VS2005 Masterpages - predefine controls inside ContentPlaceHolder?

[Urs Eichmann]

Hello,
I want to define a MasterPage which already has some asp:Textbox and other
controls defined inside a ContentPlaceHolder. The idea is that the user of
the master page just changes two or three properties of these "predefined"
controls and has everything right in place. I realize I could program an
ASCX or Webcontrol instead and let the users put that on the page
themselves. But I would prefer if it was already predefined in the master
page, because the controls would be in the right place already.

It seems like I cannot put any constrols inside a ContentPlaceHolder. What
else could I do to achieve my desired result, in a way it is as easy and
fool-proof as possible? Note that the users work with VWD 2005, so I cannot
use Enterpise Templates or such.

Thanks for any ideas,
Urs

 

[Scott Allen]

Is there a way you can place those TextBox controls in the master page
itself?

Then you could expose the TextBox controls as properties of the master
page, and in the Page_Load for the aspx web form the programmer could
just grab a reference to the master page (this.Master or Me.Master),
cast it to the actual type of the master page, and set some properties
via the TextBox properties the master page exposes.

 

[Guest]

How do you "cast it to the actual type of the master page"? Could you please
provide an example? I've tried to make a public property of a textbox on the
master page and read the value from a content page, but I'm baffled!
Thanks much,
David