query regarding the master page in asp.net/C#/visual studio 2008 - asp.net

Question

I want to have 4 links in the sidebar of master page which every other form (content page) in my web application inherits.
<table>
<tr>
<td width= "150px">
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder ID="ContentPlaceHolder1" runat="server">
<asp:Menu runat="server" ID="MainMenu1" CssClass="MasterContent" StaticSubMenuIndent="30px">
<Items>
<asp:MenuItem Text="My Software" NavigateUrl="~/MySoftware.aspx"></asp:MenuItem>
<asp:MenuItem Text="Check Out" NavigateUrl="~/CheckOut.aspx"></asp:MenuItem>
<asp:MenuItem Text="View Shopping Cart" NavigateUrl="~/ShoppingCart.aspx"></asp:MenuItem>
<asp:MenuItem Text="Continue Shopping" NavigateUrl="~/Start.aspx"></asp:MenuItem>
</Items>
</asp:Menu>
</asp:ContentPlaceHolder>
</td>
<td width="900px">
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder ID="ContentPlaceHolder2" runat="server">
</asp:ContentPlaceHolder>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
This is the content in the master page as you can see there are 4 menu items i tried to form as sidebar and i tried to inherit in home.aspx(one of the content pages) as follows:
<%# Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeBehind="Start.aspx.cs" Inherits="WebStore._Start"
MasterPageFile="~/Webstore.Master" %>
<asp:Content ID="StartSideBar" runat="server" ContentPlaceHolderID="ContentPlaceHolder1">
But unfortunately the sidebar is not at all getting displayed. I know i'm doing fundamentally wrong some where. My intention is to have web pages to have sidebar like this. It is a screenshot of my intended page.
Can some one guide me through this.
Thanks in anticipation

Answer 1

The way you have it set up, your home.aspx file is clobbering your menu links because it is defining the content of ContentPlaceholder1 to be empty (or something else at any rate), which is overriding the menu links you put in your MasterPage inside the same content holder. The way MasterPages and content pages work is that the MasterPage defines a location (a ContentPlaceholder) for the content page (e.g., home.aspx) to load content into. But you have put actual content you want to keep inside a ContentPlaceholder on your MasterPage--which means that any content page (again, like home.aspx) that defines content for ContentPlaceholder1 (like you do with StartSideBar) is going to override anything defined inside ContentPlaceholder1 on the MasterPage--in this case, your menu links.
If you want your menu links to remain constant on every content page, then you should move them out of ContentPlaceholder1 on the MasterPage and make them just markup on the MasterPage (in fact, you should probably remove ContentPlaceholder1 altogether). The easy way to do this is to comment out the ContentPlaceholder tag itself like this:
<table>
<tr>
<td width="150px">
<%--<asp:ContentPlaceHolder ID="ContentPlaceHolder1" runat="server">--%>
<asp:Menu runat="server" ID="MainMenu1" CssClass="MasterContent" StaticSubMenuIndent="30px">
<Items>
<asp:MenuItem Text="My Software" NavigateUrl="~/MySoftware.aspx"></asp:MenuItem>
<asp:MenuItem Text="Check Out" NavigateUrl="~/CheckOut.aspx"></asp:MenuItem>
<asp:MenuItem Text="View Shopping Cart" NavigateUrl="~/ShoppingCart.aspx"></asp:MenuItem>
<asp:MenuItem Text="Continue Shopping" NavigateUrl="~/Start.aspx"></asp:MenuItem>
</Items>
</asp:Menu>
<%-- </asp:ContentPlaceHolder>--%>
</td>
<td width="900px">
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder ID="ContentPlaceHolder2" runat="server">
</asp:ContentPlaceHolder>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
You will also have to remove the ContentPlaceholder reference from your content page as well, or you will get a compliation error (because you removed it from the Master, it can't exist in the content page--but that's okay, the MasterPage now has the links you want):
<%# Page Title="" Language="C#" MasterPageFile="~/Webstore.master"
AutoEventWireup="true" CodeFile="Start.aspx.cs" Inherits="Start" %>
<%--<asp:Content ID="SideBarStart" ContentPlaceHolderID="ContentPlaceHolder1" Runat="Server">
</asp:Content>--%>