ASP sample of dynamic menu created from database

Part One: Sample Instruction

To create a dynamic menu from database, you can input some condition clause using either CGI (asp, php, etc.) or JavaScript language, that is, to input the Prefix or Suffix for a menu item in the Item Condition dialog.

First, download this ASP database sample here.
Then unzip and install all the files to a web server that supports ASP (Active Server Pages) so you can view it.

As you see, in this sample, the menu contains two levels: the parent level showing the product categories and the sub level showing the specific products. Actually, there are only two menu items, one in the parent level and the other is in the sub level.
The final result that you are seeing is just got from database.

Part Two: Steps

The following are the steps of this example:

(Before creating the menu, you should make a database containing the information of the product categories and the specific products.)

Create a menu from Blank. Choose "Menu Item" and in General tab of Menu Item window, select "HTML". Input <%=rsCat(Name)%> in the context box.
Click the button in the General tab and choose "Edit Condition".
In the Item Condition Dialog, input the prefix and suffix for the menu item.

Note: when you add the condition, you may get a warning message in DHTMLMenu. That's because the condition code is server-side code which can not be processed by the browser directly. The warning will not show when you add the menu to an asp page that is supported by server.
Click "Add" button to add a sub item of it. Also set the item content as HTML and input <%=sProduct%> . In the link field, input <%=sLink%>.
Click the button in the General tab and choose "Edit Condition" and input the prefix and suffix for the menu item.

Note: Normally in order to optimize the menu code, if several menu items have the same property, only one item's property code is recorded and other items take reference of its property code. If we add a condition to this item, there is possibility that it will be invisible when its condition is not met. And its property code can not be referenced by other items either. This will cause the whole menu can not work correctly. Please do check "This item may be invisible at run-time" to avoid the problem.

Part Three: Code Explanation

This is the source code at the beginning of this sample page.

Code	Explanation
<%Option Explicit%>
<% Dim Dbq, Dsn, Dc Dim rsCat, rsProduct Dim sCatName, sProduct, sLink Dbq = Server.MapPath(".\") & "\products.mdb;" Dsn = "driver={Microsoft Access Driver (.mdb)};pwd=;Dbq=" & Dbq Set Dc = Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Connection") Dc.Open Dsn Set rsCat = Dc.Execute("SELECT FROM CATEGORY") %>

After you add item condition and edit the menu item, DHTMLMenu inserts following code into the page. The entire source code below is generated by DHTMLMenu program.
Your editing of conditions will be saved in the menu's configuration file (*.pgt), which can be edited again. To learn further what the code represents, please read the following code explanation:

Code	Explanation
stm_bm(["uueoehr",400,"".....)	The code for the beginning of the whole menu
stm_bp("p0",[0,4,0,0,3,1,0,0,100,"",-2...... )	The code for the group of popup menu items
<% While Not rsCat.EOF sCatName=resCat("NAME") %>
stm_ai("p0i0",[1,"<%=rsCatName%>","",.....)	The code for menu item "<%=rsCat(Name)%>"
stm_bpx("p1","p0",[1,4,0,-1,.....)	Suffix of the menu item "<%=rsCat(Name)%>" (This code is optimized according to an existing menu item which has the same properties in parts as the new one.)
<% Set rsProduct = Dc.Execute("SELECT FROM PRODUCTS WHERE CATID=" & rsCat(0)) While Not rsProduct.EOF sProduct = rsProduct("NAME") sLink = rsProduct("LILNK*") %>
stm_ai("p1i0",[1,"<%=sProduct%> .....)	The code for menu item "<%=sProduct%>"
<% rsProduct.MoveNext Wend %>
stm_ep()	The code for an appended item Separator
<%rsCat.MoveNext%> <%Wend%>
stm_ep()	The code for the end of popup menu items
stm_em()	The code for the end of the whole menu

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