 UltimateMenu Features |
UltimateMenu is a toolset to build your DHTML ASP.NET menu. It is composed
of two main components: UltimateMenuDesigner and UltimateMenu.
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UltimateMenuDesigner is an ASP.NET application that helps
you visually design your ASP.NET menu. You can use it either as a stand-alone
application, or directly from inside VS.NET. You can save your ASP.NET menu in
one of the following forms, which will be consumed by the UltimateMenu control
at run-time:
1. Save as an XML file on your machine.
2. Save into a database such as SQL Server, Access, etc.
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UltimateMenu is an ASP.NET server control that
generates your DHTML ASP.NET menu. All you have to do is drag-and-drop the
UltimateMenu control onto your web page at design-time, and set the source of
your control in one of the following forms:
1. Set MenuSource to an XML file at design-time or run-time.
2. Set MenuSourceXml to an XML string at run-time.
3. Set DatabaseConnStr and DatabaseMenuID at design-time or
run-time.
4. Set DataSource to a dataset at run-time.
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Here is a list of some of the basic features of UltimateMenu:
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MenuSource: You can set the source of the menu to an XML file at
design-time or run-time, or to an XML string at run-time.
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DataBinding: You can set the source of the menu to a database connection
string and menu id at design-time or run-time, or to a dataset that you created
from a database by using ADO.NET at run-time.
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UserRights (DataBinding): Using the DataBinding techniques you can
easily display different sets of menu items per user depending on their
privileges by only making a simple join operation on your menu and user tables.
As a matter of fact you will have the power and flexibility to load your menu
from as many tables as you want based on your implementation needs.
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UserRights (Properties): Using the CurrentUser, CurrentUserSessionVar and AllowedUsers
properties you can display different portions of the same menu to different
users. When you set the CurrentUser to the name of the user logged into your
website menu control will check his name against a comma separated list of
users defined in the AllowedUsers property of each item.
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ServerControl: You can set the item type to ServerControl if you want to
insert a server control (asp:control) or a combination of server and HTML
controls into the UltimateMenu control on a web form (aspx page).
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Timeout: You can set timeout values for both the duration to keep the
submenu open when the mouse is not over it (HideMenuTimeout), and the duration
to wait before opening a submenu not to disturb the user while carrying the
mouse over menu items (ShowMenuTimeout).
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Overlay: You can set the MenuOverlay property to let the submenus open
over IE windowed controls such as select boxes and ActiveX controls. Submenus
will partially cover these controls rather than hiding them altogether.
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HotKey: You can set a hotkey (shortcut key combination) to a menu item
so that the user can press that combination to activate that item as if it is
clicked by mouse. This keyboard support might also be helpful for disabled
users who can learn the shortcut keys to operate and navigate your website.
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Layout: Not only the topmenu but also the submenus can be either
vertical or horizontal. You can create your menu in any combination of vertical
and horizontal topmenu and submenus as you like.
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TabView: It is as easy as setting the TabView property to True. The rest
is all about style definitions to create a professional look and feel that will
reflect your company image. Even though you have the HighlighPath property set
to False it tries to match the URL of the page to the URL of the menu items to
initially open one of the topmenu items. Then it will keep the topmenu and its
immediate submenu open to act like a tabview.
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Scrolling: Submenus can be scrolling either vertically or horizontally.
You can put as many items as you wish into your submenus, and show them in a
scrolling submenu. You can specify the scroll width and height for horizontal
and vertical submenus respectively as well as the scroll speed.
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AutoScrollHeight: If you set the AutoScrollHeight property to True it
will automatically adjust the height of the vertical scrolling submenu based on
the height of the browser window. If there is enough space in the browser
window it hides the scroll arrows. Otherwise it opens a scrolling submenu with
the height of the window, and adds scroll arrows to the top and bottom portion
of the submenu.
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Filter & Transition: Most common filters and transitions are
available to create more sophisticated menus for better user experience.
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Frames: UltimateMenu fully supports frames. You don't need to put the
menu control into all your web pages. You don't even need to write any
client-side code to work with the menu control within a frameset. All you have
to do is to put the UltimateMenu control into your navigation frame, set the
SourceFrame property to the name of the navigation frame, and set the
TargetFrame property to the name of the frame to open up the submenus in.
That's it! The rest is handled for you automatically by the control.
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ContextMenu: You can convert your menu into a context menu just by
setting the ContextMenu property of your menu to True. Then your menu will
become a context menu that opens up with a right-click anywhere on your web
page.
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ContextMenuSource: You can attach your context menu to a server or HTML
control by using its ID on your web page, and it will open up when the user
right-clicks on that control. You can have multiple context menus, each of
which is attached to a different control on your page. You can also set it to a comma-delimited list of IDs to associate the menu with multiple controls. If a context menu is not
attached to any control it will open up when the user right-clicks anywhere on the page except the controls attached to other context menus.
