Performance question

[Lubomir]

Hi,

I would like to know your opinion about .NET menu server controls from
performance point of view.

It is a good idea if a menu is running on a client machine: a response is
quick and the server time is not used. However, implementation of a menu in a
java script often results in a messy source code, and there can be problems
if web browser on the client has disabled JavaScripts.

Menu implementation on the server side is clean and runs without problems in
a browser. However, it takes the server processor time and it needs to make a
route to the server and back every time a user hit a menu.

I gave a look at MSDN newsgroup page and it seems that MS used server-side
menu. It works fine (for me), even I don’t know how strong hardware was
necessary to use for achieving this performance.

What is your experience? Generally speaking, is it a good idea to implement
a menu in a form of a server side control?

Thanks,

Lubomir

 

[Steve C. Orr [MVP, MCSD]]

It's not like you have to choose one or the other.
You can mix and match server and client code to varying degrees depending on
what kind of menu you're trying to achieve.

Here are some free menu controls (many including source code) for you to
examine:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/asp.net/?pull=/library/en-us/dnaspp/html/aspnet-buildmenuservercontrol.asp
http://skmmenu.com/menu/
http://www.titaniumsoft.net/tsweblib.aspx
http://timothy.humphrey.name/thwc/
http://At-Krays.Net/csharp.html
http://www.obout.com/sm3/basic.aspx
http://www.solpart.com/techcorner/SolpartMenuHistory.aspx
http://www.dynamicdrive.com/dynamicindex1/

 

[DalePres]

Lubomir,

Keep in mind that all the menu controls, server generated or client
generated, will depend on the client allowing javascript. The primary
difference between the server controls and client controls is how the
javascript is generated.

For client-side menu controls, the javascript is generally either stored in
a script file that is included by using the src attribute of a Script tag or
by including the javascript directly in the HTML file. Server-side menu
controls, on the other hand, generally (but not always) create the
javascript from code in the application dll.

The main consideration I would use in determining whether to use client or
server side menu controls is whether the contents of the menu must be
created dynamically based on logic in your application. If the menu is
always consistent, use a client side control. If your menu contents must be
modified based on your business logic, then use server-side controls. In
fact, this consideration applies to all the controls on your page.

Keep in mind that neither client-side menu controls or server-side menu
controls are going to work if the client has javascript disabled.

HTH

DalePres
MCAD, MCDBA, MCSE