Activating NavBarLink defined in Onet.xml progmatically

Question

Hello All,
I have a ASP.NET based application that is running under Sharepoint/Moss 2007.
Top NavigationMenuBar is done with Onet.xml.  Application contains multiple Site Collections and some times
focus is not updated properly in NavigationMenuBar.

So how is it possible to activate certain NavBarLink programatically from CodeBehind?

Something like below .. but how to activate the NavBarNode?

SPSite oSiteCollection = SPContext.Current.Site;
SPNavigationNode navBarNode = oSiteCollection.Navigation.GetNodeByUrl("/mySitec/app1");
navBarNode. <how to set this NavBarLink active????

Cheers,

Michael

Answer 1

Hi Michael,

Not sure what you mean by focus, if you're talking about the focus for the enter key etc then I think you'll need to use some javascript to do this. The SPNavigationNode represents the data thats behind the menu rather than the menu itself. The menu control is just a slightly modified asp.net menu that uses the SPNavigationNodes as a datasource.

Are you doing any other processing on the menu? adding/removing nodes and such like, on the fly?

---

Ch. - My Blog

Answer 2

Hello,

Okey I try to clearify. Like I mentioned we use in our Application onet.xml based TopNavigationbar. Our Application is using ASP.NET technology for User Interface together with SharePoint technology.

ASP.NET part of the Application is shared into 5 different SiteCollections but they have same TopNavigationBar. As I mentioned sometimes focus is dissapearing from current Item in TopNavigationBar indicating which ASP.NET Site is active.

Thats what I would like to fix.

I'm not doing any other processing like adding/removing to the menu.

I also coded and tested Javascript like below

// Number refers which menuiten is highlighted
function ActiveTopBarMenu(Number)
{
var tlbeTd = document.getElementById("zz1_TopNavigationMenun"+Number);
var tlbeTable = tlbeTd.getElementsByTagName('table');
tlbeTable[0].className = 
"zz1_TopNavigationMenu_1 ms-topnav zz1_TopNavigationMenu_3 ms-topnavselected zz1_TopNavigationMenu_9";
}

but problem is that it leaves the previously selected item highligted ...

Has anyone any ideas how to handle this kind of issue?

Br

Michael

Answer 3

Hello All,
I have a ASP.NET based application that is running under Sharepoint/Moss 2007.
Top NavigationMenuBar is done with Onet.xml.  Application contains multiple Site Collections and some times
focus is not updated properly in NavigationMenuBar.

So how is it possible to activate certain NavBarLink programatically from CodeBehind?

Something like below .. but how to activate the NavBarNode?

SPSite oSiteCollection = SPContext.Current.Site;
SPNavigationNode navBarNode = oSiteCollection.Navigation.GetNodeByUrl("/mySitec/app1");
navBarNode. <how to set this NavBarLink active????

Cheers,

Michael

No such property or method associate with SPNavigationNode.
All the members of this class is listed:
SPNavigationNode Members (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.sharepoint.navigation.spnavigationnode_members.aspx)

JavaScript seems the mostly likely solution. You need a step further to make all the highlighted item back to normal.
And the highlight the entry you wish.

The normal css class are:
zz1_TopNavigationMenu_1 ms-topnav zz1_TopNavigationMenu_3

---

Keep It Simple and Stupid.

Answer 4

Hello Charlie and thanks for your reply!

Yes, I will try this Javascript approach to TopMenuBar.

Br

Michael

Answer 5

Hello All again,

I have struggled with this issue and I found a code snippet from CodePlex (spsiteconfigurator) which had a folowing method.

protected static void UpdateNodeProperty(SPNavigationNode node, string propertyName, object value)
{
   if (node.Properties.Contains(propertyName))
       node.Properties.Remove(propertyName);
   node.Properties.Add(propertyName, value);
   node.Update();
}

Could this be a way to activate wanted menuitem in TopNavigationBar?

I tried to find out propeties of the SPNavigationNode but didn't succeed to find anything in the Web.

Has anyone better knowledge about SPNavigationNode's propeties and about setting it selected/highlighted?

Thanks,

Michael

Answer 6

I'm afraid the property is a hash table with the following name-value pair:

Property                          Value
vti_navsequencechild        true
CreatedDate                    6/23/2009 5:47:59 AM
UrlQueryString       
NodeType                        Area
Audience       
Target       
Description                     Document Center site
LastModifiedDate             6/23/2009 5:47:59 AM
UrlFragment       

NOTE: THIS IS SAMPLE VALUE.

You can try retrieve the name-value pairs with the following code:

    using (SPSite site = new SPSite("http://localhost/"))
    {
        using (SPWeb web = site.RootWeb)
        {
            SPNavigationNodeCollection topNav = web.Navigation.TopNavigationBar;

           
            foreach (object k in topNav[0].Properties.Keys)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("{0}: {1}", k.ToString(), topNav[0].Properties[k].ToString()); 
            }
        }
    }

As far as I can tell, no name-value pair can help you with your requirement.
JS is promising so far.

---

Keep It Simple and Stupid.

Answer 7

Hello and thanks again Charlie!

It seems to be so that Javascript solution is only way to do it.

By the way do you or anybody else know that if it's possible to handle this kind of TopNavigationBar's menu highlighting somewhere in WebApp's (ASP.NET) or Sharepoint's IHTTPHandler or other centralized place?
What could be the best place to insert this kind of code?

Br,

Michael

Answer 8

Find a convinenet place, just make sure it does not interfere with the default ones.

---

Keep It Simple and Stupid.