Creating a WebMenu

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Web Menus are created in the same way that normal Microsoft Axapta menus are created. The menu items in a Web Menu have a few extra properties that are relevant in the context of WebApps. You can control the access to Web Menus items by specifying the users that you want to allow to have access to them. For example, if you have a Web Menu containing a certain item that should be accessible only to the administrator, you can define the access accordingly on that menu item. Thus, this item will only be visible to the administrator.

You can use the Menu WebLet to insert a Web Menu in your WebApp. A property on the WebLet decides whether it is a horizontal or vertical menu. Another WebLet, the WebEngine WebLet decides where on the Web page the application objects are to be displayed when activated. You can have multiple WebAppEngine WebLets in your WebApp. The Web target property on the WebMenu item defines in which of the WebAppEngine areas the coherent application object is to be displayed.

Web Menu layout

You can use two types of WebMenus in Microsoft Axapta:

  • Horizontal. This WebMenu type can be compared to the top menu in Microsoft Axapta and other Windows applications. Thus it allows you to create drop-down menus that appear when the user moves his cursor over the menu items in the first level, usually a top navigation bar.

  • Vertical. You can use two layouts on the vertical WebMenus: A tree structure menu that is expandable/collapsible, and a menu laid out in a table showing all menu items at once.

In order to be cross-browser compliant, these Web Menus look different depending on the browser that is being used. It is of course important to support both MS IE and Netscape, but on the other hand it is desirable to make use of MS IE's strong DHTML and client-side scripting capabilities. Thus, Microsoft Axapta will detect which browser that is being used, and generate the required HTML output accordingly. MS IE has the most sophisticated Web Menu layout with rich application-like drop-down (horizontal) and expandable/collapsible (vertical) designs. 

In Netscape, more simple HTML is generated: The horizontal menu is a simple drop-down box holding all the menu items in one menu. The vertical menu lays out all the menu items at once, thus not being expandable/collapsible.

You can use the two types of Web Menus in the way you find best suitable for your WebApp, but it is recommended to use the horizontal menu as a site-wide "system menu" holding links to information and features that is relevant all the time during the users stay on the Web site, including a menu item linking to the home page.