With the release of Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) v3 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007, Microsoft has implemented
significant architectural changes in the SharePoint platform, which simplify the task of customizing the user interface.
Most of these improvements are because of the WSS v3, unlike its predecessor, which is built on top of the .NET 3.0 Framework bringing the native
capabilities of ASP.NET 2.0 directly to the SharePoint platform. One such ASP.NET 2.0 concept that is leveraged by WSS v3 is the navigation provider
model.
The Navigation Provider Model
The navigation provider model separates the navigation hierarchy (the data portion, also known as site-map data sources) from the rendering (the presentation
portion, also known as navigation controls).
The role of the site-map data source is to abstract the navigation hierarchy from the underlying system (such as SharePoint) to make it transparent to the navigation control.
This allows developers to easily snap ASP.NET 2.0 navigation provider model compatible controls into a SharePoint site by simply configuring them to receive the navigation
hierarchy from the provided SharePoint site-map data sources.
This section demonstrates how to incorporate RadControls for ASP.NET Ajax in a MOSS site. Using RadMenu, RadPanelbar,
RadTreeView or RadTabStrip as navigation controls bound to SharePoint sitemaps is easy and codeless process. Using other controls from the
RadControls for ASP.NET Ajax suite in MOSS may require additional code (e.g. databinding or other way of population with data).
Prerequisites
RadControls for ASP.NET Ajax leverage the client and server side platform provided by ASP.NET Ajax. Hence you need to install ASP.NET Ajax 1.0 prior to deploying RadControls
for ASP.NET Ajax to your MOSS site.
See Also