Binding to Object-Based Data Sources
You can bind RadNavigation to an object-based data source such as ObjectDataSource, LinqDataSource or any class that implements the IEnumerable interface.
Binding to ObjectDataSource
To see this type of data binding in action, please visit the Declarative Data Sources live demo.
When using ObjectDataSource, you can bind RadNavigation declaratively at design time. The SelectMethod of the ObjectDataSource should return an object that supports the IEnumerable or ICollection interface.Such collections include Array, ArrayList, and List
If the collection contains objects (as opposed to string values), you can use the DataTextField, and the DataNavigateUrlField properties to map a property from the object directly to the Text and NavigateUrl properties of NavigationNode. If the DataFieldID and DataFieldParentID properties are set, RadNavigation will create a hierarchy of Nodes, determining the Root ones using the following algorithm:
- their DataFieldParentID property must be null if it is of nullable (e.g. int? ) or reference (e.g. string ) type. -example:- ID ParentID 1 (null) 2 1
- their DataFieldParentID property must return the default value if it is value type (e.g. 0 for int , Guid.Empty for Guid ). -example:- ID ParentID 1 0 2 1
To map additional properties from the object to other properties of the respective navigation node, use an NodeDataBound event handler. The event arguments passed to the event, e.Node and e.Node.DataItem, hold the instance of the navigation node being boundand the DataItem associated with the navigation node. You can map a property from the DataItem to the property of the NavigationNode class (make sure to cast the DataItem object to your respective data type first).
<telerik:RadNavigation runat="server" ID="RadNavigation1" DataSourceID="ObjectDataSource1" DataFieldParentID="ParentID"
DataFieldID="ID" DataKeyNames="ID" DataTextField="Text" DataNavigateUrlField="Url" />
<asp:ObjectDataSource ID="ObjectDataSource1" runat="server" SelectMethod="GetSiteData" TypeName="SiteDataItem"></asp:ObjectDataSource>
The ObjectDataSource component is configured to use the SiteDataItem business object. The SiteDataItem class is defined below:
using System.Collections.Generic;
public class SiteDataItem
{
private string _text;
private string _url;
private int _id;
private int? _parentId;
public string Text
{
get
{
return _text;
}
set
{
_text = value;
}
}
public string Url
{
get
{
return _url;
}
set
{
_url = value;
}
}
public int ID
{
get
{
return _id;
}
set
{
_id = value;
}
}
public int? ParentID
{
get
{
return _parentId;
}
set
{
_parentId = value;
}
}
public SiteDataItem(int id, int? parentId, string text, string url)
{
_id = id;
_parentId = parentId;
_text = text;
_url = url;
}
public static List<SiteDataItem> GetSiteData()
{
List<SiteDataItem> siteData = new List<SiteDataItem>();
siteData.Add(new SiteDataItem(1, null, "All Sites", ""));
siteData.Add(new SiteDataItem(2, 1, "Search Engines", ""));
siteData.Add(new SiteDataItem(3, 1, "News Sites", ""));
siteData.Add(new SiteDataItem(4, 2, "Yahoo", "http://www.yahoo.com"));
siteData.Add(new SiteDataItem(5, 2, "MSN", "http://www.msn.com"));
siteData.Add(new SiteDataItem(6, 2, "Google", "http://www.google.com"));
siteData.Add(new SiteDataItem(7, 3, "CNN", "http://www.cnn.com"));
siteData.Add(new SiteDataItem(8, 3, "BBC", "http://www.bbc.co.uk"));
siteData.Add(new SiteDataItem(9, 3, "FOX", "http://www.foxnews.com"));
return siteData;
}
}
Imports System.Collections.Generic
Public Class SiteDataItem
Private _text As String
Private _url As String
Private _id As Integer
Private _parentId As System.Nullable(Of Integer)
Public Property Text() As String
Get
Return _text
End Get
Set(value As String)
_text = value
End Set
End Property
Public Property Url() As String
Get
Return _url
End Get
Set(value As String)
_url = value
End Set
End Property
Public Property ID() As Integer
Get
Return _id
End Get
Set(value As Integer)
_id = value
End Set
End Property
Public Property ParentID() As System.Nullable(Of Integer)
Get
Return _parentId
End Get
Set(value As System.Nullable(Of Integer))
_parentId = value
End Set
End Property
Public Sub New(id As Integer, parentId As System.Nullable(Of Integer), text As String, url As String)
_id = id
_parentId = parentId
_text = text
_url = url
End Sub
Public Shared Function GetSiteData() As List(Of SiteDataItem)
Dim siteData As New List(Of SiteDataItem)()
siteData.Add(New SiteDataItem(1, Nothing, "All Sites", ""))
siteData.Add(New SiteDataItem(2, 1, "Search Engines", ""))
siteData.Add(New SiteDataItem(3, 1, "News Sites", ""))
siteData.Add(New SiteDataItem(4, 2, "Yahoo", "http://www.yahoo.com"))
siteData.Add(New SiteDataItem(5, 2, "MSN", "http://www.msn.com"))
siteData.Add(New SiteDataItem(6, 2, "Google", "http://www.google.com"))
siteData.Add(New SiteDataItem(7, 3, "CNN", "http://www.cnn.com"))
siteData.Add(New SiteDataItem(8, 3, "BBC", "http://www.bbc.co.uk"))
siteData.Add(New SiteDataItem(9, 3, "FOX", "http://www.foxnews.com"))
Return siteData
End Function
End Class
Binding to an object that implements IEnumerable
To see this type of data binding in action, please visit the Hierarchical Data Bindinglive demo.
