C#: SiteMapPath Control
By: Zack Turnbow
Introduction
Most business web sites can have a large footprint, that is, several pages to visit. It can be difficult to navigate through the site with just normal menus. Many companies started creating “bread crumb” trails so that a user will know exactly where they are in the web site. This becomes increasingly difficult when a site keeps adding pages as it evolves. ASP.NET 2.0 solved this issue by introducing the SiteMapPath control.
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Implementation
Start fresh with a new web application in Visual Studio. The SiteMapPath control is used in conjunction with a Web.sitemap file. So the first action required is to add a Web.sitemap item to the project.
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Before adding anything to the new file, a little explanation and planning needs to take place. The Web.sitemap file is just an XML file that holds the structure of the web site. So it is a good idea to take some time to plan the initial layout of the web site. Below is a basic structure of a typical web site:
Company History
Press Releases
Product 2
Repair Service
Technical Assistance
Forum
Support
Existing Customer
Customer Feedback
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As shown, the site layout might cause a user (customer) to get lost in the site. So with this lay out in mind, enter the following code into the Web.sitemap file.
Each level of the layout above corresponds to an outer node of the Web.sitemap file. For instance, the About Us node is
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.
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with the mission statement, history, and press releases nodes being inside the About Us node. This XML file will give an easier way of tracking site navigation and the ability to add, change, or delete pages. Now that the sitemap has been defined, the next step is to create the master page to be the template for each page.
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On the master page, add a SiteMapPath control and a Menu control to the page. Now it is time to create each of the pages listed in the Web.sitemap file. For this article, only the Home, the AboutUs, the Mission, the History, and the Press aspx pages will be created. Make sure to set the master page to the once created above when adding the pages to the project.
Go back to the master page and format the Menu control to have the layout displayed below.
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Go to the Home page and a Label on the work area and give the label the name of Home.
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Repeat the steps for the AboutUs, the Mission, the History, and the Press aspx pages. Once this is complete, run the application and navigate the pages using the SiteMapPath control.
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This article has shown another option for a user to navigate a web site as well an easy way for the developer to keep track of site navigation.
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What have we learned?
How to create a Web.sitemap file to be used in site navigation.
How to create a master page so that all other pages use it as a template.
How to incorporate the SiteMapPath control along with a Menu control to assist in site navigation.
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