A cascading menu is a computer menu system where the option selected in one menu determines the options available in the next. It is commonly used in operating systems, applications, and websites, and is often presented as a series of drop-down lists. AJAX has made it possible to update only parts of a web page, providing a better user experience. A hierarchical relationship is most commonly used to divide selections into groups.
A cascading menu is a computer menu system in which the option selected in one menu is used to determine which options are available in the next. Developers divide the list of possible values into two or more logical levels, and each of these levels is represented in a single menu. End users can then narrow down the total list of possible options before making a final selection.
Perhaps the most common use for cascading menus is within a computer operating system. In Windows XP, for example, users navigate a cascading menu each time they click the Start button. Icons in submenus such as All Programs and Control Panel do not appear until the user selects an option from the Start menu itself.
Most computer applications also use cascading menus. While it looks a little different, the main menu of most applications is another example. Submenus are not available until a user clicks File, Edit, View, etc. from the main menu.
Cascading menus are also often seen on websites, in various forms. Typically, they are presented to the user via a series of drop-down lists. Initially, only the top-level drop-down list is populated and enabled; others are blank and/or grayed out. Once the user selects an option in the first list, the next is triggered and populated.
The use of cascading menus in websites has grown dramatically with the use of asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX). In the past, the code required to populate a drop-down list based on selection in a previous list usually required the user to refresh the entire web page. With AJAX, however, developers can create pages where only parts of the page update. These AJAX-enabled cascading menus provide a better and faster user experience.
While it is possible to create a cascading menu system using any arbitrary system for dividing selections into groups, a hierarchical relationship is most commonly used. For example, if the goal is to present the user with a list of cities to choose from, the first menu might initially display a list of countries. After the user selects a country, the next menu could be populated with a list of states contained in the selected country. Only once the user selects a state is the city menu populated.
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