[2005] Help with meta content

Hello all, I am journeying into ASP.net to create my own website. I am trying to start with a master page and some content pages. My question right now is that I am trying to implement some search engine friendly stuff to the website and am using the code found at the very bottom of this msdn article. I translated it into vb.net

Code:

---

Public Sub SetMetaContent()
        Dim pageDefault As String = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings("defaultPage").ToString()
        Dim doc1 As XmlDocument

        If Cache("PageXml") Is Nothing Then
            doc1 = New XmlDocument()
            doc1.Load(Server.MapPath("App_Data\xmlSiteDesc.xml"))

            'xml document added to cache and set its cache dependency to file dependency// note: Keep Xml File in App_Data folder for Security reasons.
            Cache.Insert("PageXml", doc1, New System.Web.Caching.CacheDependency(Server.MapPath("App_Data\xmlSiteDesc.xml")))
        Else
            doc1 = DirectCast(Cache("PageXml"), XmlDocument)
        End If

        Dim xpathNav As XPathNavigator = doc1.CreateNavigator()

        'Compile the XPath expression
        Dim xpathExpr As XPathExpression = xpathNav.Compile("/Pages/Page[PageName='" & Request.Path.ToString().Replace("/", "").Trim().ToLower() & "']")
        Dim nodeIter As XPathNodeIterator = xpathNav.[Select](xpathExpr)

        ' if page information not found in xml file use default page title, keyword and description
        If nodeIter.Count = 0 Then
            xpathExpr = xpathNav.Compile("/Pages/Page[PageName='" & pageDefault.Trim().ToLower() & "']")
            nodeIter = xpathNav.[Select](xpathExpr)
        End If

        While nodeIter.MoveNext()
            xpathNav = nodeIter.Current

            If xpathNav.MoveToFirstChild() Then
                Do
                    Select Case xpathNav.Name.ToUpper()

                        Case "TITLE"
                            metaTitle.Text = HttpUtility.HtmlEncode(xpathNav.Value)

                        Case "DESCRIPTION"
                            metaDesc.Content = HttpUtility.HtmlEncode(xpathNav.Value)

                        Case "KEYWORDS"
                            metaKeyword.Content = HttpUtility.HtmlEncode(xpathNav.Value)

                    End Select
                Loop While (xpathNav.MoveToNext())
            End If
        End While
    End Sub

---

The Content XML Page I have created is in the App_Data directory and is called "xmSiteDesc.xml". Did I set this up right and replace the right areas? Due to IIS issues on this particular machine, I cannot exactly test it (I keep getting Error 505...).

Oh and the xml file looks like this:

Code:

---

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="yes" ?>
<Pages>
  <Page>
    <!-- your page title -->
    <Title>Welcome to Shore Technical</Title>
    <!-- your .aspx file name for example -->
    <PageName>default.aspx</PageName>
    <!-- your page description  -->
    <description>Home Page for Shore Technical</description>
    <keywords>Software development visual basic vb.net custom programming programmer</keywords>
    <COPYRIGHT>Shore Technical</COPYRIGHT>
    <GENERATOR>Shore Techincal Generator</GENERATOR>
    <AUTHOR>Shore Technical</AUTHOR>
  </Page>
</Pages>

---

Any pointers, direction, etc is appreciated!


Thanks!

D

Another issue I am having with the Master page that I cannot seem to figure out is that when I have a content area identified in the MasterPage:

Code:

---

    <div id="main">
        <asp:ContentPlaceHolder ID="MainContent" runat="server">
            The Main Content is not available, sorry for the inconvenience.
        </asp:ContentPlaceHolder>
    </div>

---

and the content identified in default2.aspx:

Code:

---

<%@ Page Language="VB" MasterPageFile="~/MyMasterPage.master" AutoEventWireup="false"
    CodeFile="Default2.aspx.vb" Inherits="Default2" title="Untitled Page" %>
<asp:Content ID="Content1" ContentPlaceHolderID="MainContent" Runat="Server">
Showing you the Main Content now baby!!
</asp:Content>

---

It does not show up in the MasterPage. Am I doing something wrong??

Finally, I have a .css file that I want to use and it is again not showing up on the Masterpage:

Code:

---

<head runat="server">
        <title id="metaTitle" runat="server"></title>   
        <meta name="metaDesc" content="description" id="metaDesc" runat="server" />   
        <meta name="metaKeyword" content="keys" id="metaKeyword" runat="server" />
        <link href="~/Style.css" rel="Stylesheet" type="text/css" />
</head>

---

The css file is in the same directory as the masterpage but it does not apply it. I am trying to do right, but cannot seem to do right.....HELP!!!

Thanks,

D

The App_Data folder is not meant for anything but MDB or MDF files. Move your XML file out and put it into somet other folder.

Also, I don't think you can use ~ in non-server side tags. You'll need to use a normal path like /blah/clah.css.