How to change Asp.net Theme via Web.Config on the fly

Question

Summary

I have a web-application with more than 5 themes. Each themes covers a completely different style for different customers. whenever we publish a new version of our application we send it for all of customers.

The problem.

We specify theme in web.config file in <Page> tag. like

<page theme="Theme1" /> // or Theme2 for second customer.

with this approach we easily change the style of application from each other without writing codes which needs a new publish for each one.

With changing the theme="Theme1". nothing change and we didn't write a code in application , so why changing theme don't change the theme and we need a new publish?

we want to change it in web.config or somewhere else and with changing it the theme change without needing a new publish for each one.

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Update :

I Publish Once and then copy the published version for each customer (5 times) then in each web.config file I change the theme="CustomerTheme". but only the theme which was active in publish process is usable in all of 5 versions and other 4 themes are un-usable

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Actually the main question is that why changes in Web.Config need a different publish while it is XML and do not need a complie. I should Add this note that, App_Theme include all of 5 themes so that all of them Compiles and are ready to use

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This is the way I publish the application

Photo Link

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Update 2

here IFound the exact problem reported by someone else. he resolve the problem but I can't underestand how he resolved this Issue. can anybody tell me how he resolved the issue?

he used aspnet_compiler command and told that automatically ADDS the 'theme' on the Page directive

(first post is the question and the last post is the answer)

http://bytes.com/topic/asp-net/answers/495850-themes-web-config

Answer 1

Did you publish the app as precompiled? If so this could be the cause.

Why not store the theme to use in a database table and access it there rather than the web.config? This should then be truly 'on the fly'.

Answer 2

If I understood you correctly, you have one theme for each customer and that will not change?

Still, I do not understand your publishing scenario? Why do you want to change the Theme if each customer has its own web application?

Nevertheless, how about you check the request url in the codebehind and set the Theme Name programatically?

Pseudo-code: (you need to have this piece of code executed on every request. You could write an HTTPHandler for this, or use the BeginRequest Event in the global.asax. You also need to find which property provides the necessary URL information)

switch(Request.URL)
{
 case "www.customer1.com":
    Theme = "Customer1";
    break;
 case "www.customer2.com":
    Theme = "Customer2":
    break;
}