Question

I have an ASP.NET application that uses a master page configuration. What I’d like to do is two things.

1. How can I programmically set the title in the child page (as in the text in the <title></title> tags? And,

2. If the child page does not set the title, I’d like the master page to automatically detect this and set a default title.

Any help would be appreciated.

Answer 1

you can have your pages inherit from a custom page

public abstract class CustomPage : Page 
{ 
   public virtual string PageTitle {get{return String.Empty;}}
}

Then, in your MasterPage’s Page_Load, do ( can’t remember if MasterPage.Title exists or if you’ll have to do Page.Title, which will work since both objects are Page objects):

   if(Page is CustomPage) {    
      this.Page.Title = ((CustomPage)Page).PageTitle;
   } else {
      this.Page.Title = "Default Title";
   }

Then, when you create a Page, for instance a CustomerManager page:

public partial class CustomerManager : CustomPage
{
   public override string PageTitle { get{return "Customer Manager"; }}
}

This way, your MasterPage isn’t 100% tied to using CustomPage (creating normal Pages won’t throw an error). And, if you use CustomPage objects, you’re all set!