Adding Templates at Run-time

You can also add templates to RadMenu at runtime, using the ItemTemplate property. This property is of type ITemplate, so you must assign an object that implements that interface as a value:

The RadMenu items should be dynamically added so that templates can be defined at run time. Also, the items should be bound to be able to eval DataBinder expressions. In other words, you should call the DataBind method of the RadMenu object or bind the items that are about to use DataBinder.Eval . You can bind a specific item by calling the DataBind method of this specific item.

C#

protected override void OnInit(EventArgs e)
{    RadMenu1.ItemTemplate = new TextBoxTemplate();    
    base.OnInit(e);
}

protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{    
    if (!Page.IsPostBack)
    {        
        RadMenu1.Items.Add(new RadMenuItem("MenuItem1"));
        RadMenu1.Items.Add(new RadMenuItem("MenuItem2"));
    }    
    RadMenu1.DataBind();
}

class TextBoxTemplate : ITemplate
{    
    public void InstantiateIn(Control container)    
    {        
        Label label1 = new Label();
        label1.ID = "ItemLabel";
        label1.Text = "Text";
        label1.Font.Size = 15;
        label1.Font.Bold = true;
        label1.DataBinding += new EventHandler(label1_DataBinding);
        container.Controls.Add(label1);
    }    
    
    private void label1_DataBinding(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {        
        Label target = (Label)sender;
        RadMenuItem item = (RadMenuItem)target.BindingContainer;
        string itemText = (string)DataBinder.Eval(item, "Text");
        target.Text = itemText;
    }
}	    			

VB.NET

Protected Overloads Overrides Sub OnInit(ByVal e As EventArgs)
    RadMenu1.ItemTemplate = New TextBoxTemplate()
    MyBase.OnInit(e)
End Sub

Protected Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs)
    If Not Page.IsPostBack Then
        RadMenu1.Items.Add(New RadMenuItem("MenuItem1"))
        RadMenu1.Items.Add(New RadMenuItem("MenuItem2"))
    End If
    RadMenu1.DataBind()
End Sub

Class TextBoxTemplate Implements ITemplate 
    Public Sub InstantiateIn(ByVal container As Control)
        Dim label1 As New Label()
        label1.ID = "ItemLabel"
        label1.Text = "Text"
        label1.Font.Size = 15
        label1.Font.Bold = True

        AddHandler label1.DataBinding, AddressOf label1_DataBinding
        container.Controls.Add(label1)
    End Sub

    Private Sub label1_DataBinding(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs)
        Dim target As Label = DirectCast(sender, Label)
        Dim item As RadMenuItem = DirectCast(target.BindingContainer, RadMenuItem)
        Dim itemText As String = DirectCast(DataBinder.Eval(item, "Text"), String)
        target.Text = itemText
    End Sub
End Class

If you for some reason cannot define the template in the OnInit event of the page, you could use another approach:

The template has to be instantiated for each item upon a postback. Since the TextBoxTemplate class initializes the label on InstantiateIn we called the InstantiateIn method of the TextBoxTemplate object for each item.

C#

protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{    
    if (!Page.IsPostBack)    
    {        
        RadMenu1.Items.Add(new RadMenuItem("MenuItem1"));
        RadMenu1.Items.Add(new RadMenuItem("MenuItem2"));
    }        
    
    TextBoxTemplate template = new TextBoxTemplate();
    foreach (RadMenuItem item in RadMenu1.GetAllItems())
    {        
        template.InstantiateIn(item);
    }
    RadMenu1.DataBind();
}	    			

VB.NET

Protected Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs)
    If Not Page.IsPostBack Then
        RadMenu1.Items.Add(New RadMenuItem("MenuItem1"))
        RadMenu1.Items.Add(New RadMenuItem("MenuItem2"))
    End If
    Dim template As New TextBoxTemplate()
    For Each item As RadMenuItem In RadMenu1.GetAllItems()
        template.InstantiateIn(item)
    Next
    RadMenu1.DataBind()
End Sub	

The end result of this code looks like the following: