recursive menu

gistfile1.txt

var
 html, printRecord, entry, n;
 
// records is an array of objects with parent_id, name and id attributes
// [ {parent_id: ..., id: ..., name: ...}, ...]
 
html = '';
printRecord = function(parent_id){
  html +='<ul>';
  
  for (n = 0; n < records.length; n ++){
  
    entry = records[n];
    
    // only the ones nested under the current parent
    if (entry.parent_id == parent_id) {
    
     html +=  '<li>' + entry.name;
     
     // recursively print another ul inside this li
     printRecord(entry.id);
     
     html += '</li>';
     
    }
    
  }
  html +='</ul>';
}

printRecord(); // first record has no parent, it is top


// records would print
// <ul>
//   <li>name
//     <ul>
//       <li>subname<ul></ul></li>
//     </ul>
//   </li>
// </ul>


// the empty ul inside could be taken out if you check that there are children first

just an example, not to be used in production