Navigation design question, rewrite XML or custom provider?

nickpup — Mon, 22 Aug 2005 21:32:40 GMT

I am asking the following on www.asp.net

I have been looking at the (very nice) site navigation capabilities in ASP.NET 2.0. We are working on a reporting site, that will allow the user to chose from available reports based on their login. We plan on using a Report Viewer control to render the reports and I want to use the Navigation capability to allow the user to see the reports available to them, based on their login Id, then kickoff the desired report when they select from the menu.

We have much of the information stored in SQL Server 2000 tables, including User, Role, Reports and Module tables, which group the reports and allow access to the whole group. Each report may have some sort of parameter. There is also a table that relates modules to roles. Users in the correct roles have access to that module. Users should only be able to see the reports they have authorization for.

What might be the best way to implement this? I know I could rewrite the XML file containing the site map, on page load for example, based on the current DB contents - or I could write a custom provider or some combination of both. I am looking for alternative design ideas here – all welcome!

Thanks,

Nick

Master Pages, Themes and Navigation Controls

Navigation design question, rewrite XML or custom provider?