Is there an existing MVC HtmlHelper like #Html.Label that generates a <span>? - asp.net-mvc

Question

I'm wondering if I need to create a custom HtmlHelper to simply display a value as a span.
Currently I'm using:
#model string
#{
var htmlAttributes = HtmlHelper.AnonymousObjectToHtmlAttributes(ViewData["htmlAttributes"]);
}
<span class="#htmlAttributes["class"]">#Model</string>
I'm just wondering if there already exists something like #Html.Label so I could do:
#model string
#Html.SomethingLikeSpan("", Model, #ViewData["htmlAttributes"])

Answer 1

Not yet, but you can extend the Helpers object with any tag combination you wish.
Add a class file named HtmlHelperExtensions.cs with the following code:
using System;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.Mvc;
namespace WebApplication1
{
public static class HtmlHelperExtensions
{
public static IHtmlString Span(this HtmlHelper Helper, string Content, string Class = "")
{
string classstring = Class == "" ? "" : string.Format(" class=\"{0}\" ", Class);
string htmlString = String.Format("<span{1}>{0}</span>", Content, classstring);
return new HtmlString(htmlString);
}
}
}
Then in your view, use the following to format anything with the new helper extension:
#using WebApplication1
#Html.Span("Test Content")
#Html.Span("Test with class", "btn btn-primary")

Answer 2

I know this post is quite old but I'm going to post what I used to accomplish a very basic version of the #Html.Span and #Html.SpanFor helpers. I'll post for both .netcore and MVC5. I hope this helps people out!
MVC 5 implementation
using System;
using System.Linq.Expressions;
using System.Web.Mvc;
public static class HMTLHelperExtensions
{
public static MvcHtmlString Span(this HtmlHelper Helper, string Name, string Content, object HtmlAttributes)
{
var htmlAttributes = HtmlHelper.AnonymousObjectToHtmlAttributes(HtmlAttributes);
TagBuilder tag = new TagBuilder("Span");
tag.MergeAttribute("name", TagBuilder.CreateSanitizedId(Name));
tag.GenerateId(Name);
tag.InnerHtml = Content;
foreach(var i in htmlAttributes )
{
tag.MergeAttribute(i.Key, i.Value.ToString());
}
return MvcHtmlString.Create(tag.ToString());
}
public static MvcHtmlString Span(this HtmlHelper Helper, string Name, string Content)
{
TagBuilder tag = new TagBuilder("Span");
tag.MergeAttribute("name", TagBuilder.CreateSanitizedId(Name));
tag.GenerateId(Name);
tag.InnerHtml = Content;
return MvcHtmlString.Create(tag.ToString());
}
public static MvcHtmlString SpanFor<TModel, TProperty>(this HtmlHelper<TModel> Helper, Expression<Func<TModel, TProperty>> expression, string Content, object HtmlAttributes)
{
var name = ExpressionHelper.GetExpressionText(expression);
var metaData = ModelMetadata.FromLambdaExpression(expression, Helper.ViewData);
return Span(Helper, name, metaData.Model as string, HtmlAttributes);
}
public static MvcHtmlString SpanFor<TModel, TProperty>(this HtmlHelper<TModel> Helper, Expression<Func<TModel, TProperty>> expression, string Content)
{
var name = ExpressionHelper.GetExpressionText(expression);
var metaData = ModelMetadata.FromLambdaExpression(expression, Helper.ViewData);
return Span(Helper, name, metaData.Model as string);
}
}
and here is the .netcore implementation
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Html;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Rendering;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.ViewFeatures;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.ViewFeatures.Internal;
using System;
using System.Linq.Expressions;
public static class HtmlHelperExtensions
{
public static IHtmlContent Span(this IHtmlHelper htmlHelper, string name, string Content, object htmlAttributes)
{
TagBuilder tag = new TagBuilder("Span");
tag.MergeAttribute("name", TagBuilder.CreateSanitizedId(name,""));
tag.GenerateId(name, "");
tag.InnerHtml.Append(Content);
var attributes = HtmlHelper.AnonymousObjectToHtmlAttributes(htmlAttributes);
foreach (var i in attributes)
{
tag.MergeAttribute(i.Key, i.Value.ToString());
}
return tag;
}
public static IHtmlContent Span(this IHtmlHelper htmlHelper, string name, string Content)
{
TagBuilder tag = new TagBuilder("Span");
tag.MergeAttribute("name", TagBuilder.CreateSanitizedId(name, ""));
tag.GenerateId(name, "");
tag.InnerHtml.Append(Content);
return tag;
}
public static IHtmlContent SpanFor<TModel, TProperty>(this IHtmlHelper<TModel> htmlHelper, Expression<Func<TModel,TProperty>> expression, string content, object htmlAttributes)
{
var modelExplorer = ExpressionMetadataProvider.FromLambdaExpression(expression, htmlHelper.ViewData, htmlHelper.MetadataProvider);
var name = ExpressionHelper.GetExpressionText(expression);
var metaData = modelExplorer.Metadata;
return Span(htmlHelper, name, modelExplorer.Model as string, htmlAttributes);
}
public static IHtmlContent SpanFor<TModel, TProperty>(this IHtmlHelper<TModel> htmlHelper, Expression<Func<TModel, TProperty>> expression, string content)
{
var modelExplorer = ExpressionMetadataProvider.FromLambdaExpression(expression, htmlHelper.ViewData, htmlHelper.MetadataProvider);
var name = ExpressionHelper.GetExpressionText(expression);
var metaData = modelExplorer.Metadata;
return Span(htmlHelper, name, modelExplorer.Model as string);
}
}
I want to point out, these will work with html attributes only if used in this format.
#Html.Span("Test", "Testing Content", new { #class = "test-class", style = "text-align:right" }
#Html.SpanFor(x=>x.ModelProperty, Model.ModelProperty, new { #class = "test-class", style = "text-align:right" }