Using C# to dynamically generate CSS files

Question

I have a site that gets deployed to over a dozen clients. The main website has a base template, and each client has a client folder that overrides the colours. The problem i

Answer 1

Instead of a Web Control, you're likely better off creating a Generic Handler. This won't have the overhead that a web control has.

1. In your handler, accept the clientID via querystring - this allows you to cache on a client level
2. In your .master file, you can link to it < link src="MyCssHandler.ashx?ClientID=<%=ClientID%>" >

In your handler you have a few ways to work with the CSS.

1. Just have a bunch of response.write for the css, and put in relevant client values
2. Create an external CSS file with it's own special identifier - maybe <% %>. You could then load all the client specific values in a NameValuePair Collection, and then loop through the external CSS file, parsing <% NAME %> and replacing with the correct value. Then response.write this file. More complicated true but it allows for a hell of a lot cleaner CSS files