ASP page design?

[Chris]

I've got a master page which creates the templates for all my other pages which i then just enter in text basically. However, I need some content to be constant across some pages but not others, so the easiest method i could think of was having a master page still, and having a place holder (or the equivalent of) which links to a single file, containing all the information for that place holder. However, this would need to be picked up by the actual pages loading.

To try and explain, my case is i have a basic website, with different adds and pictures dotted around. This template will be created by the master page. However, my navigation links need to change depending on what section they are in, so to do this i was going to have a few seperate files which contain the information for the different links, and then just have this appear in the master page.

Hopefully ive explained this well enoguh for someone to understand! Help very much appreciated!
In reply to GintrichsGotWood:

The idea of multiples master pages would be nice, however this would mean if i ever changed the overall layout i would need to do this numerous times, something which i was hoping to avoid! (As is kind of the idea of a master page). So in a sense i need a master page embedded in a master page, unless this is what you meant if so how is this done??

[U Can't Handle The Truth]

if your using asp you can load different menus depending on the page. Create a database table that contain menu items and the page location or content location. When the page loads it know what data to retrieve, hence displaying the appropriate menu items. Your main template will contain the logic for the menu.

I would, myself, put the page content in the data base. This way you dont have to create a page for each topic. you would just use one page and all the data would be dynamic. SQL Databases can store pictures as binary so you can do it.

[Don M]

if the content is static, you might look at #includes as a way of loading the different bits that don't change. That way you don't have to worry about who inherits what template.

The trade-off is that this doesn't work with dynamic content, and I'm not sure how well it works with frames.

Just a thought.

[youngboy1606]

Take a look at the menu control that is used in most VS '05/'08 ASP.NET sites

[GintrichsGotWood]

It might be easier to use multiple master pages that way you're not duplicating code on each page. I would copy the original masterpage file, paste it and rename it. Then change the desired navigational info.

After that in the aspx file for each page change to the masterpage reference to the appropriate file.