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Navigation System

  • 9 minutes to read

This topic introduces the concept of the navigation system and describes its basic features. This post will cover the building blocks the navigation system includes, as well as how it operates on the inside. This document will go over how to define the navigation structure in your applications at design-time and to customize it in code. You will learn to change the navigation control style and to customize the navigation control. This topic will also introduce the concept of context navigation. A sample implementation of context navigation is however, out of the scope of this document and is described in the How to: Implement Custom Context Navigation topic.

The navigation system capabilities are demonstrated in the FeatureCenter demo supplied with XAF. This demo is located in the %PUBLIC%\Documents\DevExpress Demos 18.1\Components\eXpressApp Framework\FeatureCenter folder by default.

An XAF application’s UI basically consists of Views. Views are abstract entities used for data representation. There are two basic kinds of Views - the Detail Views used to represent a single object and its properties, and the List Views, used to represent object collections. A typical XAF application can comprise many Views that serve the purpose of viewing and editing objects of different types. Obviously, users of the application must be able to switch from one View to another as required. This functionality is provided by the navigation system. The navigation system is represented in a UI by the navigation control, which lists all available Views and provides means to activate the required View.

The main parts of the navigation system are the navigation Action, navigation Action Containers, ShowNavigationItemController and the navigation structure.

  1. The navigation Action, navigation Action Containers and ShowNavigationItemController. Each built-in XAF Template that represents the main Window contains the navigation Action Container. This Action Container is used to host the Navigation Action, represented in a UI by the navigation control.

    NavigationControlStructure

    The navigation Action Container is populated with the navigation Action by the ShowNavigationItemController. This Controller reads the navigation structure and the navigation control style settings from the Application Model, and customizes the navigation control accordingly. This Controller also synchronizes the currently selected item in the navigation control with the currently active View. So, even if the View is changed programmatically, the navigation control still highlights the correct View.

  2. The navigation structure defines the visual interrelations between different Views. This tree-like structure is defined by the Application Model’s IModelRootNavigationItems node. The node consists of the IModelNavigationItem nodes. Each of these nodes, in turn, can also have any number of NavigationItem child nodes. The navigation control’s items are arranged according to the navigation structure. Note that in Mobile applications, the tree-like navigation structure is not supported; only the Default root group’s nodes are displayed.

    NavigationStructure

    If a NavigationItem node has the IModelNavigationItem.View property set, then the corresponding item in the navigation control represents a View. Selecting such an item activates the View. If the View property is not set, then the corresponding item in the navigation control acts as a “group”, whose sole purpose is to contain other items.

Define the Navigation Structure

The navigation structure can be defined and customized at design-time and in code.

  1. Design-time customization of the navigation structure is performed using the Model Editor. Invoke the Model Editor, navigate to the NavigationItem node and customize it as required. This approach is detailed in the Add an Item to the Navigation Control tutorial.

  2. In code, the navigation structure can be defined and customized in two ways.

    By applying the NavigationItemAttribute or DefaultClassOptionsAttribute to the required business classes. The NavigationItem attribute adds a navigation item to the navigation control. The most frequently used constructor takes a single string parameter that specifies a first-level child node of the NavigationItems node. A NavigationItem node corresponding to the business class’ List View will be added to the specified node. Applying the DefaultClassOptions attribute is essentially the same as applying the NavigationItemAttribute, plus certain additional attributes. You can learn more about it in the DefaultClassOptionsAttribute class description.

    The second approach is to directly customize the Application Model’s NavigationItems node, for instance in a custom Controller. This approach is described in the Access the Application Model in Code topic.

Note

In the Navigation Bar style, a group cannot be used to navigate to a View, even if the View property is specified. The groups only serve as containers for other navigation items.

Define the Navigation Control Style in the WinForms Application

The following list illustrates the appearance of the navigation control in an XAF WinForms application when different style settings are used.

If you need to further customize the navigation control’s appearance, you can do so in code. You can implement a custom Controller and perform the required customizations. The How to: Access Navigation Control contains an example describing the customization of the navigation control.

Define the Navigation Control Style in the ASP.NET Application

The following list illustrates the appearance of the navigation control in an ASP.NET application when different style settings are used.

  • Navigation Bar in the New Web UI

    NavigationSystem_NewUI_NavBar

    To apply this style to your ASP.NET application, use the DefaultVerticalTemplateContentNew template with the IModelRootNavigationItems.NavigationStyle property set to NavBar. The first-level child nodes are displayed in the navigation pane as navigation groups, and the group content is displayed as a treelist.

    The IModelRootNavigationItemsWeb.ShowImages property specifies if the icons are displayed for the items and groups. Also, you can hide the navigation pane on start using the IModelRootNavigationItemsWeb.ShowNavigationOnStart property.

  • Tree List in the New Web UI

    NavigationSystem_NewUI_TreeList

    To apply this style to your ASP.NET application, use the DefaultVerticalTemplateContentNew template with the IModelRootNavigationItems.NavigationStyle property set to TreeList. All nodes are displayed as a treelist.

    The IModelRootNavigationItemsWeb.ShowImages property specifies if the icons are displayed for the items and groups. Also, you can hide the navigation pane on start using the IModelRootNavigationItemsWeb.ShowNavigationOnStart property.

  • Vertical Navigation Bar in the Classic Web UI

    NavigationSystem_ClassicUI_Vertical

    To apply this style to your ASP.NET application, use the DefaultVerticalTemplateContent template with the IModelRootNavigationItems.NavigationStyle property set to NavBar.

    The first-level child nodes are displayed in the navigation pane as navigation groups, and the content of each group is displayed as a treelist.

  • Vertical Tree List in the Classic Web UI

    NavigationSystem_ClassicUI_Vertical_TreeList

    To apply this style to your ASP.NET application, use the DefaultVerticalTemplateContent template with the IModelRootNavigationItems.NavigationStyle property set to TreeList.

    All nodes are displayed as a single treelist.

  • Horizontal Navigation Bar in the Classic Web UI

    NavigationSystem_ClassicUI_Horisontal

    To apply this style to your ASP.NET application, use the DefaultTemplateContent template.

    The first-level child nodes are displayed in the navigation pane as tabs, and the second-level child notes are displayed as a set of icons with their own captions.

Context Navigation

The navigation system supports context navigation. A module can track the process of generating the navigation items in the navigation control. The module can add additional child navigation items to a created navigation item that matches a specific criteria. Three built-in modules implement context navigation - the Pivot Chart, Reports V2 and View Variants modules.

By default, context navigation is disabled for these modules. It can be enabled using the following properties of the NavigationItems node.

Captions of these context navigation groups can be customized using the following properties of the NavigationItems node.

NavigationContext

The ViewVariants module adds the View Variants navigation items for the Views that have predefined View variants. The Analysis and Report modules add navigation items for the items corresponding to business classes participating in existing inplace reports or analyses.

NavigationControlContext

You can also implement custom context navigation. To see an example, refer to the How to: Implement Custom Context Navigation topic.

Keyboard Shortcuts in WinForms Applications

When the Multiple Document Interface is used in the application, hold down the SHIFT key and click a navigation item to invoke the new View in a separate window instead of a new tab.

When the navigation control or a navigation group is represented by a treelist control, you can use arrow keys to navigate it. Click on a treelist’s region not occupied by a navigation item to enter keyboard navigation mode. Use the UP ARROW and DOWN ARROW keys to navigate between items. To expand a group item, press CTRL+RIGHT ARROW. To collapse a group item, press CTRL+LEFT ARROW.

See Also