I'm looking for some help on my discussion. We're discussing two solutions to a customization problem. One uses (nested) master-pages. One master page per customized page. Plus there is a standard master page for all pages. The second uses a standard page, which redirects to the custom page if it exists.
My question is, which is more desirable? Having to Load 2 master pages every time OR only having to load 1 master page and sometimes redirecting (Response.Redirect or Server.Transfer) to the customized page.
I can't really find any information on master page performance. Should I just think of them as another (somewhat inverted) user-control or should they be used lightly?
Edit:
You can assume Response.Redirect for the transfer.
You can assume the Redirect occurs in the PreInit stage of the lifecycle.
Best Answer
Master pages are in a sense inverted user controls (they "surround" content as opposed to user control content that is pushed into the page). There isn't a rule of thumb that says use master pages lightly--a master page's performance cost is directly proportionate to how much code (HTML and otherwise) it causes to be pushed into the HTTP data stream.
For my money, I'd land on the side what makes for the most readable and maintainable code.