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Important

This topic applies to Web Forms.

A top-level navigational menu enables the user to navigate around the website easily.

Create a main menu with `EPiServer:MenuList` as follows:

  1. In edit view, add some pages under the website’s start page, such as: News, Documents, Examples and Events. When the menu is complete, you can navigate to and from these pages.

  2. In _web.config_, set the variable `pageStartId` to the website’s start page ID. In the menu list, display each page’s name as a link to that page; use the built-in `PageLink` property of the current page.

  3. Add a new Optimizely Content Management System (CMS) web control to the project; `MainMenu` in this example.

  4. In the _MainMenu.ascx_ user control file, add the control with closing tags and give the control the ID value **Menu**.

  5. The `PageLink` attribute is set in the control’s code-behind file. Set the PageLink attribute and the control ID, and see the code example in this topic.

  6. Add an item template **\<ItemTemplate>** around the CMS `PageLink` property. These recur for every page item that exists in the list. A page link is displayed for all the pages in the page hierarchy under the start page.

  7. Pass in the correct CSS class to get the right look and feel (`CssClass="NormalLink"`), by setting the `CssClass` attribute on the `Property` control.

  8. The `PageLink` attribute of the `EPiServer:MenuList` control should be made dynamic instead of using a hardcoded ID to the start page of the website. A reference to the start page of the website is automatically available through the static `StartPage` property in the [EPiServer.Core.PageReference](🔗) class. This provides a context to the menu control, indicating which pages it will display. In the code-behind file set the control attribute `Menu.PageLink` to the `PageReference.StartPage` property. See the code example in this topic.

  9. Use data binding to access the property and use the retrieved information as part of the loading of a control. (Data binding is a .NET concept and is documented in the Microsoft .NET help files.) You must explicitly data vind the menu list control by calling its `DataBind()` method, by placing the example code (in this topic) in the `Page\_Load` event in the code-behind file (where menu is the **ID** of your `MenuList` web control). The menu should be functional now. 

  10. Browse to the website’s start page and verify that the top menu accurately displays the names of the pages in the top-level of the website structure. Click the links in the menu to verify that the navigation is working.

**MenuList code example markup**


**MenuList code example code behind**