Chapter 5. Designing Websites with Master Pages
A Master Page enables you to share the same content among multiple content pages in a website. You can use a Master Page to create a common page layout. For example, if you want all the pages in your website to share a three-column layout, you can create the layout once in a Master Page and apply the layout to multiple content pages. You also can use Master Pages to display common content in multiple pages. For example, if you want to display a standard header and footer in each page in your website, then you can create the standard header and footer in a Master Page. By taking advantage of Master Pages, you can make your website easier to maintain, extend, and modify. If you need to add a new page to your website that looks just like the other pages in your website, then you simply need to apply the same Master Page to the new content page. If you decide to completely modify the design of your website, you do not need to change every content page. You can modify just a single Master Page to dramatically change the appearance of all the pages in your application. In this chapter, you learn how to create Master Pages and apply Master Pages to content pages. It describes how you can apply a Master Page to an entire application by registering the Master Page in the web configuration file. It also explores different methods of modifying content in a Master Page from individual content pages. For example, you learn how to change the title displayed by a Master Page for each content page. Finally, you learn how to load Master Pages dynamically. Loading Master Pages dynamically is useful when you need to co-brand one website with another website, or when you want to enable individual website users to customize the appearance of your website. |
