I have a masthead user control (see below) in a master page.  The user control has a label control in it.  In the past I had the user control in each of my pages and I would pass a value to the usercontol as part of the control definition.  That value then was used as the text of the label.  I'm trying to use a master page now and have the user control be a part of the master page instead of added to each individual page.  My question is, how do I pass a value to the user control from my individual pages (that use the master page)?

namespace CCdotNet
{
    public partial class masthead : System.Web.UI.UserControl
    {
        private string m_title = string.Empty;
        public string pageTitle
        {
            get { pageTitle = m_title; return pageTitle; }
            set { m_title = value; }
        }

        protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            if (!Page.IsPostBack)
            {
                this.lblPageTitle.Text = this.m_title;
            }
        }
    }
}

What I have done in the past is have a base class for my master pages. Then they all inherit from this.

Then each content page has a reference to the base class too, now in the page load of the content page, you can set the shared property of the master page.

Then in the Master page load, you can read those properties to the user control. ie;

In you App_Code you have this  class;

public class BaseWebUIMasterPage : MasterPage

}

Then in each content page, have this in the top

<%@ MasterType TypeName="BaseWebUIMasterPage" %>

Then in the page load of each content page, you can access the property Master.MastHeadTitle = "my page title"

And in the master page it will set the control value.

We find this really extensable.

Hth,

Cheers,

Steve

Hi, this is an easy one!

 If you are within a usercontrol, that resides inside a page, which in turn uses a masterpage with say a Label called Label1, then you can use the code below to change the text on the label on this masterpage as shown below (tested this just now so it works!)

            if (this.Page.Master != null)
            {
                Label lbl = (Label)this.Page.Master.FindControl("Label1");
                lbl.Text = "Hello World!";
            }

Now! If you are not within a user control, but rather in a page that is using a masterpage, then your code will look a little different: 

            if (this.Form.Parent != null)
            {
                Label lbl = (Label) this.Form.Parent.FindControl("Label1");
                lbl.Text = "Hello World!";
            }

Steve I get an error when I run the page.  I created an app_code folder and added the class.

Parser Error Message: Could not load type 'BaseWebUIMasterPage'.

Source Error:

Line 1:  <%@ Page Language="C#" MasterPageFile="~/ccdotnet.Master" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeBehind="index.aspx.cs" Inherits="CCdotNet.index" Title="Untitled Page" %>
Line 2:  <%@ MasterType TypeName="BaseWebUIMasterPage" %>
Line 3:  
Line 4:  

------------------------------------------------
 for master page:

using System.Configuration;
using System.Collections;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.Security;
using System.Web.UI;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts;
using System.Web.UI.HtmlControls;

namespace CCdotNet
{
    public partial class ccdotnet : BaseWebUIMasterPage

That would be your namespace there at a quick guess!

<%@ MasterType TypeName="CCdotnet.BaseWebUIMasterPage" %>

 OK, I took the namespace entry out of the class definition for BaseWebUIMasterPage and it works now.  Thanks!!!

The solution above only works when I use a namespace on all of my code behind files.  If I don't use a namespace for my code behind I get the error below.  Is there something I can do so I don't have to use namespace?

Exception Details: System.InvalidCastException: Unable to cast object of type 'ASP.ccdotnet_master' to type 'BaseWebUIMasterPage'.

Source Error:

Line 28:     public new BaseWebUIMasterPage Master {
Line 29:         get {
Line 30:             return ((BaseWebUIMasterPage)(base.Master));
Line 31:         }
Line 32:     }

[InvalidCastException: Unable to cast object of type 'ASP.ccdotnet_master' to type 'BaseWebUIMasterPage'.]
   coding.get_Master() in c:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\Temporary ASP.NET Files\ccdotnet\28ad3fa4\9c5171ef\App_Web_coding.aspx.cdcab7d2.bivua_p9.0.cs:30
   coding.Page_Load(Object sender, EventArgs e) in c:\Inetpub\wwwroot\ccdotnet\coding.aspx.cs:16
   System.Web.Util.CalliHelper.EventArgFunctionCaller(IntPtr fp, Object o, Object t, EventArgs e) +15
   System.Web.Util.CalliEventHandlerDelegateProxy.Callback(Object sender, EventArgs e) +34
   System.Web.UI.Control.OnLoad(EventArgs e) +99
   System.Web.UI.Control.LoadRecursive() +47
   System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequestMain(Boolean includeStagesBeforeAsyncPoint, Boolean includeStagesAfterAsyncPoint) +1061

I found my problem.  There was a dll for my namespace in the bin directory.  I deleted it and removed the namespace entries from all my code and all is well.