a link menu? Basically, I want to have a “Menu” down the left of the page which is populated by a List<string,string> (href,text or something similar), and I don’t know what types to be using in the HTML to allow this.

I’ve found things online which tell me about looping (lol) and other things which are quite obvious, but I can find nothing which tells me “put a <li> tag down and leave it blank, you will put links in it in your pageload” or something similar. I just need to know the frontend type, if you have links with more info then GREAT! But my immediate need is the HTML type to use and the structure it should sit within.

Thanks

Answer 1

Well, you only have a limited set of html items as choices. A HREF, INPUT TYPE=”BUTTON” or INPUT TYPE=”SUBMIT”.

Usually menus are implemented with a A tag.

Of course, some sites simply apply a little onclick javascript goodness to pretty much anything to cause a postback/page load.

Although you are probably much better served by simply pulling up a site you like and inspecting it’s html.

Simple output:

<ul>
  <li><a href="home.aspx">Home</a></li>
  <li><a href="Accounts.aspx">Accounts</a></li>
  <li><a href="Logout.aspx">Log Off</a></li>
</ul>

In your menu control:

<asp:Repeater id="MenuRepeater">
  <headertemplate>
    <ul>
  </headertemplate>
  <itemtemplate>
    <li><a href='<%# ((DataRowView)Container.DataItem)["PageFile"]%>'><%# ((DataRowView)Container.DataItem["DisplayName"]%></a></li>
  </itemtemplate>
  <footertemplate>
    </ul>
  </footertemplate>
 </asp:Repeater>

Code Behind:

protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e) {
  // have something load a datatable with your page file and display name references  

  MenuRepeater.DataSource = GetMenu();
  MenuRepeater.DataBind();
}

protected void DataTable GetMenu() {
  // you would normally pull this from a database, this is here
  // only to show the idea.
  DataTable menu = new DataTable();
  menu.Columns.Add("PageFile", typeof(String));
  menu.Columns.Add("DisplayName", typeof(String));

  DataRow row = menu.NewRow();
  row["PageFile"] = "home.aspx";
  row["DisplayName"] = "Home";
  menu.Rows.Add(row);

  row = menu.NewRow();
  row["PageFile"] = "Accounts.aspx";
  row["DisplayName"] = "Accounts";
  menu.Rows.Add(row);

  row = menu.NewRow();
  row["PageFile"] = "Logout.aspx";
  row["DisplayName"] = "Logout";
  menu.Rows.Add(row);

  return menu;
}