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Using DataBindings

The DataTextField, DataValueField, and DataNavigateUrlField properties let you map the fields of data items to the Text, Value, and NavigateUrl properties of the menu items to which they are bound. By default, any other menu item properties must be mapped using an ItemDataBound event handler. However, as an alternate approach, you can use the DataBindings collection to declaratively supply the mapping for any or all of the following RadMenuItem properties:

  • Text

  • Value

  • NavigateUrl

  • Target

  • ToolTip

  • Enabled

  • ImageUrl

  • HoveredImageUrl

In addition, the DataBindings collection lets you provide different sets of data bindings to the items on different levels of the menu. You can even bind the menu items on each level of the menu from different tables in a DataSet.

To add a set of declarative data bindings to a menu, use the NavigationItemBinding Collection Editor.

The data bindings in the collection are represented by a collection of RadMenuItemBinding objects. Each item in the collection represents a set of data bindings between the data source and the items in the menu for a given level of the menu (root items, items at the first child level, and so on). You can also create an item that gives the default mapping to cover any levels not specificly mapped by another item.

The properties of each item in the collection specify how the RadMenuItem properties should be assigned:

  • For each mapped RadMenuItem property, there are two properties for the data binding: one, with the same name as the corresponding RadMenuItem property, is a hard-coded value that is assigned to all menu items to which the data binding applies; the other, with the name of the property followed by the suffix "Field", is the name of a field from the data source where the item gets its property value. Thus, for example, if your database contains a column named Text and you set TextField="Text", the Text property of all menu items takes its value from the Text column in the database. Alternatively, if you set Text="Text", all your menu items will take the static string "Text" as the value of their Text property.

  • The Depth property indicates the level of menu items to which the data binding applies. If Depth is not set, the data binding applies to all menu items not mapped by another binding. The collection should contain only one item with no value assigned to the Depth property.

  • The FormatString property specifies how to format the text supplied by the TextField of the data source.

  • The DataMember property specifies the table from which to map items. This property lets you use different tables from the same DataSet to supply values at different levels of the menu.

ASP.NET
<telerik:RadMenu RenderMode="Lightweight" runat="server" ID="RadMenu1" DataSourceID="SqlDataSource1" DataFieldID="id"
	DataFieldParentID="parentID">
	<DataBindings>
		<telerik:RadMenuItemBinding TextField="Category" />
		<telerik:RadMenuItemBinding FormatString="Made of {0}" TextField="Material" Depth="1" />
	</DataBindings>
</telerik:RadMenu>

for a live example of using DataBindings with RadMenu, see Data Bindings.

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