MSDN Navigation Menu

[stovellp]

Howdy,

I really love MSDN's navigation menu, the way you can expand/collapse contents and they load dynamically. How would they have been done? Is it an IFrame that just reloads each time something's clicked? Are they all just a bunch of hidden divs?

Is there an ASP.NET control that can produce something as pretty as that?

Thanks for any information. I'm not looking to rip off their design, just interested in the way it would work.

[DaveSW]

I'm fairly certain that somewhere in their DHTML section they explain how it was made.

[AdamGundry]

Yes, and you can find it here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/de...ml/msdntoc.asp

I personally dislike MSDN because it doesn't work properly in Firefox, but then I don't suppose Microsoft mind.

Adam

P.S. Ironic, isn't it - on this page the TOC is broken.

[ray326]

I personally dislike MSDN because it doesn't work properly in Firefox, but then I don't suppose Microsoft mind.

To paraphrase an old MS chant, "The install isn't done until Firefox won't run."

BTW, it just hit me. You're a glider.

[stovellp]

Wow that's awesome, thanks guys! I'm reading through it now.

BTW, What's a 'glider'?

[ray326]

Originally posted by stovellp
Wow that's awesome, thanks guys! I'm reading through it now.

BTW, What's a 'glider'?

It's a pattern of "cells" in Conway's "Game of Life", a cellular automata simulation, that produces a particular "action" as it's generations are born and die. Here's a place where you can see it in action as a Java applet and can download various versions.

http://www.bitstorm.org/gameoflife/

Note his favicon and put the pattern into the grid to see how the glider moves.

[PeOfEo]

Originally posted by stovellp
Howdy,

I really love MSDN's navigation menu, the way you can expand/collapse contents and they load dynamically. How would they have been done? Is it an IFrame that just reloads each time something's clicked? Are they all just a bunch of hidden divs?

Is there an ASP.NET control that can produce something as pretty as that?

Thanks for any information. I'm not looking to rip off their design, just interested in the way it would work.

asp.net is a server side language, though it can output javascript it is not internded to be used for effects really. Though it should be used instead of client side scripting for functional stuff that you would not want to have js dependent.

[AdamGundry]

BTW, it just hit me. You're a glider.

Indeed. The logo is, in fact, the proposed hacker emblem.

Adam