Ajax: The Definitive Guide

Chapter 7. Laying Out Site Navigation

Where does Ajax come into play with web site navigation? You can use it to get the list of data for a submenu, build a hierarchical list for use as breadcrumbs on the page, or create a navigation tree. In short, you can apply Ajax in many creative ways for web site navigation. I am sure that by the time this book hits the shelves, developers will be implementing a few more navigation techniques that use Ajax. That is part of the beauty of building Web 2.0 applications—they can always change.

An important part of an Ajax web application is the way the user gets from one place to another within its pages. This is site navigation in its simple terms, and it can take many forms, from plain navigation bars with text links to complicated file menus. Site navigation can also take the form of tabs separating content within the application, or links on the bottom of a page that take the user back to the top of the page. Whatever form it takes, site navigation must serve one purpose: to take the user somewhere else in the application.

Menus

One of the most popular navigation techniques is the menu, whether it is a navigation menu or a navigation bar. Menus are lists of links for use within the application that are put in some kind of logical grouping. The CSS that is applied to these menus determines how they will look. First, we will look at some simple navigation menus and bars and then we will discuss how to apply Ajax to them to make them more interactive. ...