Creating a website template that does not depend on the source code in asp.net web formats

Question

Im runs on an e-commerce platform that supports multiple stores in different domains. The backend is completed (for now), and now I'm starting the input part. Since the platform supports several stores, I need some kind of template system, and I did not quite understand what the best way to do this.

These are my requirements:

• I do not want to rebuild my decision to add a new template
• Templates are stored in / Templates / TemplateDirectoryName
• I want to use (predefined) user controls inside templates.
• I use URL routing and have only 1 Default.aspx page that controls which page template and additional code to load.

This is what I came up with:

• In my templates directory, I have templates created using master pages (main page of the main page, default main file and submaster files that link to the default main file ... for product description, browsing, searching, etc. )
• My Default.aspx page selects the correct template based on routing values

Although this method works, I do not think it is very practical, but the more I think about it, the more I come to the conclusion that there are not many other options to get around this. I think this is what I want to ask: is there a way to use custom elements in the template and is it completely separate the template from the application so that users can create templates without worrying about the namespace and site structure?

Regards, Mark

Answer 1

Since you are referencing the template folder, would it not be possible to simply change the .aspx files in the folder and asp.net will select the template based on the URL you specify? I think this is possible in asp.net.
In addition, concepts such as DotNetNuke, Sharepoint, Joomla, etc., have a similar concept. You can use their functions.

Answer 2

My suggested solution is below. It has several limitations, since all master pages must implement the same set of bookmark controls (not surprisingly). Take a look and let me know what you think.

I set up the folder structure as follows:

Website -> Templates -> TemplateFolder (named the same as the template)
Website → Templates → UserControls (user controls are stored in a folder that does not contain templates)

I defined a simple Template configuration class that we can save / save / load basic template decryption:

public class Template { public string TemplateName { get; set; } public string UserControlName { get; set; } public string MasterPageName { get; set; } public string TemplateFolder { get { return GetTemplateFolder(TemplateName); } } public string TemplateConfigFile { get { return GetTemplateConfigFile(TemplateName); } } private static string GetTemplateFolder(string name) { return HttpContext.Current.Server.MapPath("~/Templates/" + name + "/"); } private static string GetTemplateConfigFile(string name) { return GetTemplateFolder(name) + "/" + name + ".config"; } public Template() { } public void Save() { XmlSerializer xs = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Template)); if (!Directory.Exists(TemplateFolder)) Directory.CreateDirectory(TemplateFolder); using (FileStream fs = File.OpenWrite(TemplateConfigFile)) { xs.Serialize(fs, this); } } public static Template Load(string name) { if(!File.Exists(GetTemplateConfigFile(name))) return null; XmlSerializer xs = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Template)); using (FileStream fs = File.OpenRead(GetTemplateConfigFile(name))) { Template t = (Template)xs.Deserialize(fs); return t; } } } 

You can create some kind of bare xml code to get started by running the code below:

  Template t1 = new Template() { TemplateName = "Template1", MasterPageName = "Child1.master", UserControlName = "uc1.ascx" }; Template t2 = new Template() { TemplateName = "Template2", MasterPageName = "Child2.master", UserControlName = "uc2.ascx" }; t1.Save(); t2.Save(); 

I created a basic homepage. This page will probably never be used, except to provide your default page with basic placeholders. All your master pages must have the same set of placeholders as your base so that your pages can use them all interchangeably. Notice that I left the placeholder for our user control.

 <%@ Master Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeFile="BaseMaster.master.cs" Inherits="Templates_Masters_BaseMaster" %> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <head runat="server"> <title></title> <asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="head" runat="server"> </asp:ContentPlaceHolder> </head> <body> <form id="form1" runat="server"> <div> <asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="cphHeader" runat="server"> </asp:ContentPlaceHolder> <asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="cpUserControl" runat="server"> </asp:ContentPlaceHolder> <asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="cphFooter" runat="server"> </asp:ContentPlaceHolder> </div> </form> </body> </html> 

Now I am creating a basic aspx webpage that uses the above main page.

 <%@ Page Title="" Language="C#" MasterPageFile="~/Templates/Masters/BaseMaster.master" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeFile="DefaultTemplated.aspx.cs" Inherits="DefaultTemplated" %> <asp:Content ID="Content1" ContentPlaceHolderID="head" Runat="Server"> </asp:Content> <asp:Content ID="Content2" ContentPlaceHolderID="cphHeader" Runat="Server"> </asp:Content> <asp:Content ID="Content3" ContentPlaceHolderID="cpUserControl" Runat="Server"> </asp:Content> <asp:Content ID="Content4" ContentPlaceHolderID="cphFooter" Runat="Server"> </asp:Content> 

In the code we will install the basic patterns. This sets up the master page and adds a predefined user control to the content placeholder for custom controls. If you would like, you could just do a panel or something else and add it to this fixed control, but I thought you could appreciate how to make it work with master pages.

 public partial class DefaultTemplated : System.Web.UI.Page { private Template PageTemplate { get { if (_tLoaded == null) { string template = Request.QueryString["template"]; if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(template)) return null; Template t = Template.Load(template); _tLoaded = t; } return _tLoaded; } } private Template _tLoaded = null; protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e) { if (PageTemplate != null) { //cpUserControl is the name of my usercontrol placeholder ((ContentPlaceHolder)Page.Form.FindControl("cpUserControl")).Controls.Add( Page.LoadControl("~/Templates/UserControls/" + PageTemplate.UserControlName)); } } protected void Page_PreInit(object sender, EventArgs e) { if (PageTemplate == null) return; this.MasterPageFile = "~/Templates/" + PageTemplate.TemplateName + "/" + PageTemplate.MasterPageName; } } 

If you have a template named "Template1", you can use it by calling "Default.aspx? Template = Template1". Since you are using URL rewriting, you must use rewriting to pass the template name as a parameter to the page.

Another option that could be combined with the above would be to use Page.ParseControl. Using this, you can save your raw asp.net developer code (designer only) in a database or in a raw text file. Then you can create an instance to load it as follows:

 //where pnl1 is a Panel on the page. Page.ParseControl just returns a control object, so use it anywhere. pnl1.Controls.Add(Page.ParseControl("raw asp.net designer code here.")); 

One great thing is that nested controls work great.

Answer 3

I do not know if I understand correctly:

If you do not want to rebuild, I can say that the concept of CMS is best for you.

• You can store your templates as HTML in a database, or from a database that you can return,
• You can provide administrator functionality with an editor to modify your template online.