How to build a nested menu with MVC4

Question

Before I go into a custom implementation, I'd like to ask the community if there is any built-in helper for constructing a nested menu out of entities in MVC4. I have a hierarchy of data like this:

> Folder 1
> Folder 2
>> Folder 2.1
>> Folder 2.2
>>> Item 2.2.1
>>> Folder 2.2.1
>> Folder 2.3
> Folder 3

And I'm thinking about passing an array of nested arrays (of nested arrays [of nested arrays...]) into the controller to build into a list of corresponding nested links. Before I dive into this I have a couple questions:

What kind of tools are available to help with this, if any?
What data structures would you use if you had to build custom?

I'm totally new to MVC/C# so any suggestions/pointers would be awesome.

It's coming from a DTO, which I can build any way I wish from a POCO directly from the database. So datasource, not static (I think) — RobVious
– RobVious, Commented Mar 10, 2013 at 3:34

Bhushan Firake · Accepted Answer · 2013-03-10 03:40:31Z

1

What kind of tools are available to help with this, if any?

I personally haven't come across ready-made solution for this.

What data structures would you use if you had to build custom?

Best bet is to build a custom class for this. Like a tree that has a dictionary of nodes. You can build a custom one as below:

public class Tree
{
    private TreeNode rootNode;
    public TreeNode RootNode
    {
        get { return rootNode; }
        set
        {
            if (RootNode != null)
                Nodes.Remove(RootNode.Id);

            Nodes.Add(value.Id, value);
            rootNode = value;
        }
    }

    public Dictionary Nodes { get; set; }

    public Tree()
    {
    }

    public void BuildTree()
    {
        TreeNode parent;
        foreach (var node in Nodes.Values)
        {
            if (Nodes.TryGetValue(node.ParentId, out parent) &&
                node.Id != node.ParentId)
            {
                node.Parent = parent;
                parent.Children.Add(node);
            }
        }
    }
}

If you want more details, then this link has all you need.

answered Mar 10, 2013 at 3:40

Bhushan Firake

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1 Comment

RobVious Over a year ago

Wow! Awesome. I didn't consider devoting a class to this. Thanks Bhushan

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