The above Flash file is an example of a dynamically generated menu, powered by external XML files.
The menu items in the example ("Geography," "Mathematics," "English," and "User Settings") have their contents defined via external files whose titles are denoted by the arrows. When rolled over the menus "fly-out" revealing their content. The terminus of each menu item supports custom actions which may be defined within the XML. These custom actions would then be interpreted by the core program. (In the above example, only a few of the menu items have "active" commands associated with them; specifically "New York:Time Zone" and "Atlanta:Population," under the Geography heading. When clicked they simply send an alert to the screen announcing they have been clicked.)
Clicking the "Randomize" button will demonstrate how easy it is to move and change the menu contents.
Using a technique such as this dynamically-driven menuing system not only allows the client to easily adjust menu layouts without great difficulty, but also affords a greater amount of flexibility when it comes to re-purposing and/or re-branding of products.
If you would like to see what the xml files that generated this menu look like, you can check them by clicking the links below.