Building a menu using JQuery is too simple. Here the script reads from an XML file to build the menu items. Sample xml <Root> <Menu Text="Home" URL="" ToolTip="Home" ID="m1" > <SubMenu Text="About us" URL="" ToolTip="About us"></SubMenu> <SubMenu Text="Contact us" URL="" ToolTip="About us"></SubMenu> <SubMenu Text="Careers" URL="" ToolTip="About us"></SubMenu> </Menu> <Menu Text="Company" URL="" ToolTip="Home" ID="m2" > <SubMenu Text="Clients" URL="" ToolTip="About us"></SubMenu> <SubMenu Text="Management" URL="" ToolTip="About us"></SubMenu> </Menu> </Root> JQuery $(document).ready(function () { $.ajax({ ...