Why the Microsoft HoverMenu Should Be your best friend
Two really nice features I like that I do not have to program hacks to make work the way I want to (don't get me wrong I really enjoy the ModalPopUp but for my purposes I have had to do way to much to make a loaded control seem like it it is getting its first ever rendition versus the always its a postback)...
CollapsibleMenu Extender:
Why this control is a great UI toolbox arsenal. It does what the java script routines you could add and addedly - would much more complex from a drag and drop and just use perspective. For menus it is an incredibly useful feature when the menu layout is well structured - to populate.
Why not use the menu control?
The biggest difference is that within the Collapsible Panels you can add your own custom controls. The Menu control uses XML (and can be tied to a data source as well) but the the latter requires a complexity that most (myself speaking I am the most of me)... can do without. The real joy of the CPE is that you can control exactly what is presented from various programming perspectives. Use ASP.Net and just include what you want or do it in code-behind where you render whatever you want. There is no additional magic be had from the menu control or the treeview control. For each CPE - add whatever, custom control, static links - you name it...In all honesty from a .Net 1.1 to 2.0 perpective - the Ajax ToolKit Team created a winner with the CPE as it I have yet to understand how to programically alter a treeview or menu control for varying degrees of complexity. The CPE - Drag and DROP and do whatever - WINNER.
Hover Menu.
I have to say this is the most simplistic and will be the least used control. But it is PERFECT for menuing. Even better than the CPE because you can embed logic into the hovermenu. So not only do you have a mechanism to popup a menu you have a mechanism that will allow changing how a application works. In other words if used properly is both a form control and a menu control. Best part is it is easier to adapt to already to already designed controls than propably any other extender in the toolkit. The HoverMenu is actually a better control to use than the ModalPopup as it is more lightweight - and the uses that can be developed for it are far less challenging than those controls where you are thinkng 'this is a form'...In my application - I now use this as a quick task launch as most of the times I merely want a control that changes something on the fly.
And you didn't think I would ever say anything positive... code examples coming soon..