Master Pages, Themes and Navigation Controls

Re: adding meta tags

Adhara — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 09:23:39 GMT

Hi,

I'm not a, ASP.NET genius so I found a solution very very very easy, with no class or strange objects.

In the master page I have symply <%= metaDesc %> and <%= metaKey %>. I place them exactly where I want (the added methods above placed them at the end of header tag....I didn't like it.)

In the master page .cs I have something like

1    public string metaDesc;  
2    metaDesc = "<meta name=\"description\" content=\"" + (string)SiteMap.CurrentNode["metaDesc"] + "\">\n";

which means that I recorded my description and keyword in two custom sitemapNode properties;

<siteMapNode url="~/Default.aspx"  title="Home Page"  description="Home Page" metaDesc="bla bla bla" metaKey="key1, key2, key3...">

Of course, I could have used the description property too for meta description, but I was already using it for something else...
I programmatically access those infos (different for every page, quite good SEO technique) and I add them where I want in the header tag. Same thing for keywords of course.
It may not be an elegant solution, I admit that, but it works nicely.

Re: adding meta tags

kunal5 — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 12:50:10 GMT

There is another method to add the meta tags....That is giving the meta keywords in page directive

Here is the link

http://www.codeproject.com/KB/aspnet/PageTags.aspx

Re: adding meta tags

sveksler — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 23:37:13 GMT

I've been doing this for years, and the above solutions are great, but require programmatic rather than declarative setting of the META tags. If you want to be able to pass META content to a MasterPage declaratively without requiring server-side logic on each page, my solution is very simple.

in the MASTER PAGE, declare the ContentPlaceHolders "METAKeywords" and "METADescription". Be sure the <HEAD> is set to runat="server" and add an ID if you don't already have one.

in the MASTER PAGE CODE BEHIND add this code to the Page_Load and the private function the follows:

protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            ParseMetaTags(this.METAKeywords, "keywords");
            ParseMetaTags(this.METADescription, "description");
        }
 
 private void ParseMetaTags(ContentPlaceHolder metaContent, string metaKeyName)
        {
            if (metaContent != null && metaContent.HasControls())
            {
                foreach (Control ctrl in metaContent.Controls)
                {
                    if (ctrl is LiteralControl)
                    {
                        string literalContent = ((System.Web.UI.LiteralControl)ctrl).Text.Trim();
                        if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(literalContent))
                        {
                            HtmlMeta metaKeys = new HtmlMeta();
                            metaKeys.Name = metaKeyName;
                            metaKeys.Content = literalContent;
                            this.HeadSection.Controls.Add(metaKeys);
                        }
                        metaContent.Controls.Remove(ctrl);
                    }
                }
            }
        }

Then, in your Web Content pages (those utilizing the MasterPage) just provide the text value of what would go in the META tag's content attribute. The MasterPage does the rest.

<asp:Content ID="Content2" ContentPlaceHolderID="METAKeywords" runat="server">
Homepage, Widgets, Controls, Web Parts</asp:Content><asp:Content ID="Content3" ContentPlaceHolderID="METADescription" runat="server">
Custom built .NET widgets, controls and web parts by Sabrina</asp:Content>

Enjoy!

-Sabrina

Re: A Slight Change

goldenstate — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 19:56:16 GMT

hi Lee,

I got the same error message 'MetaDescription' is not a member of 'system.web.ui.masterpage'

where are what i have,

Masterpage.master

<%@ Master Language="VB" CodeFile="MasterPage.master.vb" Inherits="MasterPage" %>

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

<title>Untitled Page</title>

</head>

<body>

<div>

<asp:contentplaceholder id="ContentPlaceHolder1" runat="server">

</asp:contentplaceholder>

</div>

</form>

</body>

</html>

Masterpage.master.vb

Partial Class MasterPage

Inherits System.Web.UI.MasterPage

Public Property MetaDescription() As String

Get

Return Page.Header.Attributes.Item("Description.Content")

End Get

Set(ByVal value As String)

Dim Description As New HtmlMeta

Description.Name = "description"

Description.Content = value

Page.Header.Controls.Add(Description)

End Set

End Property

Public Property MetaKeywords() As String

Get

Return Page.Header.Attributes.Item("Keywords.Content")

End Get

Set(ByVal value As String)

Dim Keywords As New HtmlMeta

Keywords.Name = "keywords"

Keywords.Content = value

Page.Header.Controls.Add(Keywords)

End Set

End Property

Protected Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load

End Sub

End Class

content.aspx.vb

Partial Class content

Inherits System.Web.UI.Page

Protected Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load

Master.MetaDescription = "description goes here"

Master.MetaKeywords = "keyword1,keyword2,keyword3"

End Sub

End Class

Re: adding meta tags

mathgeek1729 — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 16:24:03 GMT

I ran into a similar problem and wanted to add meta tags to only specific pages. This is the C# code to do exactly that. You would place similar VB code in the Page_Load method.

// Set the page to expire immediately using the meta tag.

HtmlMeta metaTag = new HtmlMeta();
metaTag.HttpEquiv = "Expires";
metaTag.Content = "-1";
Header.Controls.Add(metaTag);

Re: A Slight Change

MorningZ — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 18:50:53 GMT

joelny:

All,

Is there a way to do it without ASP.NET 2.0? I am using ASP.NET 1.1 and I don't think HtmlMeta is supported...

