I'd like to have an html template I'm using for emails. I want to pass a model to it, have it rendered and returned to a string variable.
How can I accomplish this? I'm sure I can use the rendering that comes with asp.net mvc.
I do not want to do this inside my controller or using the controllercontext object.
Using a comment from #Mitch Rosenburg as the answer:
I'm using DotLiquid templates.
I haven't tried it myself, but I found a library called Postal that I'm planning to use for a very similar feature in my own apps.
You can do it like in the following method:
private string ViewToString(string viewName, object model)
{
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(viewName))
viewName = ControllerContext.RouteData.GetRequiredString("action");
ViewData.Model = model;
using (StringWriter sw = new StringWriter())
{
ViewEngineResult viewResult = ViewEngines.Engines.FindPartialView(ControllerContext, viewName);
ViewContext viewContext = new ViewContext(ControllerContext, viewResult.View, ViewData, TempData, sw);
viewResult.View.Render(viewContext, sw);
return sw.GetStringBuilder().ToString();
}
}
And in your action method you can use it like this
ViewToString("Index", model);
where model is the model that you want to send to your 'template'
I had to do the same thing once, and I ended up using HttpWebRequest to "render" the view and capture the result as a string.
This solution came with a whole host of other issues (getting the authorization cookie, powering through our custom url security layer, etc), and it felt inefficient and sloppy, but deadlines are deadlines, right?
Code looked something like this:
public string GetEmailBody(string url)
{
HttpWebRequest request = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(url);
request.Method = "GET";
HttpWebResponse response = (HttpWebResponse)request.GetResponse();
Stream responseStream = response.GetResponseStream();
StreamReader streamReader = new StreamReader(responseStream);
return streamReader.ReadToEnd();
}
Hope it helps somebody.
Related
I am trying to use a .cshtml template to send an email with RazorEngine. The documentation on their site shows how to use it with a string containing the razor syntax. How would I go about using it by loading a .cshtml file instead?
This is what I have
string templatePath = "~/Templates/InitialApplicationBody.cshtml";
var result = Engine.Razor.RunCompile(templatePath, "templateKey", null, viewModel);
From a MVC Controller, it's easy to generate HTML from a Razor view (CSHTML file).
I have successfully used code from the accepted answer to Render a view as a string, putting it in a base controller.
// Renders a Razor view, returning the HTML as a string
protected string RenderRazorViewToString<T>(string viewName, T model) where T : class
{
ViewData.Model = model;
using (var sw = new StringWriter())
{
var viewResult = ViewEngines.Engines.FindPartialView(ControllerContext,
viewName);
var viewContext = new ViewContext(ControllerContext, viewResult.View,
ViewData, TempData, sw);
viewResult.View.Render(viewContext, sw);
viewResult.ViewEngine.ReleaseView(ControllerContext, viewResult.View);
return sw.GetStringBuilder().ToString();
}
}
The Mailzory project is a convenient choice for sending emails which have Razor templates. Mailzory uses RazorEngine behind the scene.
// template path
var viewPath = Path.Combine("Views/Emails", "hello.cshtml");
// read the content of template and pass it to the Email constructor
var template = File.ReadAllText(viewPath);
var email = new Email(template);
// set ViewBag properties
email.ViewBag.Name = "Johnny";
email.ViewBag.Content = "Mailzory Is Funny";
// send email
var task = email.SendAsync("mailzory#outlook.com", "subject");
task.Wait()
this project is hosted at Github. Also there is a nuget package available for Mailzory.
I am trying to render a partial view from a server side event (no request).
I found the following code which was able to render partial view without a controller.
