This question is somewhat vague, and I imagine there's no single "best" answer. But I welcome the experiences of others, and how they've approached similar issues.

The basic idea is, I like the idea of using Master Pages for my website, for things like the main logo and navigation. But with all but the simplest navigation, there will be individual customization on any given page. As a terribly simple example of what I mean, go to http://www.cnn.com. Navigate their various "tabs" along the top (Home, World, U.S., Politics, etc). When you click the tab, it brings you to that page, but the menu is altered slightly such that the current tab is highlighted. I'm not interested in the specific implementation of their website, it's just the concept I'm referring to.

So, the real question being put forth in this post is, what's the best way to approach the idea of Master Page content that has individual customization on a given page? From my limited investigation, I've got the following ideas. I don't know if one is better than the rest, or if there's a whole different method that's much better, but here they are:

1) Nested Master Pages

Let's say my website has a navigation menu with "Home", "Contact", "Pictures" and "Misc" as menu links. When you're on one of these pages, that menu option should be highlighted.  And for each of these topics, I want a different image displayed towards the top of the page. So, that's pretty simple. The approach here would be to create a Master Page that contains ContentPlaceholders for the areas that might change. So, in the Master Page, there would be a full layout, with several ContentPlaceholders, with default contents for each of the menu buttons, as well as the image area. In general, just using this Master Page would produce a good looking page, with no customization. But now I make another Master Page that uses the first Master Page, and I override the contents of the ContentPlaceholders. So, on the "Home" Master Page, I'd override the contents of "ContentPlaceHolder_Home", for example, with a button that uses a different CSS class, so that the menu button will be highlighted.

That's just a simple idea. The bad thing about it is that VS 2005 doesn't offer Design mode when using Nested Master Pages. I've seen the hack to get around it, and wondered if it was the best way to go, or if that was sloppy.

2) Accessing Master Page data in the Content page

In this case, I'd have a Control in the Master Page, which handles all the settings for the menu and the page image. The Content page would use the Master page, and would programatically, on Page_Load, modify certain values. This idea seems simple enough, but it feels a little sloppy, since every page using the Master Page would need the extra code to handling custom preferences.

3) Accessing Content Page data in the Master Page

This is kind of the reverse of the 2nd example. In this case, I'd create a custom control, which is used in the Content page. It might be something like this:

<MyPrefix:MyControl ID="ctrl1" runat="server"
    highlight="Home"
    menuImage="banner_2.png"
/>

Then, the Master Page would check for a MyControl object when it's loaded, and override its contents if it finds one. This means that setting up a new page is fairly simple, registering and calling just a single control, which informs the Master Page on what to do. I'm leaning towards this one, just for the simplicity of it.

Anyway, those are my ideas. Is there a very different way of going about things in this manner? I'm interested in what others have done with this sort of thing.

-Dan 

Most of the navigation controls allow you to set the "selected" node.  Each selected item property can have a specific style set applied to it.  there is no need to set it at the content page level.  The code or control on the master page handles it.  the page load event of the master page can check which child page is loaded and do something to one of the controls on the master page.  The master page can have default content in a contentplace holder.   Individual pages can override the content in these contenet place holders.  Given this, why "customize" the way master pages work?  Try basing your menu on a web.sitemap using a sitemap datasource and you won't have to code anything, but will still get selected items.  Just style the selected item for color changes.

--JJ

Hi,

dgoyette:

2) Accessing Master Page data in the Content page

In this case, I'd have a Control in the Master Page, which handles all the settings for the menu and the page image. The Content page would use the Master page, and would programatically, on Page_Load, modify certain values. This idea seems simple enough, but it feels a little sloppy, since every page using the Master Page would need the extra code to handling custom preferences.

About the accessing the master page data in the content page, there are two menthod:

1. You can use the findcontrol method to get the master page's controls. there is a master property in the page object, it can implement to refer the master page.

2.You also can use the mastertype commond to access the master page's propertyhttp://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms228274.aspx  )

dgoyette:

3) Accessing Content Page data in the Master Page

This is kind of the reverse of the 2nd example. In this case, I'd create a custom control, which is used in the Content page. It might be something like this:

<MyPrefix:MyControl ID="ctrl1" runat="server"
    highlight="Home"
    menuImage="banner_2.png"
/>

Then, the Master Page would check for a MyControl object when it's loaded, and override its contents if it finds one. This means that setting up a new page is fairly simple, registering and calling just a single control, which informs the Master Page on what to do. I'm leaning towards this one, just for the simplicity of it.

About Accessing Content Page data in the Master Page, you also can try to refer a base class that inherit the System.Web.UI.page class without the aspx file.

You can make the content page inherit this base class and override the functions and the properties. and you need to set the functions and the properties are virtual, the content page can bind these functions and properties, so you can access the content page data in the master page.

Below is a sample:

1. Define a base class inherit from the system.web.ui.page without the aspx file, only is a cs file.

BasePage.cs?
public class BasePage :Page
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Output the welcome message of each content page, the content page need to inherit this function and override it, and this function can be called on the   master page.
    /// </summary>
    public virtual string SayHello()
    {
        return "This welcome message is return by the base page class!";
    }
}

2.The content page inherit the BasePage class, and override the functions.

Default.aspx.cs:
//Please notice, the page must  inherit the BasePage class

public partial class Template_Default : BasePage
//override the welcome function

    public override string SayHello()
    {
        return "This is the content page welcome message?";
    }

3. Access the content page data on the master page.

BasePage currentPage = null;
    protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        currentPage = Page as BasePage;
    }

    protected void CallContentMethod_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        if (currentPage != null)
        {
            welcomeMessage.Text = currentPage.SayHello();
        }
    }

Hope it helps.