How to share Master pages, .net 3.5 using Visual Studio

[Guest]

I have a main application that has a master page, and I want other
applications to use that master page so that when the main application
master page is altered, the other applications are automatically altered
also. However, my secondary application does not let me choose a master
page that is not located in the same folder, how would I select a master
page that is in another application, or can I? Kind of like when we used to
use frames...

 

[Hillbilly]

Mark noted one way to cope but I suggest another approach.

Keep your "master" copy of the MasterPage files on your local development
machine. Get a copy of one of the free tools Microsoft makes available to
synchronize files between a target and a source location. SyncToy and other
tools that synchronize files can be used. Vista Sync center supports sync
natively for example and the use of IIS 7 is really the only reason worth
using Vista as IIS 7 supports multiple websites on a single machine.

I haven't used this sync method myself --yet-- as I don't have multiple
sites that need to share MasterPage(s) but I did learn about this approach
from other developers using sync as a replacement for XCopy deployment. Its
the first way I would consider trying to skin this cat...

 

[Guest]

I do not see how using source safe would work; this is what I tried:

I created a Main application with the master page in it, checked it into
source safe
I created a SubApp application and checked it into source safe.

So my source safe and workfolders paths are as follow\:
/myDepartment
/Main
myMainMaster...
/SubApp
myMainMaster (shared)

I dragged the master pages from /Main to /SubApp so now there is a shared
myMasterFiles

I checked out SubApp, created a content page form and the error I get is
that Main.myMainMaster cannot be found because of the page
Inherits=Main.myMainMaster. I can't change this because when I check it
back in, it will also check it into the Main folder and will be incorrect
for another application.

So what am I not understanding? Thanks so much for your help.