the site that I'm working at is designed in a such way that CSS class is set for the tag on all the pages and the css classes used are different for all pages. Each page has common elements such as a header, a footer and a nav bar. I'd like to set up a single page template and include all common elements there but the body tag stands in the way. Is there a way to control a template from a content page? I know I can specify a code behind for content pages but i can't rely on content authors to enter it correctly each time they add a page. My current thinking is to set up multiple page template, one for each css class that is referenced in the body tag and put the common page elements into user controls. This is less than ideal because I will end up with lots of mostly identical templates and my user controls would not be editable easily. I guess I would have to use shared content items and such making the content authors hunt all over the site. I would have been much simpler to update the common header in a single page template.
Can someone please suggest a way?
I submitted a reply in the Sitefinity forums where you originally posted this, but just in case you check here first I'll ask the same question: how is the css class for body determined?
if it can be done programmatically you can use the code-behind of the Master Page for the template to set it so that it's handled automatically.
If this won't work, tell me more about how the css class is assigned and I will try to come up with an alternative.
hope this is helpful!
Related
Inherited a Sitefinity website. There's a news list page, which I discovered is reused by the news detail pages to display content. If I update the list page, the changes are reflected on the detail pages.
Sometimes.
I have a content block that contains a "header" text - updating this in the list page is replicated across the details pages. Adding a javascript widget to the page to inject some custom javascript replicates across the details pages as well.
Adding a new content block or css widget does not replicate across the details pages.
Is there some rhyme or reason to this behavior that I'm missing?
My specifics:
I've successfully created widgets in the MVC several times now. I essentially need to add a new widget to just the news pages. Which seemed simple enough until I discovered that news pages are not individually created pages like... well, pages... but instead are just a content piece that is dynamically inserted in the news widget on the "parent" listing page. At least as far as I can tell that's how it appears to be working.
Adding my widget to the page didn't work, as I explained above. I then tried recreating it in the page itself using javascript, content block, and css widgets, at which time I discovered that the javascript is the only one making it to the details pages. I imagine this has to do with the way javascript widgets actually make it to the page - their placement is selected in advanced options, rather than simply appearing inline.
Sitefinity widgets go beyond presentation, and actually control routing.
As such content widgets (baseline or custom) have two 'modes' that they operate in: list and detail. Slugs for details are automatically generated in the following format.
/News
/News/{News-item-slug}
Of course, a list and a detail should look very different. To accommodate that, the widgets have two separate configurable templates.
So, add your custom html and javascript to the appropriate template to have it only apply in a given mode.
I have a page where there are about 30 links and those links would have similar page except for a few contents changed(there is also pictuures). Now is there an efficient way to do that without repeating the codes and repeated nestings of the codes. thank you.
Using plain HTML you won't be able to do this.
The most straightforward way to do it, I think, is using server-side scripting to implement a rendering template. You could then have a default "main" template with everything those 30 pages have in common and then in each of those pages use the main template and load the custom content.
So if you want to modify something in the main template you'd only have to modify the main.html (or whatever you called it) page and not each of the 30 pages.
See this.
Is there a way to set the page's title and some other meta tags after processing the page's body where the appropriate information will be (after db queries)
I know that it can be done via javascript but this is not seo friendly, and it will fail if noscript. so it must be done server-side.
The best way is php but my page structure is a full page that includes the main content with php include (pseudo frames). and because the main content is after the page's title, we cannot call the variable containing the page title before creating it.
any suggestions please?
Thanks.
JS is definitively not the way here, it'll be ignored by search engines.
In php, you have to use a template language to be more flexible and put the title wherever you want. Smarty is a popular one. Doc on Smarty
I'm building a website with very small amounts of Javascript, just to add things to the page (like a contact form) without having to go to a new page.
I understand that I should build the contact page anyways (just in case the user doesn't have javascript turned on) and then use javascript if they've got it.
So where do I store the HTML for the form if I don't want to have it in two places?
(Normally I'm not so picky, but I'm curious on this one.)
If you have access to a server-side language, you can keep a separate snippet of the form in an external page. Then, you can include the snippet into the HTML content page with an appropriate include call. This has the added benefit that, for your JavaScript, you can pull the contact form from this snippet file using AJAX. In fact, many plugins allow you to display DHTML windows with HTML content. For example, check out ThickBox.
Without a server-side language, you can do something similar with frames. Just display the form snippet in a frame when you need to reference it. Personally, I don't like frames very much, so this isn't a very attractive solution for me, but you can use it if you choose (and style the frames appropriately).
Just put your HTML for the contact form in a .html file. Assuming you're using PHP or something, just include the file in your contact page and include it in the section for your dynamic contact form. The form should still submit to the same server-side page and have the same look and feel..
e.g. contactForm.html
<div class="contact-form">
<input ....>
</div>
I have a huge website (containing around 5000+) pages. There is a theme functionality in the website where user can choose different colors for their profile. Now i want to use the ASP.net theme feature and put different CSS (for different colors) in the theme folder and in Global.asax i want check the user theme and render appropriate link element with the css. But my problem is, i am not able to access the Page element for adding the link in the page.
Here is my code
Dim page As System.Web.UI.Page = TryCast(System.Web.HttpContext.Current.Handler,System.Web.UI.Page)
page.StyleSheetTheme = "Black"
But when i run this code I get a Null reference error.
P.s : My application is very huge so its not possible to have a master page or a base class and inherit it in every page.
Please suggest.
The page is not available in PreRequestExecute. This function is called before asp.net steps in to handle things, and asp.net is responsible for the page. Think of PreRequestExecute as being earlier in the scheme of things, like when IIS is first trying to figure out what to do with this thing it has, the thing is not even a page yet.
You might want to look into some of the other events that you can hook, there are events that would take place after the page has loaded that may allow you to do what you are suggesting.
Rather than going into global.asax for this, consider using master pages. One possibility is to have nested master pages, where the first master page sets up overall layout, and the nested master handles the theme. (Or one of several nested master pages, all referencing the same top-level master page). If necessary, you can use the PreInit event in the page to change master pages, and select the master that matches your theme selection.
You can centralize this function by having your own class that inherits System.Web.UI.Page, and have all your own pages inherit this new class. Handle the PreInit event there. (As well as other useful functions, like page-level handling of unhandled exceptions, general security issues, etc.
EDITED TO ADD: As #aepheus correctly notes, the page hasn't been instantiated at the PreRequestHandlerExecute event. So there's no page class you can access.