Instead of going through an ObjectDataSource, you can bind RadNavigation directly to any collection that implements the ICollection or IEnumerable interface.Mapping properties of the objects in the collection to properties of the navigation nodes works exactly the same way as when using ObjectDataSource.
To bind directly to a collection, you must bind the menu at runtime, using the following steps:
Create the collection.
Add items to the collection. Depending on the type of the collection, these can be strings, or more complex objects with properties that provide data for the various properties of NavigationNode and/or for the ID -> ParentID relationship.
Set the DataSource property of RadNavigation to the instance of the collection.
Call the DataBind method.
The following example shows a menu bound to an ArrayList. The list contains SiteDataItem objects with the same definition as in the ObjectDataSource example, only that their ParentID property is of nullable type - int?:
private ArrayList GenerateSiteData()
{
ArrayList siteData = new ArrayList();
siteData.Add(new SiteDataItem(1, null, "All Sites", ""));
siteData.Add(new SiteDataItem(2, 1, "Search Engines", ""));
siteData.Add(new SiteDataItem(3, 1, "News Sites", ""));
siteData.Add(new SiteDataItem(4, 2, "Yahoo", "http://www.yahoo.com"));
siteData.Add(new SiteDataItem(5, 2, "MSN", "http://www.msn.com"));
siteData.Add(new SiteDataItem(6, 2, "Google", "http://www.google.com"));
siteData.Add(new SiteDataItem(7, 3, "CNN", "http://www.cnn.com"));
siteData.Add(new SiteDataItem(8, 3, "BBC", "http://www.bbc.co.uk"));
siteData.Add(new SiteDataItem(9, 3, "FOX", "http://www.foxnews.com"));
return siteData;
}
protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if (!IsPostBack)
{
RadNavigation1.DataTextField = "Text";
RadNavigation1.DataNavigateUrlField = "Url";
RadNavigation1.DataFieldID = "ID";
RadNavigation1.DataFieldParentID = "ParentID";
RadNavigation1.DataSource = GenerateSiteData();
RadNavigation1.DataBind();
}
}
Private Function GenerateSiteData() As ArrayList
Dim siteData As New ArrayList()
siteData.Add(New SiteDataItem(1, Nothing, "All Sites", ""))
siteData.Add(New SiteDataItem(2, 1, "Search Engines", ""))
siteData.Add(New SiteDataItem(3, 1, "News Sites", ""))
siteData.Add(New SiteDataItem(4, 2, "Yahoo", "http://www.yahoo.com"))
siteData.Add(New SiteDataItem(5, 2, "MSN", "http://www.msn.com"))
siteData.Add(New SiteDataItem(6, 2, "Google", "http://www.google.com"))
siteData.Add(New SiteDataItem(7, 3, "CNN", "http://www.cnn.com"))
siteData.Add(New SiteDataItem(8, 3, "BBC", "http://www.bbc.co.uk"))
siteData.Add(New SiteDataItem(9, 3, "FOX", "http://www.foxnews.com"))
Return siteData
End Function
Protected Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs)
If Not IsPostBack Then
RadNavigation1.DataTextField = "Text"
RadNavigation1.DataNavigateUrlField = "Url"
RadNavigation1.DataFieldID = "ID"
RadNavigation1.DataFieldParentID = "ParentID"
RadNavigation1.DataSource = GenerateSiteData()
RadNavigation1.DataBind()
End If
End Sub