adding a confirm prompt to asp:menuitem 2

NuJoizey · Jan 19, 2009

This code example comes directly from MSDN at

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.web.ui.webcontrols.menu.menuitemclick.aspx

My question is, say, I wanted to add some sort of confirmation prompt, like a javascript confirm() dialog for when the user selects the "Drama" option.

In other words, I before the page writes "you chose Drama" I want to challenge the user with "are you sure you want to choose drama?".

Can this be done?

Code:

<%@ Page Language="VB" %>

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
    "[URL unfurl="true"]http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">[/URL]
<script runat="server">

  Sub NavigationMenu_MenuItemClick(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As MenuEventArgs)

    ' Display the text of the menu item selected by the user.
    Message.Text = "You selected " & _
      e.Item.Text & "."

  End Sub

</script>

<html  >
  <head id="Head1" runat="server">
    <title>Menu MenuItemClick Example</title>
</head>
<body>
    <form id="form1" runat="server">

      <h3>Menu MenuItemClick Example</h3>

      <asp:menu id="NavigationMenu"
        staticdisplaylevels="2"
        staticsubmenuindent="10" 
        orientation="Vertical"
        onmenuitemclick="NavigationMenu_MenuItemClick" 
        runat="server">

        <items>
          <asp:menuitem text="Home"
            tooltip="Home">
            <asp:menuitem text="Music"
              tooltip="Music">
              <asp:menuitem text="Classical"
                tooltip="Classical"/>
              <asp:menuitem text="Rock"
                tooltip="Rock"/>
              <asp:menuitem text="Jazz"
                tooltip="Jazz"/>
            </asp:menuitem>
            <asp:menuitem text="Movies"
              tooltip="Movies">
              <asp:menuitem text="Action" 
                tooltip="Action"/>
              <asp:menuitem text="Drama" 
                tooltip="Drama"/>
              <asp:menuitem text="Musical"
                tooltip="Musical"/>
            </asp:menuitem>
          </asp:menuitem>
        </items>

      </asp:menu>

      <hr/>

      <asp:label id="Message" 
        runat="server"/>

    </form>
  </body>
</html>

jmeckley · Jan 19, 2009

I would build the menu manually using repeaters and link buttons. then assign javascript to to the onclientclick property.

Jason Meckley
Programmer
Specialty Bakers, Inc.

NuJoizey · Jan 20, 2009

yes, and another way would be to use an AJAX toolkit modalpopupextender control to substitute for the javascript confirm box, and fire the server side code based on a linkbutton onClick event.

But I can't believe that there isn't some way to implement client side javascript on a menuItem submenu. It seems like this would be something that would need to be done pretty often.

jbenson001 · Jan 20, 2009

I've never worked with the menucontol, but couldn't you iterate through the items in the menu in the code behind, and add an attribute to it?

jmeckley · Jan 20, 2009

But I can't believe that there isn't some way to implement client side javascript on a menuItem submenu. It seems like this would be something that would need to be done pretty often.

I can

anytime I want to customize a webcontrol I feel like I'm bending the framework to do so. this is why I try to use the "basic" controls as much as possible.

Jason Meckley
Programmer
Specialty Bakers, Inc.

ca8msm · Jan 20, 2009

Have you seen some of the HTML that the Menu control creates?! I'd avoid it at all costs.

If you know the menu items at design time, a simple <ul> list should suffice. If not, just create each <li> via a repeater control. That's a much neater, less bloated and faster method.

Mark,

[URL unfurl="true"]http://lessthandot.com[/url] - Experts, Information, Ideas & Knowledge
[URL unfurl="true"]http://mdssolutions.co.uk[/url] - Website Design
[URL unfurl="true"]http://aspnetlibrary.com[/url] - An online resource for professional ASP.NET developers

NuJoizey · Jan 20, 2009

anytime I want to customize a webcontrol I feel like I'm bending the framework to do so

yeah, I distinctly remember us having had that conversation before. I think you might have even quoted me!

couldn't you iterate through the items in the menu in the code behind, and add an attribute to it

you would think. I tried that, but I couldn't see how to make this happen.

the following posting might give some promise:

http://forums.asp.net/p/1373061/2879279.aspx#2879279

NuJoizey · Jan 20, 2009

c8msm says:

Have you seen some of the HTML that the Menu control creates?!

as long as it renders properly, why does this matter - i assume problem with this is that the messy html causes problems rendering across different browsers?

