Hey gents. There is a need in the AJAX Accordion control to make it more powerful, a 'cascading' ability. What I mean by this is that each level of the Accordion needs to be able to send a parameter to the server so that the next level can be databound anew.

If there is a way to do this already, please forgive me and tell me, but for instance, if I could have a menu of Bread, Milk, etc in a home supermarket app, and I clicked on Bread, I want it to send 'bread' (or a datakey) to the server, to databind the next level using that parameter (here with types of bread). I want to achieve the same effect as I have now on my site www.quickshopdemo.com (login as guest and click on the categories on the left- currently they bind to javascript arrays which come from the db). You can imagine how useful this could be.

I also believe an AJAX Grid (like a shopping cart Gridview) is a missing 'link' in the control toolkit, because a grid is used so much in web apps. (On the right side when you buy something on my site is a dhtml Grid.) An AJAX control that allowed something like that would be very useful, in general terms allowing html to be added instantly to the bottom of the grid, a new row, as many times as needed. If we had such an AJAX control, we could use it in our home shopping apps, adding a row when a user clicked on a button, so our home shopping experience would appear much faster. Again if there is a way to do this with an UpdatePanel please give me your thoughts.

I hope the folks at MS would consider this for future AJAX controls, a Grid and a cascading Accordion or similar menu. They would be quite achievable to make, and the Grid especially would change just a little the way we make our apps. If someone reads this please respond so I know. I could also give details if you like.

Thanks for your time!

Justin Dutoit

Already built in Justin.  You can build most of ajaxcontrol toolkit extenders into a template column of a grid with zero lines of code.  Half way down in this post I show how its done.  I've got a couple dozen collaspible panels on this web page.  http://www.gosylvester.com/blog.aspx?id=8    Live Demo! 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but how does this send parameters from the client to the server? That's what I need for my Cascading Accordion. Doesn't look much like a dhtml Grid either

 Justin

The control state open/closed go up in a hidden field so when the page is posted back the control can render correctly.  DHTML The update panel is kindof an elephant in a pink dress type of dhtml.  It works really good at what it does.

I have one on my blog page its used to completely redraw the page.

OK well I just learned how to use a Treeview and style it to look like an Accordion. Thanks anyway

 Justin