Question

I’m trying to figure out how an asp.net application is setting the MasterPageFile from a config file appSettings key like this:

<appSettings>
  <add key="MasterPageFile" value="~/Other.Master" >
</appSettings>

This causes it to ignore the Page directive’s MasterPageFile attribute in the .aspx files (which point to a different master page). I have searched through the whole solution and can’t find any ConfigurationManager or MasterPageFile calls that are loading this appSettings key. From what I understand, you would usually have to put this in a system.web section of a config file in a pages element with a masterPageFile attribute.

Anyway, how is it setting the master page from this appSettings key? Is there some other way to retrieve appSettings that I don’t know about?

Answer 1

MaserPage File can be set at page level or pre_init level. Setting it at config level will override your page settings so avoid it.