Professional DevExpress™ ASP.NET Controls

Chapter 5. Implementing a Menu and Tabbed Controls

Although I generally have a little of the Irish gift of blarney, I don't always have a suitable story for opening a chapter on technical subjects. In the absence of a story, I'd like to share with you my three favorite Web-application sites: I like Dell.com, Amazon.com, and FedEx.com. I order at least one computer a year, and Dell.com makes it pretty easy to customize a computer, arrange payment — even apply for credit — and schedule shipping. Amazon.com is the site I use most frequently. I go to the local mall — the Meridian Mall in Okemos — about twice a year. Everything else comes from the local grocery store or Amazon.com. Finally, one of my favorite movie lines is "you know you have made it when the FedEx guy shows up at your door." I can't remember the movie, but I love the line. What do all these sites have in common? Menus.

Menus help you figure out what the options are. Can you imagine walking into an Italian restaurant and finding that it had no menu? I love gnocchi with marinara, spaghetti Fruitti de Mare, and spaghetti Bolognese, but I would have never discovered Boquerones — white Spanish anchovies — in olive oil with pepper flakes without a menu. Menus tell you what is available, what is possible. In a good restaurant, you can order items that aren't on the menu. With software, however, it is difficult to support ordering beyond the menu, which makes menus essential.

This chapter demonstrates the ASPxMenu, ASPxPopupMenu, ...