Override strongly typed @page masterpagefile

Question

Hi, I am working with a third party asp.net application that uses master pages and nested master pages. My needs are to dynamically set the master page files for each page(.aspx). The application by default sets the master page file in the strongly typed @Page directive for each page. I don't want to change the strongly typed directive on each page (over 50 pages) because I am lazy and I want to minimize conflicts with future upgrades.

My solution was to use the base masterpage class and override the OnPreInt event like this:

protected override void OnPreInit(EventArgs e)
    {
    this.MasterPageFile = "~/MasterPages/MyMaster.master";
    }

Everything works perfectly. My question is: Is this a bad idea and why? It just seems too easy to be true.

thanks.

Answer 1

It makes code / logic more complicated. Other guys who may continue working on the project after you for example may have problems with understand it quickly. IMHO

Answer 2

This should work without issue. The MasterPage is not applied to the control collection until after OnPreInit. The only possible issues I see with this, is that

1) Your devs will have to remember this switch happens (technical debt)

2) You will have to load up both MasterPage classes every time the page is requested (performance issue)

Answer 3

It's a perfectly good idea. Half the point of master pages is that you can do this.

One annoying thing about them, is that you can't have them start referencing a non-existent file (which would make it clearer when you're always going to decide on the master programattically), so if I'm going to always set it to something new I like to have it start with a page that just says "Dummy master page, this will be moved from programatically", so it's clear that this is happening to anyone tracking down the masterpage used by the page.