MasterPages and applying CSS to content pages

M

Mort Strom

Right now the header of my master page contains all of the CSS styles for
all of the pages that might be loaded in my ContentPlaceHolder. The problem
is that my <style> tag is getting too large to manage. I have 300 lines of
styles in my masterpage and I don't need all of this for every page --
somehow this can't be a smart way of managing styles.

How do I programmatically apply styles in my MasterPage based on the
ContentPlaceHolder page that's being shown?

Or another way to ask it - how do I apply styles to ContentPlaceHolder pages
since these pages cannot contain a <header> tag?

Thanks for any direction,
Mort
 
M

Mark Rae [MVP]

How do I programmatically apply styles in my MasterPage based on the
ContentPlaceHolder page that's being shown?

Or another way to ask it - how do I apply styles to ContentPlaceHolder
pages since these pages cannot contain a <header> tag?

Firstly, make sure you have runat="server" in the MasterPage's header tag
e.g.

<head runat="server">

</head>

Then, in the PageLoad event of the content page:

Style objStyle = new Style();
objStyle.ForeColor = System.Drawing.Color.Yellow;
Header.StyleSheet.CreateStyleRule(objStyle, null, "td");

or

HtmlLink objCSS = new HtmlLink();
objCSS.Attributes.Add("href", "~/css/DifferentStyle.css");
objCSS.Attributes.Add("rel", "stylesheet");
objCSS.Attributes.Add("type", "text/css");
Header.Controls.Add(objCSS);
 
M

Mort Strom

Well done! This is exactly the kind of solution I was looking for.
I'm new to MasterPages. Thank you
 
M

Mort Strom

If objPage1CSS is added to the Header for Content Page1.aspx, then
objPage2CSS added for Content Page2.aspx, will the Header tag retain Page1 &
2 CSS for subsequent pages (page3, page4, etc)?
 
B

BobF

Mort Strom said:
Right now the header of my master page contains all of the CSS styles for
all of the pages that might be loaded in my ContentPlaceHolder. The
problem is that my <style> tag is getting too large to manage. I have 300
lines of styles in my masterpage and I don't need all of this for every
page -- somehow this can't be a smart way of managing styles.

How do I programmatically apply styles in my MasterPage based on the
ContentPlaceHolder page that's being shown?

Or another way to ask it - how do I apply styles to ContentPlaceHolder
pages since these pages cannot contain a <header> tag?

Thanks for any direction,
Mort

Mort, I see you've been provided a rather elegant solution, but I'm curious
why not use a separate style sheet?

The site I'm working on now uses master pages and the style sheet linked to
the master is being applied to the content pages without any extra effort.
I'm asking because maybe there is something I can learn here.
 
M

Mark Rae [MVP]

If objPage1CSS is added to the Header for Content Page1.aspx, then
objPage2CSS added for Content Page2.aspx, will the Header tag retain Page1
& 2 CSS for subsequent pages (page3, page4, etc)?

The thing to realise about a MasterPage is that it's not a "page" in the way
that an aspx page is a "page" - in fact, a MasterPage is little more than a
UserControl... If the good folks who wrote ASP.NET had called them
LayoutControls instead of MasterPages, then this would have been obvious...
:)

You say that you are new to MasterPages, so maybe you're confusing them with
framesets...?

They are totally different...

When a content page is requested, ASP.NET uses the MasterPage to construct
the HTML which will eventually be streamed down to the client - it does this
every time... The MasterPage does not remain on screen or in memory when you
request a new content page...

So, every time you request a content page which needs extra styles, they
need to be added every time - that's why the code I gave you needs to go in
the content pages' code-behind, not the MasterPage's code-behind...
 
M

Mark Rae [MVP]

Mort, I see you've been provided a rather elegant solution, but I'm
curious why not use a separate style sheet?

The site I'm working on now uses master pages and the style sheet linked
to the master is being applied to the content pages without any extra
effort. I'm asking because maybe there is something I can learn here.

The OP had a single style sheet which was being referenced directly in his
MasterPage... However, this single stylesheet was becoming very large, and
not all of the content pages required all of the styles in the sheet...

Therefore, the solution I suggested allows him to break the stylesheet up
into several more manageable stylesheets which can then be referenced as
necessary by the content pages which need them...
 
B

BobF

Mark Rae said:
The OP had a single style sheet which was being referenced directly in his
MasterPage... However, this single stylesheet was becoming very large, and
not all of the content pages required all of the styles in the sheet...

Therefore, the solution I suggested allows him to break the stylesheet up
into several more manageable stylesheets which can then be referenced as
necessary by the content pages which need them...

Oh. I thought he had the style code embedded in the master page ...

Thanks.
 
M

Mort Strom

Indeed I was confusing MasterPages with framesets and your explanation has
cleared that up. Thanks again for helping bring MasterPages into clearer
focus.

On my way
Mort
 

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