Well I now have a master page based template for a test Default.aspx page that is working fine and a nested master page test (version 10). Let's push our luck in version 11 to see if the nested master page works from a subdirectory.
Nested Master Subdirectory Test
The test seems to have gone off really well once we got past the issue with the link tags (for the second time *sigh*). The page works just as well in the subdirectory as the first (version 10). I'm especially pleased with the links and image references which was a last minute test that I threw in and back filled it to page 10 to see if it worked throughout the file structure. Check everything out below and then check out our template.
Between the two options we're going to go with the simpler and more reliable HTML Server Controls. I have much finer control over them than I do over formal ASP.NET web controls.
I'm also taking pages 10 and 11 moving the main and nested master pages they depend on. I don't want to clutter up the master page folder for all the sites with test files. So now that I've completed testing, I've moved those test master pages to the Master folder in the Beta website folder and am changing the references in 10 and 11 to match up with their new location. Just a note to acknowledge that the pages no longer test what they purport to be testing.
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Master Page Links
I had assumed that I would need to use forward slash references for all my links. I think this is still a basically sound way to do it, however, it will compromise my ability to test that links work on the development server. I should at least experiment with the ASP.NET linking options to see if that's an acceptable way of constructing master pages.
Try this html server Anchor control to get to master page 10. Here is an image html server control to dynamically reference image source.
Try this ASP.NET web server Hyperlink control to get to master page 10. Here is an ASP.NET image web server control to dynamically reference an image.
If this works as well as it did on master page test 10, and works on both the development box and the production server, we'll want to redo the master pages that the template plugs into. That will involve not only all the master pages in the AllSites folder but all the components as well to accommodate the new technique. Everything seems to work beautifully.
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