Generate Dynamic Menu in ASP.NET

 

Generate Dynamic Menu in ASP.NET

Sometimes we need to generate menu form database according to our requirements. The following code will help you to generate menu dynamically in ASP.NET. You can apply your customize CSS as you like to give nice outlook of the menu.

  

Table Creation

At first run the following SQL scripts in your database. This will create Menus table with some sample data.

CREATE TABLE [dbo].[Menus](

       [MenuID] [bigint] NOT NULL,

       [ParentID] [bigint] NULL,

       [Name] [nvarchar](50) NULL,

       [URL] [nvarchar](50) NULL,

 CONSTRAINT [PK_Menus] PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED

(

       [MenuID] ASC

)WITH (PAD_INDEX  = OFF, STATISTICS_NORECOMPUTE  = OFF, IGNORE_DUP_KEY = OFF, ALLOW_ROW_LOCKS  = ON, ALLOW_PAGE_LOCKS  = ON) ON [PRIMARY]

) ON [PRIMARY]

INSERT [dbo].[Menus] ([MenuID], [ParentID], [Name], [URL]) VALUES (1, 0, N'Main Menu1', N'Main Menu1')

INSERT [dbo].[Menus] ([MenuID], [ParentID], [Name], [URL]) VALUES (2, 0, N'Main Menu2', N'Main Menu2')

INSERT [dbo].[Menus] ([MenuID], [ParentID], [Name], [URL]) VALUES (3, 0, N'Main Menu3', N'Main Menu3')

INSERT [dbo].[Menus] ([MenuID], [ParentID], [Name], [URL]) VALUES (4, 1, N'Sub Menu 1.1', N'Sub Menu 1.1')

INSERT [dbo].[Menus] ([MenuID], [ParentID], [Name], [URL]) VALUES (5, 1, N'Sub Menu 1.2', N'Sub Menu 1.2')

INSERT [dbo].[Menus] ([MenuID], [ParentID], [Name], [URL]) VALUES (6, 2, N'Sub Menu 2.1', N'Sub Menu 2.1')

INSERT [dbo].[Menus] ([MenuID], [ParentID], [Name], [URL]) VALUES (7, 2, N'Sub Menu 2.2', N'Sub Menu 2.2')

INSERT [dbo].[Menus] ([MenuID], [ParentID], [Name], [URL]) VALUES (8, 3, N'Sub Menu 3.1', N'Sub Menu 3.1')

INSERT [dbo].[Menus] ([MenuID], [ParentID], [Name], [URL]) VALUES (9, 3, N'Sub Menu 3.2', N'Sub Menu 3.2')

INSERT [dbo].[Menus] ([MenuID], [ParentID], [Name], [URL]) VALUES (10, 3, N'Sub Menu 3.2', N'Sub Menu 3.3')

 

Connection String

Write connection string in web.config file according to your database credential. A sample connection string code is:

<connectionStrings>

<add name="ConStr" connectionString="Data Source=.;Initial Catalog=TestDB;Persist Security Info=True;User ID=sa;Password=sa"

providerName="System.Data.SqlClient"/>

</connectionStrings>

C# Code

Paste the following C# code in your master page of ASP.NET project.

protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)

    {

        if (!IsPostBack)

        {

            DataTable oDataTable = new DataTable();

            oDataTable = SelectDataTable("SELECT  MenuID, ParentID, Name, URL FROM     Menus");

            DataRow[] drParentMenu = oDataTable.Select("ParentID = 0");

            var oStringBuilder = new StringBuilder();

            string MenuList = GenerateMenu(drParentMenu, oDataTable, oStringBuilder);

            Literal1.Text = MenuList;

        }

    }

 

private string GenerateMenu(DataRow[] drParentMenu, DataTable oDataTable, StringBuilder oStringBuilder)

    {

        oStringBuilder.AppendLine("<ul>");

        if (drParentMenu.Length > 0)

        {

            foreach (DataRow dr in drParentMenu)

            {

                string MenuURL = dr["URL"].ToString();

                string MenuName = dr["Name"].ToString();

                string line = String.Format(@"<li ><a href=""{0}"">{1}</a>", MenuURL, MenuName);

                oStringBuilder.Append(line);

                string MenuID = dr["MenuID"].ToString();

                string ParentID = dr["ParentID"].ToString();

                DataRow[] subMenu = oDataTable.Select(String.Format("ParentID = {0}", MenuID));

                if (subMenu.Length > 0 && !MenuID.Equals(ParentID))

                {

                    var subMenuBuilder = new StringBuilder();

                    oStringBuilder.Append(GenerateMenu(subMenu, oDataTable, subMenuBuilder));

                }

                oStringBuilder.Append("</li>");

               

            }

        }

        oStringBuilder.Append("</ul>");

        return oStringBuilder.ToString();

    }

    public string GetConnectionStrings()

    {

       

        string ConStr = ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings["ConStr"].ConnectionString;

        return ConStr;

    }    

    public  DataTable SelectDataTable(String Sql)

    {

        DataTable dt = new DataTable();

        SqlConnection oSqlConnection = new SqlConnection(GetConnectionStrings());

        try

        {

            oSqlConnection.Open();

            SqlDataAdapter sqlda = new SqlDataAdapter(Sql, GetConnectionStrings());

            sqlda.Fill(dt);

        }

        catch (Exception ex)

        {           

            throw new Exception(ex.Message);

        }

        finally

        {

            oSqlConnection.Close();

            oSqlConnection.Dispose();

        }

        return dt;

    }

  

Output

If you run your project you will find the following output

Posted in: ASP.NET