ASP.NET page content - where does this belong?

Question

I am working on a web application that has a single master page and several content pages. Each page will have a small sidebar to the right of the main content with some brief content. However, that brief content is specific to the page you are on. I can't decide whether to put that on each individual page, or in the master page in a MultiView with some logic in code-behind to specify which view is shown based on which page you are on.

Which seems more elegant? I'm still fairly new with ASP.NET and I'm trying to get a good feel for proper architecture, etc.

Answer 1

You could also put that additional code into a user control (or two). The content page would then include the user control appropriate to that page for the right sidebar.

Answer 2

If you want some manageability in the case of your site getting larger and needing more of these custom sidebars then I would not put anything beyond standard layout in the master page.

What is wrong with having an additional ContentPlaceHolder in the side bar and just adding the content into Content controls on each content page?

Your approach seems overly complex to me.

Answer 3

You can create multiple content placeholders in a single masterpage. So in your case I would create two. One for the article's content and one for the sidebar like:

<!-- some html-->
<asp:contentplaceholder id="ArticleContents" runat="server">
</asp:contentplaceholder>
<!-- some more html-->
<asp:contentplaceholder id="ArticleSidebar" runat="server">
</asp:contentplaceholder>
<!-- even more html-->

then you could have the article contents and the sidebar contents both in the same page and place it in the correct spot using something like

<asp:Content ID="article" ContentPlaceHolderID="ArticleContents" Runat="Server">
Your article
</asp:Content>
<asp:Content ID="sidebar" ContentPlaceHolderID="ArticleSidebar" Runat="Server">
Your sidebar
</asp:Content>

Answer 4

I would be inclined to solve this one using the master page + multiview control, or do what Jeff S recommended and use a separate user control.