Accessing ASP.net masterpage properties from content page

If you use ASP.net masterpages then sooner or later you will have discovered that you cannot access your masterpage properties using Page.Master or simply Master.

Previously I have used the solution you see floating around a lot, that is to put the following in your content page aspx (assuming our masterpage is called Main.master):

<%@ MasterType VirtualPath="~/Main.master" %>

And the following in your code behind for example:

Master.BodyClass = "pgKeyboard";

It works fine, although for every new page you make you need to remember to add the MasterType declaration, which has always frustrated me.

So the other day I realised, obvious though it was once I had, that I could drop the MasterType declaration and simply cast the Master object to the correct type.

For example:

((Main)Master).BodyClass = “pgKeyboard”;

So if you can’t access your masterpage properties or methods, just remember you need to cast the Master object into your masterpage type.

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