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Question

Answer 1

A:

Agreeing that master pages are only for layout, would a sensible approach not to farm out the common controls to usercontrols and include them in the master page this way.

AJM 2009-12-17 17:21:29

Answer 2

A:

MasterPages are classes just like a normal Page object. That means you can expose internal controls through public properties to allow child Pages to access without having to resort to Master.FindControl(). To do this you just need to set the MasterType property in the page (I think it may work even without setting this but with this you get intellisense support and avoid having to do casts).

Here's a basic example (sorry it's in VB - this is copying and pasting from an old project):

Master page (.master):

<%@ Master Language="VB" CodeFile="default.master.vb" Inherits="DefaultMaster" %>

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"&gt;
<head runat="server">
    <title></title>
</head>
<body>
    <form runat="server">
    <ASP:TextBox ID="Search" RunAt="Server"/>
    <ASP:ContentPlaceHolder ID="Content" RunAt="Server"/>
    </form>
</body>
</html>

Master code-behind (.master.vb):

Partial Class DefaultMaster : Inherits MasterPage
    Public ReadOnly Property SearchBox() As TextBox
        Get
            Return Search
        End Get
    End Property
End Class

Accessing page (.aspx):

<%@ Page Language="VB" MasterPageFile="default.master" CodeFile="page.aspx.vb" Inherits="ExamplePage" %>
<%@ MasterType TypeName="DefaultMaster" %>

<ASP:Content ContentPlaceHolderID="Content" RunAt="Server">
    <p>This is some content on the page.</p>
</ASP:Content>

Accessing page code-behind (.aspx.vb):

Partial Class ExamplePage : Inherits Page
    Sub Page_Load(ByVal Sender As Object, ByVal E As EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
        Master.SearchBox.Text = "This page now has access to the master's search box."
    End Sub
End Class

Lance McNearney 2010-02-15 23:22:37

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tags:

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answers:

Proper use of MasterPages

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