I am only targeting IE 7 and FF 2.0 for the moment, since the app is only being delivered in house in a controlled browser environment (thank goodness) I ahven't had trouble wiht the HTML in those two browsers.

jmeckley · Jan 20, 2009

as long as it renders properly, why does this matter - i assume problem with this is that the messy html causes problems rendering across different browsers?

but it's not, that's why you have so much friction trying to customize this.

Jason Meckley
Programmer
Specialty Bakers, Inc.

NuJoizey · Jan 20, 2009

it renders OK visually, the problem is in that there is no obvious way to access the HTML elements that it does render - I guess that is more of a critique of .NET framework than anything else. If that's what c8msm meant by the remark then yes, I share her outrage.

jbenson001 · Jan 20, 2009

If that's what c8msm meant by the remark then yes, I share her outrage.

When did "Mark" become a female name?

ca8msm · Jan 20, 2009

NuJoizey said:
as long as it renders properly, why does this matter

There are 3 very good reasons I can think of:

1. The bloated code will mean your page takes longer to load
2. The styling of the menu becomes slightly more difficult due to the HTML structure
3. The HTML elements it generates are semantically incorrect as they do not correctly describe what the content is

Mark,

[URL unfurl="true"]http://lessthandot.com[/url] - Experts, Information, Ideas & Knowledge
[URL unfurl="true"]http://mdssolutions.co.uk[/url] - Website Design
[URL unfurl="true"]http://aspnetlibrary.com[/url] - An online resource for professional ASP.NET developers

jmeckley · Jan 21, 2009

well said mark

Jason Meckley
Programmer
Specialty Bakers, Inc.

NuJoizey · Jan 21, 2009

oops! sorry mark!

- stephanie

(aka steve, aka NuJoizey)

NuJoizey · Jan 21, 2009

FYI: the technique shared at

http://forums.asp.net/p/1373061/2879279.aspx#2879279

seems to work, sloppy HTML not withstanding. My perception of asp.net 2.0 is that on the whole it does not do a good job of creating clean HTML. I've heard this criticism of bloated code and poor semantics in several places.

At this phase in my .net dev career, honestly i'm just happy i can get the $#%! thing to even work.

NuJoizey · Jan 22, 2009

for anyone else that might be researching this issue, I found is another string of posts that deal with it.

http://forums.asp.net/p/1126470/1773526.aspx#1773526

I regret to say that I came to the same conclusion as did the user "whatispunk" who raises essentially the same questions.

I too got fed up, decided it was too much trouble to get this to work as i thought it should, and ended up inventing another solution using the AJAX modalPopupExtender.

i will edit this thread if a solution is found.

ca8msm · Jan 23, 2009

NuJoizey said:
i will edit this thread if a solution is found.

The best and easiest solution has already been given in the first reply by Jason:

jmeckley said:
I would build the menu manually using repeaters and link buttons. then assign javascript to to the onclientclick property.

Mark,

[URL unfurl="true"]http://lessthandot.com[/url] - Experts, Information, Ideas & Knowledge
[URL unfurl="true"]http://mdssolutions.co.uk[/url] - Website Design
[URL unfurl="true"]http://aspnetlibrary.com[/url] - An online resource for professional ASP.NET developers

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adding a confirm prompt to asp:menuitem 2

NuJoizey

MIS

jmeckley

Programmer

NuJoizey

MIS

jbenson001

Programmer

jmeckley

Programmer

ca8msm

Programmer

NuJoizey

MIS

NuJoizey

MIS

jmeckley

Programmer

NuJoizey

MIS

jbenson001

Programmer

ca8msm

Programmer

jmeckley

Programmer

NuJoizey

MIS

NuJoizey

MIS

NuJoizey

MIS

ca8msm

Programmer

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