Microsoft decided to introduce in ASP.NET 2.0 what we built a long time ago when we relaunched our web site. A new file web.sitemap has been added which contains a links and title to various pages on your sites. The file can be set up in a hierarchy just like our navigation which allows you to build things like breadcrumbs automatically.
A sitemap file could look like this.
<siteMap>
<siteMapNode title="Home" url="~/default.aspx" >
<siteMapNode title="Introduction to ASP.NET" url="~/introduction/default.aspx">
<siteMapNode title="What's New in Whidbey?" url="~/introduction/whatsnew.aspx"/>
<siteMapNode title="Sample Applications (Starter Kits)" url="~/introduction/starterkits.aspx"/>
<siteMapNode title="Introduction to Visual Web Developer" url="~/introduction/vwd.aspx"/>
</siteMapNode>
</siteMapNode>
</siteMap>
Three new controls have been introduced that make use of this new web.sitemap file. SiteMapPath can be used to make breadcrumbs. Menu can be used to make basic javascript/dhtml menus but it is fully customizable. Lastly, TreeView will allow a user to browse to any node in the siteMap similar to the type of tree control they use in MSDN Subscriber downloads.
Read the complete post at http://www.dotnettipoftheday.com/blog.aspx?id=127