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OpenOnClick: When you set the OpenOnClick property of your menu to True,
submenus will open up when you click on the topmenu rather than when you move
the mouse over the topmenu. This feature is pretty handy if you find it
disturbing or distracting that the submenus open up whenever you pass the mouse
over the topmenu.
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ShowPath: You can now show the mouse traversal path while you are
passing the mouse over menu items. When you set the ShowPath property to True
it will keep the items on your navigation path in their active form. Note that
this is different than the HighlightPath property that finds the navigation
path based on the URL match of the current page with the menu items.
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HighlightPath: When you set the HighlightPath property of your menu to
True, the selected item as well as the whole navigation path will be
highlighted. You will also have the capability to show the selected item and
the other ones on the navigation path with different styles. The selection and
the navigation path is handled automatically by finding the item in the menu,
which has the same URL as the current page. This feature doesn't work with
frames because the submenus are generated dynamically and inserted to the
TargetFrame, and it is not possible to get the page info in another frame from
the current page on server-side.
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PathFindingMethod: You can select the method to find the navigation
path. It can be either MatchPathAndQuery or MatchPathOnly. Default is
MatchPathAndQuery, which tries to match item's URL with the current page's URL
including the path and the query string. MatchPathOnly discards the query
string and tries to match only the path portion of item's URL with current
page's URL.
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SelectedItemID: You can override the automatic matching process handled
by setting the SelectedItemID. If HighlightPath is True and SelectedItemID is
left blank, UltimateMenu tries to find the selected item by using either
MatchPathAndQuery or MatchPathOnly algorithms. However, if SelectedItemID has a
value UltimateMenu will not attempt to find the selected item automatically but
it will instead use this value as the selected item, and find the navigation
path starting from this item and traversing the hierarchical menu up to the
top.
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GetNavigationPath: This public method gets an argument, PathDelimiter,
and returns the navigation path. It gives you the ability to display a menu
path to illustrate to the user his current position in the hierarchial menu
structure.
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SetItemAttribute: This public method gets item id, attribute name and attribute value, and changes the value of the specified attribute of the specified item.
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BaseURL: You can set the virtual path to be added as a prefix to every
ItemURL. Note that "/" is not required at the end of the virtual path. If
omitted, UltimateMenu will handle it accordingly. Items may override this value
if they have a URL property that starts with an absolute path starting with '/'
or 'http://' or 'file://', or including a '\' in it. Also note that if the item
has a URL starting with '~' it will automatically replace '~' with the
application path.
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TopmenuPosition: By default, the topmenu will appear at the position
where you drag-and-drop the control. However, you may use the Left and Top
properties to set the absolute position for run-time.
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RelativePositioning: You don't need to do anything special for relative
positioning. When you drag-and-drop the menu control into a table cell, it will
automatically position itself relative to the table cell you locate it in.
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SubmenuPosition: Submenus are positioned automatically. You may change
the position using OffsetX and OffsetY properties. Moreover, the submenus
detect the edge of the window, and change their position automatically to
appear in the window at all times.
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SubmenuOpenDirection: Even though submenus arrange their locations
automatically you can override this behavior by setting the opening direction
of each submenu. You can set VerticalOpenDirection or HorizontalOpenDirection
depending on the layout of its parent.
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SubmenuAlign: Vertical submenus are aligned at the top, while horizontal
submenus are aligned at the center of the parent item by default. You can
change this default behavior by setting the alignment of each submenu. You can
set VerticalAlign or HorizontalAlign depending on the layout of its parent.
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OnMouseOver Functionality: You can use the ItemOverClientCall and
ItemOutClientCall properties to make client-side function calls when the mouse
gets over an item and leaves it, respectively. This will give you the ability
to modify your web page on client-side depending on user actions on the menu
without making trips back to server.
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Client-Side Events: When the user clicks an item, a JavaScript function
can be called in addition to redirecting to a URL.
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Server-Side PostBack: When the user clicks an item, a server-side event
can be raised, which will return a postback value to server.
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Search Engine Optimization: Renders special output to let all search engines index your website properly. This feature is automatically handled by the control without any additional settings.
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Cross-Browser Support: IE5+, NS6+, Mozilla 1.0+ and Opera 7.5+ will
provide the best outcome. All down-level browsers are supported with limited
functionality.
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Compliancy: XHTML 1.0 Transitional compliant.
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Compatibility: Microsoft ASP.NET Web Matrix, IBuySpy Portal Framework.
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System Requirements: Windows 2000/2003/XP/Vista, IIS 5.0+, .NET Framework 1.0/1.1/2.0/3.0.
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