Recently, is seems that many web sites and blogs are starting to use a navigation technique where you have multiple hyperlinks grouped in a box, with size, color, or brightness giving some meaning. I like this very much and have been on the lookout for a while for a control to do this in ASP.NET. Turns out, DevExpress has one! It's called the CloudControl and you can read more about it at the following URL.
http://www.devexpress.com/Products/NET/WebForms/ASPxCloudControl/Index.xml
So, now, where to use it? Code Camp of course! Now, if you browse to the Sessions listing, you'll see the DevExpress Cloud Control in use.
You can see this control in action at our web site here:
http://www.siliconvalley-codecamp.com/Sessions.aspx
My experience with using this control was great! Easy to setup. Below is all the code I needed on my asp page to make it happen.
52 <dxcc:ASPxCloudControl ID="ASPxCloudControl1" runat="server"
53 DataSourceID="ObjectDataSourceCloudControl" ShowValues="True"
54 HorizontalAlign="NotSet" TextField="TagName" ValueField="TagCount"
55 NavigateUrlField="TagId"
56 NavigateUrlFormatString="Sessions.aspx?sortby=title&by=category&tag={0}"
57 ToolTip="CloudControl Provided From DevExpress">
58 <RankProperties>
59 <dxcc:RankProperties />
60 <dxcc:RankProperties />
61 <dxcc:RankProperties />
62 <dxcc:RankProperties />
63 <dxcc:RankProperties />
64 <dxcc:RankProperties />
65 <dxcc:RankProperties />
66 </RankProperties>
67 </dxcc:ASPxCloudControl>
68 <asp:ObjectDataSource ID="ObjectDataSourceCloudControl" runat="server"
69 SelectMethod="GetAllTags" TypeName="CodeCampSV.SessionTagsODS">
70 </asp:ObjectDataSource>
This is my first trip into the Developer Express toolbox and so far, I'm very impressed!