Creating a Master Page or a Page Template

Yasmin Saad asked on October 16, 2017 12:27

Hey guys, I'm currently building a new site and I want to create the whole layout . I'm just confused , do I create a master page first and I create page templates that inherit that master page ? or I go for the templates immediately ? Thx in advance

Correct Answer

Matt Nield answered on October 16, 2017 12:42

I would always recommend going for master pages first. This allows you to get all of your common elements (header, navigation, footer) etc. done in one place. You can find some information about how to progress here: Creating portal engine master pages.

If you're not at the point where you're ready to build your master page, you can always use one of the provided ones - such as the blank master template - as this will allow you to ge the inheretance right so that once you are ready to build your master page, you need only to update the templates used on the site root (for example). By reading your question though, I think you're ready to build the master page already.

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Yasmin Saad answered on October 16, 2017 16:00

Thank you really helped me :) . Now I created my Master page ,I just have a fixed menu in the upper right section of the page ,I'm also confused do I right these pages as fixed in the Html file or i use CSS style menu list ? Thank you

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Matt Nield answered on October 16, 2017 16:10

I'm glad to help, Yasmin. In my opinion, you should ultimately aim to use either the CSS list menu web part or one of the various Repeater webparts to render your navigation. While you're getting started though, you can keep the HTML in there until you are ready to replace it. I wouldn't go live with HTML as the navigation, but during early stages, it can be helpful as it can help put the whole page into context and therefor enable you to present the progress to project managers and clietns etc.

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Suneel Jhangiani answered on October 16, 2017 17:26

What you would do is put WebPartZones into your Master page which allows you to add Web parts later on and follow MAtt's advice of using either the CSS list menu or one of the various Repeaters - the Hierarchial Repeater works well multi-level menu's.

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