My content management engine does exactly that, so yes.
And you never have to create the .vb files. Only the .aspx files are needed to run the app. The <%@ Page %> directive hooks the page to it's parent class, which lives in the compiled assembly (the dll), rather than the .vb (or .cs) files, themselves. Those files never need be published.
In my application, I have a /Templates folder where I store all of my templates. They consist of various UserControls and then a SiteTemplate.template file, which is nothing more than a text file defining how the different UC's relate to each other.
For example, a current implementation of my CMS defines the following SiteTemplate.template file:
Code:
<%@ Page language="c#" %>
<%@ Register TagPrefix="Imagine" TagName="ui_Header" Src="/Imagine/UserControls/Other/Header.ascx" %>
<%@ Register TagPrefix="Imagine" TagName="ui_Footer" Src="/Imagine/UserControls/Other/Footer.ascx" %>
<%@ Register TagPrefix="Imagine" TagName="ui_Menu" Src="/Imagine/UserControls/Other/Menu.ascx" %>
<%@ Register TagPrefix="Imagine" TagName="ui_Body" Src="/Imagine/UserControls/Other/Body.ascx" %>
<HTML>
<head>
<title>Imagine</title>
<meta name="keywords" content="" />
<link rel=stylesheet type=text/css href="/Imagine/Includes/Imagine.css" />
<script language=javascript src="/Imagine/Includes/Imagine.js"></script>
</head>
<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginwidth=0 marginheight=0>
<form name=theForm id=theForm runat=server>
<div class=Header>
<Imagine:ui_Header id=Header runat=Server PageID= />
</div>
<div class=Menu>
<Imagine:ui_Menu id=Menu runat=Server PageID= />
</div>
<div class=Body>
<Imagine:ui_Body id=Body runat=Server PageID= />
</div>
<div class=Footer>
<Imagine:ui_Footer id=Footer runat=Server PageID= />
</div>
</form>
</body>
</HTML>
Note the public property on each UC, PageID, and that they're blank in the template. Upon creation of each page, the database ID is simply plugged in at run time, and then the page is saved off to the /Pages directory as PageName.aspx.
You use a StreamReader to read in the file, do the replace, and then a StreamWriter to write the file. That's sort of like using the FSO, but how else would you do it???
The site is still fully dynamic because I'm free to replace the UC's with whatever I want, and indeed, even change the way that they relate to each other in the .template file if need be. The look and feel is fully defined w/ CSS, with only the top level classes being defined in the .template file, keeping those definitions strictly to the basic layout of the page. But you gain the search engine visibility that is so sorely lacking in many CMS implementations that use QueryString page names.
You can also have those UC's simply again be containers that can dynamically load in other templates, giving your end users the ability to pick from limitless templates that you provide (for a fee, of course ;-))
Hope that helps.
paul
The answer to getting answered -- faq855-2992
