How to open a document in a separate window from a site map

Question

I was hoping to open a document in a menu control using a sitemap. I am using the following code in the sitemap but get an error. I would like to be able to click on the menu item, have it open the sample doc in a new window, but not to have the original page navigate to a new place (essentially to do nothing on the main page.)

<siteMapNode url="javascript:window.open('Sample.doc','SampleName'); return false" title="FAQs"  description="FAQs" />

Any idea? Is there some javascript I can use that does not require me to register a function on every page?

Jallier

Answer 1

I ended up using the following:

<siteMapNode url="javascript:window.open('Sample.doc','SampleName'); void(0);" title="FAQs"  description="FAQs" />

Jallier

Answer 2

If you handle the OnMenuItemDataBound event on the ASP.NET Menu control, you can set the target attribute on the item there:

MyMenu.MenuItemDataBound += OnMenuItemDataBound

private void OnMenuItemDataBound(object sender, MenuEventArgs e)
{
    // Sets all menu items to open in new windows
    e.Item.Target = "_blank";

    // Uses a 'target' attribute in the XML sitemap if set:
    string targetAttributeValue = ((SiteMapNode)e.Item.DataItem)["target"];
    if (targetAttributeValue != null) {
        e.Item.Target = targetAttributeValue;
    }
}

Gilley

Answer 3

javascript:widow.open

Are you sure you don't mean window.open?
I don't think your script is that much related to widows ;)

Dispassionate

Hah! I did mean window.open. I've updated my question (that wasn't my issue.) I have been trying so many things I got sloppy... thanks. – Jallier

Answer 4

You will need to find out which control is consuming the sitemap file and then catch the event generated from that control.

Lexine

Answer 5

Why not just use the target attribute?

<siteMapNode url="Sample.doc" target="_blank" title="FAQs"  description="FAQs" />

Anitraaniweta

The target attribute doesn't get applied to the link tag generated by the menu control – Gilley

Up voted this because I was wondering the same thing. So the question is useful even if only for discounting a solution. – Precursory

Answer 6

target="_blank" on the source page was lost when the page rendered for me. I had to do it in the code behind like so:

private void Menu1_PreRender(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    if (!IsPostBack) {
        MenuItem FAQsItem = new MenuItem("FAQs");
        FAQsItem.NavigateUrl = "~/Sample.doc"; //You'll need to figure out your correct URL
        FAQsItem.Target = "_blank";
        Menu1.Items.Add(FAQsItem);
    }
}

Note: I added this to the Menu's PreRender because I just wanted to add it to the end of the other MenuItems that were in the source page and did not need target="_blank".

Aspic