ansaurus

Question

ASP.NET MVC - Executing Code everytime the Site.Master is processed.

Answer 1

+5 A:

Just define your css link like you typically would and add some inline processing. You are attempting to do a Page_Load within a MVC view which is not a workable solution...

<link href="../../Content/css/expect.css?t=<%=DateTime.Now()%>" type="text/css" rel="Stylesheet" />

Jason 2009-02-09 17:55:18

I use Page_Load to handle some legacy controls in an MVC app I work on and it works just fine. It's not pretty and shouldn't be used if you don't need it, but it is there.

Stuart Branham 2009-02-09 18:00:32

Stuart, really. The Page_Load did not work for me. Even after I fixed the scoping issue.

tyndall 2009-02-09 19:21:39

I'm not sure what to say about that. I'm looking at a ViewPage in production right now that uses Page_Load to set some data on an old control we adapted for MVC. Regardless, either cramming the date ticks inline or using a helper is the better solution by a mile.

Stuart Branham 2009-02-09 19:48:51

Maybe it just doesn't work on the MVC-flavored MasterPage (ViewMasterPage). I'll have to test that out later. Thanks Stuart.

tyndall 2009-02-09 20:57:23

That's probably it. I forgot about us being on a master page! -1 for me. ;)

Stuart Branham 2009-02-09 21:01:02

Something else weird. The <%=DateTime.Now%> inside an attribute did not work. Wonder if this is a MasterPage thing too. I had to use the code in the comment below, but will eventually write a helper so I can reuse it in other projects.

tyndall 2009-02-09 22:49:56

<%= @"<link rel=""stylesheet"" type=""text/css"" href=""../../Content/css/expect.css?t=" + DateTime.Now.Ticks.ToString() + @""" />" %>

tyndall 2009-02-09 22:50:52

Wow. Even when I do the engine complains about "using <% %> tags when modifying the controls collection. I imagine this is caused by the asp:ContentPlaceHolder. I can remove it, but then I can't use the CSS intellisense workaround mentioned here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/524732/

tyndall 2009-02-09 23:35:02

Answer 2

+2 A:

You have declared cssLink as a local variable in Page_Load. As such, it will not be available to your page.

This should fix the issue for you:

<script runat="server">
    private string cssLoc;
    private string cssLink;

    void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {

        cssLoc = "../../Content/css/expect.css?t=" + DateTime.Now.Ticks.ToString();
        cssLink = String.Format(@"<link rel=""stylesheet"" type=""text/css"" href=""{0}"" />", cssLoc);
    }
</script>

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head id="Head1" runat="server">   
    <asp:ContentPlaceHolder ID="head" runat="server">
    <title></title>
    </asp:ContentPlaceHolder>    
    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />
    <%= cssLink %>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="../../Scripts/jquery.js"></script>
</head>

Edit: Aside from answering your direct question, I would recommend finding a more MVC-friendly solution (rather than putting code in your master page). For example, you could include the css location as ViewData["Stylesheet"] or use a different mechanism to update the css (I'm not up to date on the RC of MVC)

Richard Szalay 2009-02-09 17:55:20

+1, good one. Note sure how I missed the local scoping. -1 cool point for me.

tyndall 2009-02-09 19:01:03

Answer 3

+2 A:

<head runat="server">
      <title>Some Title</title> -- WILL FIX YOUR ISSUE
      ...
      <%= Helper.CustomStyle() %>
      ...
</head>

This Helper.CustomStyle will have the logic inside that varies based on a DateTime.Now call as seen above.

A very good tutorial that will help you to understand the Custom Helpers can be found here: http://www.asp.net/learn/mvc/tutorial-09-cs.aspx

REMEMBER -- ASP.NET MVC does away with Page_Load type calls. It's a distinct design pattern!

Bill Konrad 2009-02-09 17:58:39

Does fixing my `<title/>` this way break the ability for other Controllers to set the Title on pages?

tyndall 2009-02-09 19:03:19

Answer 4

+2 A:

Consider writing a helper to link that CSS file.

public static string DatedStylesheet(this HtmlHelper Html, string url, DateTime date)
{
    UrlHelper Url = new UrlHelper(new RequestContext(Html.ViewContext.HttpContext, Html.ViewContext.RouteData));
    string html = "<link type=\"text/css\" rel=\"stylesheet\" href=\"{0}?t={1}\"/>";

    return string.Format(html, Url.Content(url), date.Ticks.ToString());
}

<%= Html.DatedStylesheet("~/Content/css/expect.css", DateTime.Now);

On an unrelated note, does anyone know a cleaner way to do use UrlHelper outside of a view page?

Stuart Branham 2009-02-09 18:03:58

This is cool. I like where you are heading with this. +1

tyndall 2009-02-09 20:55:04

ansaurus

tags:

views:

answers:

ASP.NET MVC - Executing Code everytime the Site.Master is processed.

related questions