Loading from XML

External XML file

To load menu data from an XML file use the loadStruct() method:

var myMenu = new dhtmlXMenu();
myMenu.loadStruct("server/data.xml", function(){
    // data loaded and rendered
    // your code here
});

The first parameter of loadStruct() method is the path to the XML file, while the second parameter is an optional user-defined handler.

XML String

To load data from an XML string, use the same method - loadStruct():

var myMenu = new dhtmlXMenu();
myMenu.loadStruct('<data><node id="a1".../></data>', function(){
    // data loaded and rendered
    // your code here
});

The first parameter for loadStruct() method is the XML string from our html file, while the second parameter is an optional user-defined handler.

XML Format Template

This section is created in order to give the user the idea of XML Format Template. It aims at helping users in creating XML files for dhtmlxMenu initialization.

Basic

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<menu> // a top xml tag, mandatory
    <item id="file" text="File"> // a top-level item, each item must have a unique ID
        <item id="new" text="New"/> // a sub-level item
        <item id="ms1" type="separator"/> // a sub-level separator item
        ...
        <item id="export" text="Export">
        <item id="export_pdf" text="PDF"/> // a sub-level item
        ...
        </item>
        ...
    </item>
</menu>

Advanced

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<menu>
    <item id="file" text="File">
        // a sub-level item with images for enabled/disabled states
        <item id="new" text="New" img="new.gif" imgdis="new_dis.gif"/> 
        <item id="ms1" type="separator"/>
        ...
        <item id="export" text="Export">
            // a sub-level item disabled by default
            <item id="export_pdf" text="PDF" enabled="false"/> 
            ...
        </item>
        ...
    </item>
</menu>

Full

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<menu>
    <item id="file" text="File">
        <item id="new" text="New" img="new.gif" imgdis="new_dis.gif">
            <hotkey>Ctrl+N</hotkey> // a hotkey (just a text) to a menu item
        </item>
        <item id="ms1" type="separator"/>
        <item id="udf" text="UDF">
            <userdata name="align">left</userdata> // userdata
        </item>
        ...
        <item id="export" text="Export">
            <item id="export_pdf" text="PDF" enabled="false"/>
            ...
        </item>
        ...
        <item id="eol" text="End Of Line">
            // a radiobutton, group "eol", checked by default
            <item id="eol_u" text="Unix (\n)" type="radio" group="eol" checked="true"/> 
            // a radiobutton, group "eol"
            <item id="eol_w" text="DOS/Windows (\r\n)" type="radio" group="eol"/> 
            // a radiobutton, group "eol"
            <item id="eol_m" text="MacOS (\r)" type="radio" group="eol"/> 
            // a radiobutton, group "eol", disabled
            <item id="eol_m" text="MacOS (\r)" type="radio" group="eol"/> 
            // we got a radiogroup "eol" with 4 buttons, 1 disabled
        </item>
        <item id="ms2" type="separator"/>
        // a disabled checked checkbox
        <item id="ignorecase" text="Ignore Case" type="checkbox" checked="true" 
              enabled="false"/> 
        // an unchecked checkbox
        <item id="checkspelling" text="Check Spelling" type="checkbox"/> 
    </item>
    <item id="company" text="Company">
        <href target="blank"><![CDATA[http://dhtmlx.com/docs/company.shtml]]></href>
        // link, page will be opened in new window
    </item>
</menu>