Does anyone have an opinion on the value of Master Pages?

[Dwight Johnson]

I am attempting to use Master Pages in a new website, and finding it
troublesome. I also do not see a lot of entries in this group
regarding them or their components, such as ContentPlaceHolders.

So my question is: do I really want to invest the time to learn Master
Page technology, or not? Does anyone have an opinion on this (silly
question?)

Dwight

 

[Mark Rae [MVP]]

So my question is: do I really want to invest the time to learn Master
Page technology, or not? Does anyone have an opinion on this (silly
question?)

I find them incredibly useful and time-saving, both for initial development
and subsequent maintenance...

 

[cfps.Christian]

I am attempting to use Master Pages in a new website, and finding it
troublesome. I also do not see a lot of entries in this group
regarding them or their components, such as ContentPlaceHolders.

So my question is: do I really want to invest the time to learn Master
Page technology, or not? Does anyone have an opinion on this (silly
question?)

Dwight

When I first started with master pages I didn't understand the concept
but now that I do I find master pages easier to use than normal
pages. Its nice having a main page with all the information in one
location and simply modifying the content in the placeholder to alter
the page. With ASP we have to write an include, frames, or write the
code in every page to get the look to be the same on all the pages.

 

[John Timney \(MVP\)]

Tremendous time saver, but you gotta invest the time to understand how they
tick. Once you do - you'll use them every time.

Regards

John Timney (MVP)
http://www.johntimney.com
http://www.johntimney.com/blog

 

[Brian Simmons]

I second John's statement. I couldn't live without them now. A little bit
of time to get used (day or two), but wouldn't go back for anything now.

I found the ASP.net 2.0 Unleashed from Sams chapter on the subject matter to
be the key in my understanding.

They're really nothing more than a user control which MS "built-in" to the
product.

 

[Dwight Johnson]

Thank you Mark, Christian, John, and Brian. Looks like Master Pages
are a good thing.

 

[Mark Rae [MVP]]

Looks like Master Pages are a good thing.

Indeed.

One word of caution, though... if you're new to MasterPages, make sure you
don't make the "classic" incorrect assumption that they are somehow the
ASP.NET equivalent of framesets - they are nothing like framesets at all,
even though the end result may look similar to framesets...

In fact, a MasterPage is nothing more than a UserControl...

 

[.]

The only problem I have with Master Pages is the convoluted way we must
reference controls and other objects using early or late binding
methodologies. The late bound FindControl method is usually very convoluted
to use with Master Pages and writing public properties for every object in
the entire application that must be found to derive the benefits of having
been early bound is tedious and imposes a lot of needless work and
maintenance.

As I understand its all due to the way the control tree hierarchy is built
as the page is compiled. Fine, however Scott Gu allowed his team to slip on
quality here really early in the design of Master Pages (probably ASP.NET
itself) which is no surprise here with deadlines and so on --but-- they put
out a half-assed implementation that is clumsy to use programmatically more
often than not.

What's even worse --to me-- is everything in 2.0 has no become bastard
stepchildren once 3.0 and 3.5 have been released and I see no care or
concern for them to clean up the trash and litter their design imposes on
applications.

The release of 3.0 should have had a class unique to this particular
concern. When I am around PHP and Java developers I have to eat crow and
listen to their shit because they know what trash ASP.NET was and remains in
this and related contexts.

For me personally, I understand how things get done --but-- while we all
agree to allow the dog to go shit in the backyard that is not to say a
responsible home owner leaves the dog shit laying around for everybody else
to step in while all that beautiful grass goes unused for fear of stepping
in the dog shit and smelling like ca-ca.

Thanks Mr. Gu

<%= Clinton