• TrueMenu behavior

Exposing the highest details of every Menu behavior which has closest behavior to Desktop-based Menu. The behaviors including:

• Menu is not limited by browser size (special feature for IE)
• Unlimited sub menu with intelligent positioning.
• Automatic scrolling when height dimension is not sufficient for contained items.
• Sticky behavior, where submenu will stay visible when mouse cursor has left the area of the submenu and went back to the submenu within specified delay in milliseconds. This is similar to the Menu system implemented in Office 2003.
• Show submenu only after specified milliseconds, if mouse cursor has left the menu item, the submenu will be cancelled from showing.
• Supports mnemonic keys where users can type directly on the underlined character to access the matched item.
• Supports shortcut keys
• Supports Images or Font-based Image for Icon display
• When a submenu is previously shown in Scrolling mode, it should be able to remember last scroll position and automatically restore last scroll position in next show.
   
• Hybrid Menu System
  The menu system incorporates hybrid architecture enabling server side WebContextMenu control and built-in menu system used in other WebDesktop members to use the same menu runtime system, which built upon WebUI.NET Framework and taking advantange of advanced Object concept such as encapsulation and inherittance allowing all Menu system to be running in one hybrid menu runtime system.
  
  For example, context menu in DesktopManager, menu system in Toolbar's SplitMenu and DropDownMenu, as well as in WebMenuBar and WebContextMenu are all using the same runtime engine. With this architecture, developers will find the same object model or API whenever they need to access or manipulate the context menu. This produces new, unique development experience with totally enhanced productivity and efficiency by reducing coding efforts.
   
• Desktop Manager Integration
  WebMenu and WebContextMenu system can be used in both stand alone and integration mode. In stand alone mode, you can specify each style for each menu instance's appearances. However, most of time, developers would want to consolidate all menu instances in entire application to use one style definition. Thanks to the hybrid menu system which enables tight integration with desktop manager and allow developers to specify the menu styles at desktop manager level.
  
  With this time-saving feature, developers no longer need to configure every instances of the menu in the entire applications one-by-one. There are 2 integration mode available to both WebMenu and WebContextMenu:
  • Integration to Desktop Manager.
    This is the most recommended configuration to create a uniform and consistent look&feel for all menu instances throughout entire applications. When integrated to DesktopManager, the Menu will use Application MenuStyles defined in DesktopManager level. To do this, you simply set the IntegratedTo property to DesktopManager. The menu system will automatically apply the styles at runtime, and hence the integration also means compact output since styles and CSS classes for the menu instance are no longer rendered.
  • Integration to PlaceHolder Manager.
    This scenario is the best applied when you want to have all menu instances inside a WebForm to use one single style definition which is different with DesktopManager's Application MenuStyle. The easiest way to understand this integration mode is by examining how Office 2003 application works. So all menu system in Office 2003 applications are using one single style definition which is separate to Windows menu style. Likewise, all menu system in Visual Studio 2005 used one single style defined at application level, which differs from Windows menu style.
        
• Highly customizable styles and appearances
  WebMenu is designed with rich and highly customizable styles in mind. It can simulate almost any kind of menu appearances, from Windows system menu to latest Outlook 2003 style in every high detail. Following are list of configurable elements:
  • ItemStyle with 3 states: Normal, Over and Active.
    ItemStyle represent the dynamic style for each menu item.
  • CheckedItemStyle with 3 states: Normal, Over and Active.
    This dynamic style is applied to the "icon part" of checked menu item.
  • DisabledItemStyle with 3 states
    This dynamic style is applied for disabled menu item.
  • SeparatorStyle
    The style applied to Separator.
  • FrameStyle
    The style applied to the menu's frame.
      
• Automatic Layout Management,

Enabling the Menu to be drawn in consistent fashion and in proper layout which conforms to Desktop User Interface standard with at minimal styles configuration as possible. For instance, designer is not require to specify width or height of a style or other dimension-related appearance since the Menu system implemented Automatic Layout Management which is capable to show the Menu in required Width and Height following the maximum extent of boundaries available in the Items. With this feature, designer can concentrate on major appearances such as the background color, fore color, font or other appearance properties of styles.
 

• Customizable BackgroundStrip Gradient Colors
  You can easily configure the "BackgroundStrip" visibility in the menu style object. BackgroundStrip menu appearance is firstly introduced in Office XP application and later enhanced in Outlook 2003 where gradient colors can be applied to make the icons looks nicer. In WebMenu, you can also configure its gradient and colors in the property configuration and hence allow you to create any kind of menu themes with futuristic look, whether you wanted a blue gradient theme similar to Office 2003, or a gray gradient theme similar to Visual Studio 2005 -- all without requiring images!
      
• Extensive keyboard support
  WebMenu and its entire runtime system which acts as the backend for all Menu needs (such as ContextMenu as well as any menu integrated in DesktopManager, ToolBar, NavBar and others) supports keyboard navigation extensively. The keyboard navigation includes the following:
  • Up and down arrow keys for navigating items.
  • Left arrow key will navigate to previous menu item.
  • Right arrow key will navigate to sub menu and automatically highlight first item in the sub menu.
  • Escape key will close the current sub menu and move focus back to previous sub menu until all menus are closed.
  • Enter key will execute currently selected item's action.
  • Any specified mnemonic keys in the current active menu will be executed when pressed.

Furthermore, the keyboard support implementation has been implemented to follow Windows User Interface guideline. For example, users can start to use the valid keyboard keys once the menu is shown without additional focus or clicks, and the keyboard strokes should not affect the behavior of elements in the page.
    

• Client side constructable

Most of the times developers will find that constructing the Menu such as WebMenuBar or ContextMenu is more convenient and sufficient to be done at server side where the instances can be declared on the WebForm page. However in some advanced scenarios, the Menu can't be defined at server side due to the information availability in client side. In this context, the menu items need to be able to be constructed at client side instead of server side. 
    
With this powerful feature, you can construct the WebContextMenu object programmatically at client side and adds as much items as you want by using the extensive WebMenu API which discussed in the below item.

• Strong Client side OOP

For easy setup and comprehensive Item management API

WebMenu provides extensive object model for representing Menu and MenuItem as well as rich API for manipulating the objects in client side. This makes it possible for developers to create rich interaction in the web applications, such as, disabling or enabling menu item, make it hidden or visible, remove items as well as late-bound new item addition. Finally, it also supports bulk refresh when massive changes have been performed to the WebMenu.
   

• ClickAndBuild Visual Menu Editor
     
  WebMenu comes with advanced menu builder allowing developers to conveniently and easily build any kind of menus. The menu editor is tightly integrated into Visual Studio 2005 IDE featuring innovative functions below:
  • Replaces treeview interface with WinForm-like MenuEditor which exposes greater WYSIWYG design-time experience. 
  • Click and Type metaphor. All you need to do is clicking on Empty Menu Item area and type the Text. If you click on an empty item in the sub menu, it will automatically become item in the submenu.
  • Complete keyboard and mouse navigations and behaviors. 
    
• IconView Mode
  
  WebMenu supports an innovative feature called IconView mode. This mode enables the Menu to be displayed in compact form where MenuItem with Image are arranged horizontally and automatically flows to the next line as it reaches more items. This mode is especially useful when there are lots of menu items that used Images as users can easily find the command they're looking for. 
      
• Superior Mozilla Support
  
  The menu system will run perfectly in Mozilla-based browsers with equal dimensioning, layout and behaviors as appear in Internet Explorer. There will even no difference in any "pixel" by using the same style definition, no matter whether you specified padding, margin, or any border size.

See Also

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