ASP MVC DevExpress: GridViewSettings in Controller rather than View - asp.net-mvc

Question

I just started working with ASP MVC using DevExpress, I've created views that have GridViews inside, and I had the settings in the partial view.
Short story
I need to have the GridViewSettings object inside a controller rather than the view.
Why? Because the app needs to download an Excel file of the grid and so far this is the only approach I've seen. But the problem is, having the grid settings in the controller doesn't allow me to specify a label inside an unbound column.
Here's the code:
public GridViewSettings MyGridSettings()
{
var settings = new GridViewSettings();
settings.Name = "MyGrid";
settings.CommandColumn.Visible = true;
settings.KeyFieldName = "PERSON_ID";
settings.SettingsPager.Visible = true;
settings.Settings.ShowGroupPanel = true;
settings.Settings.ShowFilterRow = true;
settings.SettingsBehavior.AllowSelectByRowClick = true;
settings.SettingsAdaptivity.AdaptivityMode = GridViewAdaptivityMode.HideDataCellsWindowLimit;
settings.SettingsAdaptivity.AdaptiveColumnPosition = GridViewAdaptiveColumnPosition.Right;
settings.SettingsAdaptivity.AdaptiveDetailColumnCount = 1;
settings.SettingsAdaptivity.AllowOnlyOneAdaptiveDetailExpanded = false;
settings.SettingsAdaptivity.HideDataCellsAtWindowInnerWidth = 0;
settings.Columns.Add("PERSON_ID", "Person ID");
settings.Columns.Add(col =>
{
col.Caption = "Department";
col.SetDataItemTemplateContent(dataTemplate =>
{
String DepartmenID = (String)DataBinder.Eval(dataTemplate.DataItem, "DEPARTMENT_ID");
//if (DepartmenID != null)
//{
// Html.DevExpress().Label(label =>
// {
// label.Text = String.Format("{0}",
// DataBinder.Eval(dataTemplate.DataItem, "DEPARTMENT.NAME"));
// }).Render();
// }
}
}
}
Short Question
How do I access the following code from a Controller?
Html.DevExpress().Label(label =>
{
label.Text = String.Format("{0}",
DataBinder.Eval(dataTemplate.DataItem, "DEPARTMENT.NAME"));
}).Render();
Like I said I need to do this because the Excel File Download. Although, if you have any workarounds where I don't need to do this that'd be great

Answer 1

Using HtmlHelper class described here (read Using HtmlHelper class section), probably this code may solve your issue:
public GridViewSettings MyGridSettings(this HtmlHelper html)
{
var settings = new GridViewSettings();
settings.Name = "MyGrid";
// simplified for brevity
settings.Columns.Add(col =>
{
col.Caption = "Department";
col.SetDataItemTemplateContent(dataTemplate =>
{
String DepartmentID = (String)DataBinder.Eval(dataTemplate.DataItem, "DEPARTMENT_ID");
if (DepartmentID != null)
{
html.DevExpress().Label(label =>
{
label.Text = String.Format("{0}", DataBinder.Eval(dataTemplate.DataItem, "DEPARTMENT.NAME"));
}).Render();
}
}
}
return settings;
}
Unlike views, controller actions doesn't have reference to HtmlHelper by default, hence you need to include HtmlHelper class inside GridViewSettings method to create HTML helper extensions.
In case your DataItemTemplateContent can't be exported by design, try exporting GridView contents to XtraReport using How to convert and then print an GridView extension by using the XtraReport example.
Additional references:
Grid View Exporting - 1
Grid View Exporting - 2