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Answer 1

+1 A:

Like you mentioned, inheritance problems can appear from anywhere. Don't over engineer early.

With the masterpages problem you describe, you can swap in/out different css files and use selectors to hide/change parts of the html that is generated from the masterpage.

cottsak 2009-11-25 20:59:10

Answer 2

+7 A:

I wouldn't consider not using master pages. You can always nest master pages if you want to share the out most chrome on most pages, inner chrome to share in a silo etc.

Mark 2009-11-25 20:59:45

+1 for mentioning nesting... that's what I would do.

Andy West 2009-11-25 21:01:08

I guess what your saying is that, while you personally wouldn't use them, if you did, you would nest them to give yourself the most flexibility. I do't follow the inner chrome, silo point, but why wouldn't you use them?

Velika 2009-11-25 21:08:37

So let's say I wanted a common header and stylesheet on every page; I would have a main master page. Then in a specific area of my site, say my blog area, I would have another master page that would have the main master page outside and page content inside. I can nest master pages inside of other master pages to share varying degrees of similar content across several different pages.

Mark 2009-11-25 21:11:48

Also, I was saying I would always use them, unless there is another templating scheme already in place.

Mark 2009-11-25 21:13:51

Answer 3

+11 A:

Don't be scared.

You can create as many placeholders as you like, making your master page very granular. These placeholders can also contain default content & controls.

Therefore in the 90% of pages where you want the default markup you can omit the overriding content.

Alternatively in the 10% of cases where you want something different you can supply overriding markup

Example:

<%@ Master Language="C#" %>
<html>
<body>
<asp:ContentPlaceholder id="Headline" runat="Server">
    My Default Headline
</asp:ContentPlaceholder>
<asp:ContentPlaceholder id="Main" runat="Server" />
</body>
</html>

on your homepage you could have a page like so:

<%@ Page MasterPageFile="..." %>
<asp:Content ContentPlaceHolderID="Headline" runat="Server">
    My homepage headline
</asp:Content>

<asp:Content contentplaceholderid="Main" runat="server">
    My homepage main content
</asp:Content>

on all your other pages take advantage of the default 'Headline' by omitting the tag for the headline like so:

<%@ Page MasterPageFile="..." %>
<asp:Content contentplaceholderid="Main" runat="server">
    My page main content
</asp:Content>

Myster 2009-11-25 21:10:10

Answer 4

+1 A:

Once you're used to them, you'll start using them as intended. That information (refs to CSS,common js, page placement concerns, etc.) that is shared by enough pages to warrant a common source will go there, and you'll be happy later that they are there.

When you build out a page that breaks from that, you may find yourself doing a little adjusting back at your main.master (abstracting things differently), but you'll be able to make the adjustment fast and move forward.

If it's just a one-off page that breaks the rules, then you can simply tell that page to inherit a different master.

Make a test site and play around with the concept a bit before you start relying on it however.

madcolor 2009-11-25 21:10:43

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