Passing a value from menu items - asp.net

Question

I would like to pass a value from menu item to the respected navigation page.
<asp:menu id="myMenu"
staticdisplaylevels="2"
staticsubmenuindent="10"
orientation="Horizontal"
dynamichorizontaloffset="10"
onmenuitemclick="myMenu_MenuItemClick"
target="_blank"
runat="server" ForeColor="White" >
<items>
<asp:menuitem
text="Home"
tooltip="Home">
<asp:menuitem
text="Music"
tooltip="Music">
<asp:menuitem
text="Classical"
tooltip="Classical"/>
<asp:menuitem
text="Rock"
tooltip="Rock"/>
<asp:menuitem
text="Jazz"
tooltip="Jazz"/>
</asp:menuitem>
<asp:menuitem
text="Movies"
tooltip="Movies">
<asp:menuitem
text="Action"
tooltip="Action"/>
<asp:menuitem
text="Drama"
tooltip="Drama"/>
<asp:menuitem
text="Musical"
tooltip="Musical"/>
</asp:menuitem>
</asp:menuitem>
</items>
</asp:menu>
The code to pass the MenuItem Text is as below:
protected void myMenu_MenuItemClick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
Session["1"] = (sender as MenuItem).Text;
Response.Redirect("~/CategorySearch.aspx?Category=" + Session["1"].ToString());
}
I get a NullReferenceException which is quite interesting because I am just passing the text of the MenuItem.Why is that?

Answer 1

If you have an event handler attached to your menu (or menu item), you can easily cast the sender as a MenuItem like so:
Webforms:
<asp:Menu runat="server" ID="mymenu" OnMenuItemClick="mymenu_MenuItemClick">
<Items>
<asp:MenuItem Text="Home" />
<asp:MenuItem Text="Contact" />
<asp:MenuItem Text="About Us" />
</Items>
</asp:Menu>
Code Behind:
protected void mymenu_MenuItemClick(object sender, MenuEventArgs e)
{
// this is the menu itself, you can iterate the Items collection if you need.
var menu = (sender as Menu);
foreach (MenuItem item in menu.Items)
{
System.Diagnostics.Debug.Print(item.Text);
}
// this is the MenuItem object that was clicked
var clickedMenuItem = e.Item;
// store text value in your session
Session["1"] = e.Item.Text;
// redirect
Response.Redirect("~/CategorySearch.aspx?Category=" + e.Item.Text);
}