Master Page Weirdness - Content controls have to be top-level controls in a content page or a nested master page that references a master page

Question

This is weird   I added a brand new Web Application project to my solution in Visual Studio 2008      Created a master page  Made zero modifications  Created a new webform  Set its master page to the MP I just created    Still  no modifications  No markup  No user controls  No references  Nothing   However when I try to run it  I get   Content controls have to be top-level controls in a content page or a nested master page that references a master page  HttpException  0x80004005   Content controls have to be top-level controls in a content page or a nested master page that references a master page      System Web UI MasterPage CreateMaster TemplateControl owner  HttpContext context  VirtualPath masterPageFile  IDictionary contentTemplateCollection   8665016    System Web UI Page get Master    51    System Web UI Page ApplyMasterPage    15    System Web UI Page PerformPreInit    45    System Web UI Page ProcessRequestMain Boolean includeStagesBeforeAsyncPoint  Boolean includeStagesAfterAsyncPoint   282   If I do the same exact thing in a standalone project thats outside of this solution  it works fine  Keep in mind that I m using a web application project vs a website project if that makes any difference   The webform    lt    Page Language  vb  AutoEventWireup  false  CodeBehind  Default aspx vb  Inherits  WebUI  Default  MasterPageFile    Site1 Master    gt    lt  DOCTYPE html PUBLIC  -  W3C  DTD XHTML 1 0 Transitional  EN   http   www w3 org TR xhtml1 DTD xhtml1-transitional dtd  gt    lt html xmlns  http   www w3 org 1999 xhtml   gt   lt head runat  server  gt       lt title gt  lt  title gt   lt  head gt   lt body gt       lt form id  form1  runat  server  gt       lt div gt        lt  div gt       lt  form gt   lt  body gt   lt  html gt    The master page    lt    Master Language  VB  AutoEventWireup  false  CodeBehind  Site1 master vb  Inherits  WebUI Site1    gt    lt  DOCTYPE html PUBLIC  -  W3C  DTD XHTML 1 0 Transitional  EN   http   www w3 org TR xhtml1 DTD xhtml1-transitional dtd  gt    lt html xmlns  http   www w3 org 1999 xhtml   gt   lt head runat  server  gt       lt title gt  lt  title gt       lt asp ContentPlaceHolder ID  head  runat  server  gt       lt  asp ContentPlaceHolder gt   lt  head gt   lt body gt       lt form id  form1  runat  server  gt       lt div gt           lt asp ContentPlaceHolder ID  ContentPlaceHolder1  runat  server  gt            lt  asp ContentPlaceHolder gt       lt  div gt       lt  form gt   lt  body gt   lt  html gt

User · Answer

protected void Page PreInit object sender  EventArgs e       if  Membership GetUser      null    check the user weather user is logged in or not     this Page MasterPageFile      General master    else     this Page MasterPageFile      myMaster master

User · Answer

Your web form should look like this    lt    Page Language  vb  AutoEventWireup  false  CodeBehind  Default aspx vb  Inherits  WebUI  Default  MasterPageFile    Site1 Master    gt   lt asp Content runat  server  ID  head  ContentPlaceHolderId  head  gt   lt  -- stuff you want in  amp gt head lt  -- gt   lt  asp Content gt    lt asp Content runat  server  ID  content  ContentPlaceHolderId  ContentPlaceHolder1  gt   lt h1 gt Your content lt  h1 gt   lt  asp Content gt    Note that there is no  lt html gt  tag

User · Answer

When you created the WebForm  did you select the Master page it is attached to in the  Add New Item  dialog itself   Or did you attach it manually using the MasterPageFile attribute of the  Page directive   If it was the latter  it might explain the error message you receive   VS automatically inserts certain markup in each kind of page  If you select the MasterPage at the time of page creation itself  it does not generate any markup except the  Page declaration and the top level Content control

User · Answer

In my case I was loading a user control dynamically in a page and both the page and user control had the content tags   lt asp Content ID  Content2  ContentPlaceHolderID  MainContent  runat  server  gt    Removing this tag from the user control worked for me

User · Answer

Better late than never i suppose    you get the option to set the MASTERPAGE only of you are developing a WEB SITE  FILE NEW WEBSITE     but not when you create an ASP NET project  FILE NEW PROJECT  - there you have to set the Masterpage using the properties of the newly created webform and it s up to you to modify the ASPX source to make it master page compliant  ie  removing the stock HTML  etc

User · Answer

In my case runat  quot server quot  was missing in the asp content tag  I know it s stupid  but someone might have removed from the code in the build I got  It worked for me  Someone may face the same thing  Hence shared

User · Answer

I just encountered this exception and in my case it was cause by a white space between asp content elements  So  this failed    lt asp content runat  server  ContentPlaceHolderID  Header  gt      Header  lt  asp content gt    lt asp Content runat  server  ContentPlaceHolderID  Content  gt      Content  lt  asp Content gt    But removing the white spaces between the elements worked    lt asp content runat  server  ContentPlaceHolderID  Header  gt      Header  lt  asp content gt  lt asp Content runat  server  ContentPlaceHolderID  Content  gt      Content  lt  asp Content gt

User · Answer

I encountered this error after editing a web part   aspx  page in SharePoint Designer 2013   When I looked at the code in SPD  an H1 element near the top of the page was highlighted yellow   Hovering over that indicated that SharePoint AjaxDelta was not closed before the H1   Adding the   lt  SharePoint AjaxDelta gt  fixed it   Weird because it appeared SPD introduced the error after I was working on listview web parts or a page viewer web part elsewhere on the page

User · Answer

Just got this problem  It was because we had a tag ending with double slashes     lt   asp HyperLink gt

User · Answer

Your web form shouldn t have all of that markup  like the  lt html gt  tag    Since it has a master page  you just start with the content tag   Your aspx page should look like this    lt    Page Language  vb  AutoEventWireup  false  CodeBehind  Default aspx vb  Inherits  WebUI  Default  MasterPageFile    Site1 Master    gt    lt asp content id  Content1  ContentPlaceHolderID  ContentPlaceHolder1  runat  server  gt     This is the body   lt  asp content gt    When you re adding a new aspx page make sure to check  select master page  in the  add new item  dialog

User · Answer

Here s another way using Visual Studio  If you do New Item in Visual Studio and you select Web Form  it will create a standalone   aspx web form  which is what you have for your current web form  is this what you did     You need to select Web Content Form and then select the master page you want attached to it

User · Answer

For some reason  there is no option in   the create page dialogue to select a   master page  I have tried both   programatically declaring the MP and   by updating the property in the   Properties pane      NoCarrier 13 mins   ago      I believe its because i m using a  web   application  vs a  web site        NoCarrier 9 mins ago   Chances are it is in the  lt  PAGE  tag where your problem is   That said  it doesnt make a difference if you are using a Web Application or not   To create a Child Page  right click on your master page in the Solution Explorer and choose Add Content Page

User · Answer

You need to add asp content and add content place holder id correspond to the placeholder in master page   You can read this link for more detail

[asp.net] Master Page Weirdness - "Content controls have to be top-level controls in a content page or a nested master page that references a master page."

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