Getting jQuery to work with MasterPages - Code Junkie
Jared Roberts asked a question today on his blog about using jQuery with ASP.NET Master Pages (Getting jQuery to work with MasterPages - Code Junkie). Master Pages present some interesting problems. Because the Content Page could live at a different directory level than the Master you can quickly run into issues with relative paths breaking.
The solution is to place your scripts references into a ScriptManager on the Master Page. This ScriptManager will render the proper <Script> tags for you at runtime. For example:
<asp:ScriptManager ID="ScriptManager" runat="server">
<Scripts>
<asp:ScriptReference Path="~/js/jquery-1.2.6.min.js" />
</Scripts>
</asp:ScriptManager>
The downside of this is that your Content Pages will lack Intellisense for the scripts you’ve referenced. The workaround for this is to give the designer a reference it can use at design time but that won’t render at runtime. This is done by placing the following code into your Content Page:
<% if (false) { %>
<script src="../js/jquery-1.2.6-vsdoc.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<% }
%>
This gives you properly pathed <Script> tags at runtime and JS Intellisense at design time. This also works with User Controls where you’re using a ScriptManagerProxy and want Intellisense support.
As an aside, the <% if (false) { %> trick is useful for other design time content. We’ve used it to reference style sheets when building user controls. It lets the control developer get a good visual of what the final control might look like but allows the final styles to be controlled by the page hosting the control.