create a base class for all of your pages

in the base class you can implement this code in the OnInIt method or in the Page_Load, if you do this in Page_Load you would need to call the base class each time

I don't know what this looks like in vb.net but in c# it something like

public class PageBase : System.Web.UI.Page
{
  public void OnPageLoad(Object sender, System.EventArgs e)
  {
     // your theme loading code goes here
  }
}

// the rest of your pages
public class SomePage : PageBase
{
  public void Page_Load(Object sender, System.EventArgs e)
  {
    base.OnPageLoad(sender, e);

    // the rest of your page specific code
  }  
}

It is better if you put this in OnInIt as then it will happen 'automatically' and you will not have to call base.OnPageLoad (i guess this is MyBase in vb.net)

another way to do it if you don't want to get into inheritance
create a Util object

public class Util
{
  public static void LoadTheme(System.Web.UI.Page page, HttpContext.Current.User user)
  {
    // load your theme  
  }
}

// the rest of your pages
public class SomePage : System.Web.UI.Page
{
  public void Page_Load(Object sender, System.EventArgs e)
  {
    Util.LoadTheme(this, User);

    // the rest of your page specific code
  }  
}

Personally I use an HttpModule, for two reasons.

1. If a Theme is a global feature, applied to every page, then it should be applied at the global level, not the page level.

2. You don't have to create a base class and modify the inheritance of each page class. Especially useful when developing sites and adding new pages.

This is actually really easy to do. Here's the module I use (C#, but I have a VB version if anyone needs it):

using System;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.UI;

namespace ipona.Web.GlobalEvents
{
  public class ThemeModule : IHttpModule
  {
    public void Init(HttpApplication context)
    {
      context.PreRequestHandlerExecute +=
       new EventHandler(this.app_PreRequestHandlerExecute);
    }

    private void app_PreRequestHandlerExecute(object Sender, EventArgs E)
    {
      Page p = HttpContext.Current.Handler as Page;
      if (p != null)
      {
        ProfileCommon pb = (ProfileCommon)HttpContext.Current.Profile;
        p.Theme = pb.Theme;
      }
    }

    public void Dispose()
    {
    }
  }
}

This assumes the Theme is stored in a Profile property called Theme. Then add the module in web.config:

    <httpModules>
      <add name="Page" type="ipona.Web.GlobalEvents.ThemeModule" />
    </httpModules>

The great thing about this is that once plugged in you don't have to do anything else.

Simon - if this is a 'bad' thing to do then do let me know.

Dave

Dynamically, for global settings, there are a number of ways of doing it and depending upon situation and avoiding a base page might make sense. In the module manner all pages get this behavior, which could be locally overriden I guess, using a base page class means that you can avoid that I suppose .. :)

You could do your global work in global.asax, using the same code listed in the previous post, in say Application_Start and avoid having a new module and config entries..