Using NavigateUrl in PanelItems that expand/collapse

HOW-TO
Use NavigateUrl in PanelItems that expand/collapse

SOLUTION
When you have a PanelItem that has children PanelItems and you set its NavigateUrl property, the default behavior of RadPanelBar is to expand or collapse this PanelItem but not to redirect to the URL specified in the NavigateUrl property. One way to make this work is to use:

• BeforeClientPanelItemCollapsed / BeforeClientPanelItemExpanded - these events are fired before expanding or collapsing items
  OR
• AfterClientPanelItemCollapsed / AfterClientPanelItemExpanded client-side events, which are fired after the expanding or collapsing has taken place.

In order to use these events create a JavaScript function like this:

function onExpand(panel)
{
  location.href = panel.NavigateUrl;
  return (false);
}

Then set the BeforeClientPanelItemExpanded or AfterClientPanelItemExpanded property of RadPanelBar to the name of this function like this:
BeforeClientPanelItemExpanded="onExpand".

Thus, when you try to expand a PanelItem with children PanelItems, you will be redirected to its NavigateUrl instead. Then in the code-behind of the page specified by the NavigateUrl property you should set the Expanded property of the PanelItem to true. You can do this for example in the Page_Load event handler.