ASP.NET Master Pages
ASP.NET provides a clever template which allows you to easily manage, maintain and update the design and layout of your website, the solution is ASP.NET master pages. Master pages in ASP.NET provide a wide range of useful features which you probably weren’t even aware of.
What are ASP.NET Master pages?
ASP.NET Master Pages allows a web developer to define a template design/layout which they intend to be consistent throughout the entire website. Traditionally, webmasters editing their website will usually have their design and layout defined within each individual webpage making the development process very tedious if the website design or layout was ever to change. Master pages overcomes this problem by defining the design/layout within a single file which is inheritable by content pages, similar to object-orientated programming (OOP) in how derived classes inherit the attributes and methods of a base class. Every new webpage which is created within your website project can have a master page defined, allowing you to create multiple master pages which can be inherited by different content pages.
What benefits do Master pages provide?
Most of the benefits of ASP.NET Master Pages have already been described, but to evaluate, Master pages provide the following benefits:
- Maintain a consistent layout throughout your website – The design/layout is defined within a single file which is inheritable by content pages within your website;
- Easily update the design and layout of your website – If the design or layout of your website was to ever change then only a single file would be required to be modified rather than editing all webpages of your website which is very mundane and tedious;
- Efficient website management – Most important they are efficient, Master pages ensures your website design and layout are consistent throughout whilst any modifications required can be easily and quickly achieved by editing the Master page file.
ASP.NET Nested Master Pages
Nested master pages are where a master page is embedded into another master page, allowing you to build a hierarchy based upon master pages. The advantages of this allows you to allocate a specific layout for each individual master page, where you might have different regions which you may want to edit the style and design of without affecting the design and style of the main master page for instance.
What are Content Placeholders and Content Controls?
Master Pages: Content Placeholders
Content placeholders are defined within the master page, with these you can define default content to display which will be displayed on content pages when the master page is inherited. Default content is only displayed on content pages when no content is provided in the inherited content pages. The Content Placeholders are defined within the Master Pages of your website.
Master Pages: Content Controls
Content controls allow you to override Master Pages by including additional content apart from the Content Placeholders’ content within your Content Pages. Content controls are used for dynamically adding and removing controls to and from a webpage, allowing different controls to appear dependant on a specific user for instance.
How to inherit Master Pages within your Content Pages
Master Pages are easily inheritable within the Content Pages of your website simply by defining the Master Page within the ASP.NET page tag as shown below:
<%@ Page Language=”C#” MasterPageFile=”~/MasterFile.master” %>
Conclusion to ASP.NET Master Pages
Make use of this handy feature provided within the Microsoft templates for ASP.NET websites. It can save you lots of time and effort when modifying the design or layout throughout your website. The primary goal of providing Master Page templates for your website is to optimise efficiency for your development time allocation and to ensure consistency throughout your entire website.
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