Question

I have a page that has a around 30 links divided among 6 groups.

Boat
 a
 b
 c
Horses
 d
 e

... etc

When the user clicks the link the page will display a series of controls (dropdown, htmltable, chart) in a layout specific only to the link that was clicked.

I have a few ideas:

1. Create separate aspx pages for each link that share the same master page (about 30 aspx pages). Advantage: design/layout is easy. Disadvantage: 30 aspx pages
2. Determine if any links use the the same layout and create a common page with place holder controls
3. Dynamically load controls/css etc onto the page.

So a few questions:

1. Are any of these good approaches?
2. What are some alternative approaches?

Thanks

Answer 1

Certainly think twice before creating one monster page. It can become a real maintenance nightmare.

Just because you have 30 aspx pages does not mean you have to repeat yourself. Structure common functionality into reusable controls. Maintenance isn’t so bad.