how to get partialview string in a apicontroller in mvc - asp.net-mvc

Question

i have a apicontroller like this:
public class MenuController : ApiController
{
[HttpGet]
public string GetMenu([FromUri]string page, [FromUri]string menu)
{
}
}
I have a partialview say "menu.cshtml" i want to use that partialview and give the menu in string .
I have tried various functions that says renderpartialviewtostring but they use controller in it but i am using ApiController
Please help

Answer 1

You can derive your own type from IHttpActionResult and do it.
This article speaks about it - http://www.strathweb.com/2013/06/ihttpactionresult-new-way-of-creating-responses-in-asp-net-web-api-2/
You will need a reference to RazorEngine - http://www.nuget.org/packages/RazorEngine/
In your case you can create a StringActionResult derived from IHttpActionResult that does something similar to below.
public class StringActionResult : IHttpActionResult
{
private const string ViewDirectory = #"c:\path-to-views";
private readonly string _view;
private readonly dynamic _model;
public StringActionResult(string viewName, dynamic model)
{
_view = LoadView(viewName);
_model = model;
}
public Task<HttpResponseMessage> ExecuteAsync(CancellationToken cancellationToken)
{
var response = new HttpResponseMessage(HttpStatusCode.OK);
var parsedView = RazorEngine.Razor.Parse(_view, _model);
response.Content = new StringContent(parsedView);
response.Content.Headers.ContentType = new MediaTypeHeaderValue("text/plain");
return Task.FromResult(response);
}
private static string LoadView(string name)
{
var view = File.ReadAllText(Path.Combine(ViewDirectory, name + ".cshtml"));
return view;
}
}
and then in your controller, do something like this.
public class MenuController : ApiController
{
[HttpGet]
public StringActionResult GetMenu([FromUri]string page, [FromUri]string menu)
{
return new StringActionResult("menu", new {Page: page, Menu: menu});
}
}