IBM got this kind of display working years ago and uses it for their online documentation library on their boulder.ibm.com site. They used HTML Frames, where the left-hand frame contained an
applet and the righthand frame contained content. However, a
JSF tree (such as the RichFaces tree control) or a JavaScript tree control can also work in place of an applet.
The secret of how to be miserable is to constantly expect things are going to happen the way that they are "supposed" to happen.
You can have faith, which carries the understanding that you may be disappointed. Then there's being a willfully-blind idiot, which virtually guarantees it.