How To Access Content From MasterPage in ASP.NET

Peter Kellner — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 16:41:28 +0000

So, you want to access some content from inside a page that you created from an existing master page? The most clean way to do this is to create a public property in your master page, then access that. In my case, I have a search button on a master page that I want to use from inside to pages that derive from that page. So, Here is how I declare my master page:

   1: <%@ Master Language="C#" MasterPageFile="~/MasterPages/MasterPage.Master" AutoEventWireup="true"

   2:     CodeBehind="ContactMasterPage.master.cs" Inherits="ThreePLogic.Web.ASPWeb.ContactPages.ContactMasterPage" %>

3:

   4: "Content5" ContentPlaceHolderID="ContentCenter" runat="server">

   5:         "TextBoxSearchName" runat="server" Width="200px" CssClass="InputText">

   6:         "ButtonSearchName" runat="server" CssClass="SearchBtn" />

7:

8:

In my codebind for my masterpage, I have the following:

       1: using System;

       2: using System.Web.UI;

       3: using System.Web.UI.WebControls;

       4: using ThreePLogic.Data.ThreePLogicAccess;

       5:  

       6: namespace ThreePLogic.Web.ASPWeb.ContactPages

       7: {

       8:     public partial class ContactMasterPage : MasterPage

       9:     {

      10:         public string SearchText

      11:         {

      12:             get

      13:             {

      14:                 TextBox textBoxSearch = Master.FindControl("ContentCenter").FindControl("TextBoxSearchName") as TextBox;

      15:                 if (textBoxSearch != null)

      16:                 {

      17:                     return textBoxSearch.Text;

      18:                 }

      19:                 else

      20:                 {

      21:                     return String.Empty;

      22:                 }

      23:                 

      24:             }

      25:         }

Then, in my page I derive from the masterpage I have the following. Notice that I include the masterpage type so I can have type safe access to the public property.

       1: <%@ Master Language="C#" MasterPageFile="~/ContactPages/ContactMasterPage.Master"

       2:     AutoEventWireup="true" CodeBehind="ContactCompanyMasterPage.master.cs" Inherits="ThreePLogic.Web.ASPWeb.ContactPages.ContactCompany.ContactCompanyMasterPage" %>

       3:  

       4: <%@ MasterType TypeName="ThreePLogic.Web.ASPWeb.ContactPages.ContactMasterPage" %>

       5:  

       6: "Content1" ContentPlaceHolderID="GridContent" runat="server">

       7:  

       8:     "LabelSearchMirror" runat="server" Text=""   Visible="false" >

Then, finally, in the codebehind, this is how I access my search box. In my case, I assign it to an invisible label, then I can have server side presentation controls, like GridView, access it as a select parameter.

       1: using System;

       2: using System.Web.UI;

       3: using System.Web.UI.WebControls;

       4: using ThreePLogic.Common.Enums;

       5: using ThreePLogic.Web.ASPWeb.Code;

       6:  

       7: namespace ThreePLogic.Web.ASPWeb.ContactPages.ContactCompany

       8: {

       9:     public partial class ContactCompanyMasterPage : MasterPage

      10:     {

      11:         protected void Page_PreRender(object sender, EventArgs e)

      12:         {

      13:             GridViewCompany.PageIndex = UserService.I.GetCookieSelectedId(CookieIdType.CompanyCurrentPage);

      14:             if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(Master.SearchText))

      15:             {

      16:                 LabelSearchMirror.Text = Master.SearchText;

      17:                 GridViewCompany.DataBind();

      18:             }

      19:         }

Good luck, and hope this helps!

PeterKellner.net » MasterPages

How To Access Content From MasterPage in ASP.NET