Create three drop down levels in Sharepoint 2010 top link bar

Create three drop down levels in Sharepoint 2010 top link bar

I needed to customize the top link bar in 3 levels as follows:



You can easily do this in 2 levels through browser. Customizing this for 3 levels as above diagram is tricky. This can be done without the help of Visual studio 2010, by using Sharepoint Designer. My approach is follows.
Steps:
1. You need to create a custom site map (XML file and save in 14 ). The xml file I created look like this:




Save this file as ‘sitemap.xml’ in Layouts. I saved this in ‘C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\TEMPLATE\LAYOUTS\TopLinkNavigation’ .
This is the datasource file for the navigation.

2. Open the site in sharppoint Designer and go to V4.master page. You will find the Sharepoint menu section as follows:




Replace the SharePoint:DelegateControl……… /SharePoint:DelegateControl with your own data source. Use following code to define the datasource.

asp:XmlDataSource DataFile="/_layouts/toplinknavigation/SiteMap.xml" ID="TsetXmlDataSource" runat="server" XPath="/*/*" /


This will link the data source you created in layouts directory.

3. After CssClass="s4-tn" add the following data binding

DataBindings>
asp:MenuItemBinding Depth="0" DataMember="siteMapNode" NavigateUrlField="url" TextField="title" ToolTipField="description" ValueField="title" />

asp:MenuItemBinding Depth="1" DataMember="siteMapNode" NavigateUrlField="url" TextField="title" ToolTipField="description" ValueField="title" />
asp:MenuItemBinding Depth="2" DataMember="siteMapNode" NavigateUrlField="url" TextField="title" ToolTipField="description" ValueField="title" />


/DataBindings>
And end with /SharePoint:AspMenu>

4. Finally change the DataSourceID of SharePoint:AspMenu>
To TsetXmlDataSource

Save the changes and test the site in the browser. You may get an exception saying ‘safe control…..etc.etc’. to resolve this go to web.config change Safe=”True” in
SafeControl Assembly= "System.Web, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a" Namespace="System.Web.UI.WebControls" tag.

Done.