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Source Code Location

Live demo is available at our website: http://www.essentialobjects.com/demo/default.aspx?id=binding_dataset.

Source code for demo project can be launched from:
Start -> Programs -> EO.Web Controls x.x -> EO.Web for ASP.NET x.x -> Live Demo

If your installation directory is "c:\Program Files\Essential Objects", then this demo is located at: "c:\Program Files\Essential Objects\EO.Web Controls 3.0\Net11\Samples\CS\Demos\Menu\Programming\Data Binding\Populate from DataSet".
Demos for .NET 2.0 and VB are also available.

Overview

EO.Web navigation controls support populating from a DataSet. The DataSet should contain DataSet.Relations to represent a hierarchical data structure which can map to the control's structure.

How to define hierarchical data structure in a DataSet

Use DataRelation object to define hierarchical relations in a DataSet. Considering a DataSet with the following tables:

Countries table:

States table:

Cities table:

Note:

The Nested property of all DataRelation objects must be set to true.

Mapping data field to item's property

When binding to a DataSet as shown above, by default data field value in records are assigned to an item's Text.Html property. For example, specifying "CountryName|StateName|CityName " as DataFields value generates the following menu:

If you intend to assign data field value to other property, you can define one or more DataBinding objects to customize the mapping between a specific data field and a specific property. The code below maps data field "WebSite" to NavigateUrl for the City level navigation items:

<eo:Menu Runat="server" DataFields="CountryName|StateName|CityName">
  <TopGroup>
    <Bindings> 
        <eo:DataBinding 
            Property="NavigateUrl" 
            DataField="CityWebSite" 
            Depth="2"> 
        </eo:DataBinding> 
    </Bindings> 
  </TopGroup>                
</eo:Menu>

Use Depth to specify which level the mapping should be applied to. Depth starts from 0.

Populating a group

EO.Web navigation controls support populating a certain group from a data source. Simple specify the group's DataFields and DataSource properties, then call DataBind method.

Here's a sample of editting a MenuGroup's Bindings property

Summary