How to: Use TreeView in Current Navigation in SharePoint

Introduction

This article explains how to use the ASP.NET TreeView for the current navigation in SharePoint (WSS 3/MOSS 2007).

This is useful if you use SharePoint as a Content Management System, for example, if you have a publishing site with many pages sorted in a content hierarchy that you wish to present in a user-friendly treeview navigation control.

Naturally, you could benefit with combining the treeview control with a horizontal menu control on your master page so that the primary, global navigation is presented by a horizontal menu on the top of your page, and the secondary, local navigation is presented by a vertical tree on the left side of your site.

Background

Out-of-the box SharePoint uses the SharePoint:AspMenu for the current navigation, usually shown on the left side of a page.

SharePoint also shpis with a SharePoint:SPTreeView control that shows the categories of a site. However, if you want to render the current navigation in the left side as a tree, with expandable and collapsible menu items, you have to do a few changes to your master page and your webconfig.sps.xml file.

Using the Code

1. If you have a content placeholder with the ID "PlaceHolderLeftNavBar", then locate the SharePoint:AspMenu within the placeholder and replace it with ASP:TreeView.

If you do not have a placeholder, then insert the control on your master page.

2. As the data source for the TreeView control, use SiteMapProvider="CurrentNavSiteMapProviderNoEncode".

If you already have a "PlaceHolderLeftNavBar" content placeholder, then you can simply change the SiteMapProvider="CurrentNavSiteMapProvider" beneath the SharePoint:AspMenu replaced in step 1.

Here, I use the PortalSiteMap data source:

ASP.NET

<ASP:TreeView id="MyID" runat="server" DataSourceID="MyDatasource"
    ExpandDepth="0"></ASP:TreeView>
 <PublishingNavigation:PortalSiteMapDataSource ID="MyDatasource"
    runat="server" SiteMapProvider="CurrentSiteMapProviderNoEncode"

3. Finally, you need to change your webconfig.sps.xml files, which you should find here: "C:\\Progam Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\CONFIG".

Locate the provider named "CurrentNavSiteMapProviderNoEncode" and add the attribute RequireUniqueKeysForNodes="true".

The following shows the relevant section:

XML

<add path="configuration/system.web/siteMap/providers"
    id="{009E5494-26C5-4181-936F-4D16F444B642}">
<add name="GlobalNavSiteMapProvider"
    description="CMS provider for Global navigation"
    type="Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.Navigation.PortalSiteMapProvider,
    Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral,
    PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" NavigationType="Global" EncodeOutput="true"/>
<add name="CombinedNavSiteMapProvider"
    description="CMS provider for Combined navigation"
    type="Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.Navigation.PortalSiteMapProvider,
    Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral,
    PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" NavigationType="Combined" EncodeOutput="true"/>
<add name="CurrentNavSiteMapProvider"
    description="CMS provider for Current navigation"
    type="Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.Navigation.PortalSiteMapProvider,
    Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral,
    PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" NavigationType="Current" EncodeOutput="true"/>
<add name="CurrentNavSiteMapProviderNoEncode"
    description="CMS provider for Current navigation, no encoding of output"
    type="Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.Navigation.PortalSiteMapProvider,
    Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral,
    PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" NavigationType="Current" EncodeOutput="false"
    RequireUniqueKeysForNodes="true"/>
<add name="SiteDirectoryCategoryProvider"
    description="Site Directory category provider"
    type="Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal.WebControls.SiteDirectoryCategoryProvider,
    Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral,
    PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c"/>
<add name="MySiteMapProvider"
    description=
    "MySite provider that returns areas and based on the current user context"
    type="Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal.MySiteMapProvider,
    Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral,
    PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c"/>
<add name="MySiteLeftNavProvider"
    description=
       "MySite Left Nav provider that returns areas 
        and based on the current user context"
       type="Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal.MySiteLeftNavProvider,
       Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral,
       PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c"/>
</add>

4. Save your files and reset IIS.

Points of Interest

There are various properties that you can use to customize the TreeView control.