Setting Menu options Dynamically based on Role in ASP.NET using LINQ

Step 1. Add Menu control to aspx or master page.

<asp:Menu ID=”menuRoleBased” runat=”server” Font-Names=”Verdana” ForeColor=”WhiteSmoke” Orientation=”Horizontal”
                            BorderColor=”#FFCC99″ BorderWidth=”0px” Width=”20%” Font-Bold=”False” Font-Size=”Smaller”>
                            <StaticMenuStyle BorderWidth=”1″ BackColor=”#FFCC99″ BorderColor=”White” BorderStyle=”Solid” />
                            <StaticSelectedStyle Font-Names=”Verdana” BackColor=”#415779″ ForeColor=”white” Height=”25px” />
                            <StaticMenuItemStyle CssClass=”menuHoverStyle” Font-Names=”Verdana” HorizontalPadding=”4px”
                                BorderColor=”White” BorderStyle=”Solid” BorderWidth=”1px” ForeColor=”Black” Height=”25px” />
                            <StaticHoverStyle CssClass=”menuOrangeStyle” Height=”25px” Font-Names=”Verdana” ForeColor=”Black” />
                            <DynamicHoverStyle CssClass=”menuOrangeStyle” Height=”25px” Font-Names=”Verdana”
                                ForeColor=”Black” />
                            <DynamicMenuStyle BorderStyle=”Solid” BorderColor=”white” BorderWidth=”1″ Height=”25px”
                                Font-Names=”Verdana” ForeColor=”White” BackColor=”#FFCC99″ />
                            <DynamicSelectedStyle Height=”25px” Font-Names=”Verdana” ForeColor=”White” BackColor=”#001B36″ />
                            <DynamicMenuItemStyle BorderStyle=”Solid” BorderWidth=”1px” BorderColor=”white” Height=”25px”
                                Font-Names=”Verdana” ForeColor=”white” BackColor=”#FFCC99″ HorizontalPadding=”3px” />
                            <DataBindings>
                                <asp:MenuItemBinding DataMember=”Menu” TextField=”title” ValueField=”description”
                                    NavigateUrlField=”url” />
                                <asp:MenuItemBinding DataMember=”SubMenu” NavigateUrlField=”url” TextField=”title”
                                    ValueField=”description” />
                            </DataBindings>
 </asp:Menu>

Step 2 : Add a xml containing Menu  and Submenu Name , Url and Role. Add a xml file to your project and add below xml content to it.

Xml below has two menus – Request Leave menu for Employee and Approve Leave menu for Manager

<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”utf-8″ ?>
<RootMenu>
  <Menu url=”” title=”Request” description=”Request” Role=”Employee” MenuOrder=”0″>
    <SubMenu url=”RequestLeave.aspx”  title=”Request Leave” description=”” />
  </Menu>
  <Menu  url=””  title=”Approve” description=”” Role=”Manager” MenuOrder=”1″>
    <SubMenu url=”ApproveLeave.aspx”  title=”Approve Leave” description=”” />
  </Menu>
 </RootMenu>

Step 3: Write a method to return roles of logged in user. In this example, I will create a GetRole method and populate to set Role array to Employee.

 public String[] GetRole()
    {
        return  new String[]{“Employee”};
    }

Step 4 : Write a method to get Menu xml string dynamically based on role.

public String GetMenu()
    {
        string strMenu = string.Empty;
        string[] loggedUserRole= GetRole();
        DataSet dsMenu = new DataSet();
        string strPath = @”D:MenuMenuRole.xml”;
       
        XDocument xmlDoc = XDocument.Load(strPath);

        List<XElement> roleMenu = new List<XElement>();
        var test = from c in xmlDoc.Descendants(“Menu”)
                   join r in loggedUserRole on c.Attribute(“Role”).Value equals r
                   orderby c.Attribute(“MenuOrder”).Value ascending
                   select c;

        foreach (var p in test)
            strMenu = strMenu + p.ToString();
        strMenu = “<RootMenu>” + strMenu + @”</RootMenu>”;
        return strMenu;
    }

Step 5 : Add xmlDataSource control to aspx or masterpage

<asp:XmlDataSource ID=”srcXMLMPA” runat=”server” XPath=”RootMenu/Menu” EnableCaching=”false”>
    </asp:XmlDataSource>

Step 6 : Add the code to bind dynamically created Role based menu xml string to Menu control

srcXMLMPA.Data = GetMenu();
menuRoleBased.DataSource = srcXMLMPA;
menuRoleBased.DataBind();

Now run the web application to see the result . Since Role array was populated with Employee role therefore only Request Menu will be show . See the result below :

Employee Menu

Now change GetRole method to return Employee and Manager role and run the application to see the difference :

Manager Menu