Render MVC PartialView into SignalR response
public static string RenderPartialView(string controllerName, string partialView, object model)
{
var context = new HttpContextWrapper(System.Web.HttpContext.Current) as HttpContextBase;
var routes = new System.Web.Routing.RouteData();
routes.Values.Add("controller", controllerName);
var requestContext = new RequestContext(context, routes);
string requiredString = requestContext.RouteData.GetRequiredString("controller");
var controllerFactory = ControllerBuilder.Current.GetControllerFactory();
var controller = controllerFactory.CreateController(requestContext, requiredString) as ControllerBase;
controller.ControllerContext = new ControllerContext(context, routes, controller);
var ViewData = new ViewDataDictionary();
var TempData = new TempDataDictionary();
ViewData.Model = model;
using (var sw = new StringWriter())
{
var viewResult = ViewEngines.Engines.FindPartialView(controller.ControllerContext, partialView);
var viewContext = new ViewContext(controller.ControllerContext, viewResult.View, ViewData, TempData, sw);
viewResult.View.Render(viewContext, sw);
return sw.GetStringBuilder().ToString();
}
}
This works fine when used after a client request (SignalR/websocket), but if the code is triggered by a server-side event (WCF connection to another app), HttpContext.Current = null which causes an error.
How can I make this work?
PS. I have also tried Razor Engine but I'm getting the error "Unable to compile template. The name 'Html' does not exist in the current context". Since the template also contains "#Html", it seems that the razor engine cannot parse the template outside a controller.
I was able to make it work using RazorEngine by removing all #Html tags from the partial view file.
string template = System.IO.File.ReadAllText(path);
string partialView = RazorEngine.Razor.Parse(template, model, "cachename");
http://forums.asp.net/t/1923611.aspx/2/10?Fake+HttpContext+ASP+NET+MVC+#5459457
Is there any way to get access to the current running request's FormCollection, ViewData, ModelState, etc. when running in an ASP.NET MVC application other than if you are directly working in the View? I'd like to be able to call some custom handlers from within the view, but access these collections without having to pass them. I'm thinking something similar to HttpContext.Current in webforms?
Try,
var wrapper=new HttpContextWrapper(System.Web.HttpContext.Current);
var routeData = RouteTable.Routes.GetRouteData(wrapper);
Controller con = (Controller)ControllerBuilder.Current.GetControllerFactory().CreateController(new RequestContext(wrapper, routeData), routeData.Values["controller"].ToString());
var viewData = con.ViewData;
var modelState= con.ModelState;
var form=new FormCollection();
var controllerContext = new ControllerContext(wrapper, routeData, con);
Predicate<string> propertyFilter = propertyName => new BindAttribute().IsPropertyAllowed(propertyName);
IModelBinder binder = Binders.GetBinder(typeof(FormCollection));
ModelBindingContext bindingContext = new ModelBindingContext()
{
ModelMetadata = ModelMetadataProviders.Current.GetMetadataForType(() => form, typeof(FormCollection)),
ModelName = "form",
ModelState = modelState,
PropertyFilter = propertyFilter,
ValueProvider = ValueProviderFactories.Factories.GetValueProvider(controllerContext)
};
form = (FormCollection)binder.BindModel(controllerContext, bindingContext);
There is a ViewContext object that lets you link back to most of what you're asking for, but you really have to ask yourself why you're doing all of this in the view. (IMHO anyway)
Edit: I may have misread your question. There is a ControllerContext in the controller and a ViewContext in the view. Most of the extensibility points in MVC have some sort of Context object that lets you get at the Request and it's data.
So basically I have a partial view which can build a nice table for me. I would like to email this table out every week to my users. Instead of having to basically copy the template again, I would like to forward my model to the controller and receive the corresponding generated HTML as a String.
Is it possible to do this in a Controller, I feel it should be a pretty simple process.