Thanks!

Considering that the whole deals with "Adding Meta data to the MasterPage's Header Tag", then this whole entire topic is 100% 2.0 talk, since there is no MasterPage class in 1.1 either (just like there is no HtmlMeta class)

If you are in 1.1, you are probably using UserControls to do a header and footer (and this is just an educated assumption), and in that case you'd want to set up some sort of Public Property setup to add the tags into the UserControl's output

Re: A Slight Change

joelny — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 17:28:18 GMT

All,

Is there a way to do it without ASP.NET 2.0? I am using ASP.NET 1.1 and I don't think HtmlMeta is supported...

Thanks!

Re: A Slight Change

richpicture — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 22:25:01 GMT

Simple solution in c#

Master.Page.Header.Title = "My title";

// Create instances of an HtmlMeta control.

HtmlMeta hm1 = new HtmlMeta();

HtmlMeta hm2 = new HtmlMeta();

// Get a reference to the page header element.

HtmlHead head = (HtmlHead)Master.Page.Header;

// Define an HTML <meta> element

hm1.Name = "keywords";

hm1.Content = "my keywords;";

head.Controls.Add(hm1);

// Define an HTML <meta> element with a Description attribute.

hm2.Name = "description";

hm2.Content = "My description.";

head.Controls.Add(hm2);

Re: A Slight Change

Lee Dumond — Wed, 01 Feb 2006 03:10:31 GMT

Yes.

By the way, this is exactly the solution presented in the very first reply to this thread. ;-)

Re: A Slight Change

RobertKGaudet — Tue, 31 Jan 2006 22:21:22 GMT

Thanks for responding, all comments are right on...I figured it out a few minutes after posting the question.

This is what I got to work.

HtmlHead head = (HtmlHead)Page.Header;
HtmlMeta KeywordMeta = new HtmlMeta();
HtmlMeta DescriptionMeta = new HtmlMeta();

KeywordMeta.Attributes.Add("Name", "Keywords");
KeywordMeta.Attributes.Add("Content", mKeywords);
head.Controls.Add(KeywordMeta);

DescriptionMeta.Attributes.Add("Name", "Description");
DescriptionMeta.Attributes.Add("Content", mPageDescription);
head.Controls.Add(DescriptionMeta);

Re: A Slight Change

MorningZ — Tue, 31 Jan 2006 21:27:59 GMT

Well, one issue that stands out right off the bat is the line:

HtmlHead head = new HtmlHead();

Keep in mind that you are not creating a brand new <head> tag, it already exists, so your variable "head" should reference the existing master page head tag, not be creating a new one (which is what your line is doing)

Re: A Slight Change

Lee Dumond — Tue, 31 Jan 2006 20:53:24 GMT

Your just creating a New empty HtmlHead. You aren't assigning it the HtmlHead of the master page as a value. How is your program supposed to know that the object *head* is the header of your master page?

Re: A Slight Change

RobertKGaudet — Tue, 31 Jan 2006 19:18:26 GMT

I am having a problem getting the meta tags to display in my code also... here is what I have.

All Work Is Done In the Master Page....I do not set any page names in the child pages.

HtmlHead head = new HtmlHead();
HtmlMeta metaKeywords  = new HtmlMeta();
HtmlMeta metaDescription = new HtmlMeta();

//One way

metaKeywords.Attributes["keywords"] = _keywords;
head.Controls.Add(metaKeywords);

//Another way

metaDescription.Name  = "description";
metaDescription.Content  = _pageDescription;
head.Controls.Add(metaDescription);

Can anyone tell me why this isn't working? I can provide more information if needed....

TIA

Re: A Slight Change

Lee Dumond — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 23:55:01 GMT

KristinLaura wrote:

It was in the child page.

Okay.. wait as minute. You said --

I get the error: 'MetaDescription' is not a member of 'System.Web.UI.MasterPage' on the content page. Any ideas?

It is the Master Page that inherits System.Web.UI.MasterPage. There is no way you could have gotten this error from a properly constructed content page, as that would inherit from System.Web.UI.Page.

Maybe you were trying some multi-layered nesting thing?

Re: A Slight Change

KristinLaura — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 22:39:35 GMT

It was in the child page. But this is what I ended up with and it works nicely.

In MasterPage.master:

<head runat="server">
    <title>Untitled Page</title>
    <meta id="MetaKeywords" name="keywords" runat="server" content="" />
    <meta id="MetaDescription" name="description" runat="server" content="" />
</head>

In the MasterPage.master.vb

   Public WriteOnly Property Keywords() As String
        Set(ByVal value As String)
            Me.MetaKeywords.Content = value
        End Set
    End Property

    Public WriteOnly Property Description() As String
        Set(ByVal value As String)
            Me.MetaDescription.Content = value
        End Set
    End Property

In the child page Content.aspx.vb

Protected Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load
        Header.Title = "Content Page 1"
        DirectCast(Master, MasterPage).Keywords = ("keyword1, keyword2, keyword3")
        DirectCast(Master, MasterPage).Description = ("this is the page description")
End Sub