Put this into a Helper file:
public static string RenderViewToString(ControllerContext context, string viewName, object model)
{
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(viewName))
viewName = context.RouteData.GetRequiredString("action");
ViewDataDictionary viewData = new ViewDataDictionary(model);
using (StringWriter sw = new StringWriter())
{
ViewEngineResult viewResult = ViewEngines.Engines.FindPartialView(context, viewName);
ViewContext viewContext = new ViewContext(context, viewResult.View, viewData, new TempDataDictionary(), sw);
viewResult.View.Render(viewContext, sw);
return sw.GetStringBuilder().ToString();
}
}
And then from the controller you can call it like this:
var order = orderService.GetOrder(id);
var orderPrint = MyHelper.RenderViewToString(this.ControllerContext, "_OrderView", order);
If you search for rendering partial views to strings you'll also come across some good leads. That's what I did to come up with the following extension method for the ControllerBase class:
public static string RenderPartialViewToString( this ControllerBase controller, string partialPath, ViewDataDictionary viewData = null )
{
if( string.IsNullOrEmpty(partialPath) )
partialPath = controller.ControllerContext.RouteData.GetRequiredString("action");
using( StringWriter sw = new StringWriter() )
{
ViewEngineResult viewResult = ViewEngines.Engines.FindPartialView(controller.ControllerContext, partialPath);
ViewContext viewContext = new ViewContext(controller.ControllerContext,
viewResult.View,
( viewData == null ) ? controller.ViewData : viewData,
controller.TempData,
sw);
// copy retVal state items to the html helper
foreach( var item in viewContext.Controller.ViewData.ModelState )
{
if( !viewContext.ViewData.ModelState.Keys.Contains(item.Key) )
viewContext.ViewData.ModelState.Add(item);
}
viewResult.View.Render(viewContext, sw);
return sw.GetStringBuilder().ToString();
}
}
Conceptually, the procedure to follow involves using the ViewEngines defined for your app to find a partial view by its name. You then create a ViewContext off of that partial, and copy the various model state properties over to it.
The code assigns an optional ViewDataDictionary that you can provide to the ViewContext. If you don't provide the ViewDataDictionary it grabs the ViewDataDictionary defined for the controller that it's being called against.
What this means is that you can either define ViewData values (or ViewBag properties) directly in your controller and then call the extension method -- which will apply those ViewData/ViewBag properties to the partial when it gets rendered -- or you can create a separate ViewDataDictionary object in your action method and pass it to the extension method. The first is quicker/easier, but it "pollutes" the ViewData for your action method, while the second takes a little longer to set up but lets you keep your partial view data separate from your action method's ViewData.
Look into the MvcMailer project. Coupled with a partial view that renders your table, you should be able to pretty easily put together emails with your tables.
Render a view as a string
I use something simple like above but I almost always create separate views for the emails. Mainly due to the need to use absolute links and inserting the CSS into the head.
I'm developing an ASP.NET MVC application that will send the user a confirmation email. For the email itself, I'd like to create a view and then render that view and send it using the .NET mail objects.
How can I do this using the MVC framework?
You basically need to use IView.Render. You can get the view by using ViewEngineCollection.FindView (ViewEngines.Engines.FindView for the defaults). Render the output to a TextWriter and make sure you call ViewEngine.ReleaseView afterwards. Sample code below (untested):
StringWriter output = new StringWriter();
string viewName = "Email";
string masterName = "";
ViewEngineResult result = ViewEngines.Engines.FindView(ControllerContext, viewName, masterName);
ViewContext viewContext = new ViewContext(ControllerContext, result.View, viewData, tempData);
result.View.Render(viewContext, output);
result.ViewEngine.ReleaseView(ControllerContext, result.View);
string viewOutput = output.ToString();
I'll leave viewData / tempData to you.
As per my comment on Richard's answer, this code did work, but it always resulted in a 'Cannot redirect after HTTP headers have been sent' error.
After a lot of digging around Google and being frustrated, I finally found some code that seems to do the trick, on this article:
http://mikehadlow.blogspot.com/2008/06/mvc-framework-capturing-output-of-view_05.html
This guy's method is to create his own HttpContext.
Rather than use the MVCContrib BlockRenderer I simply replace the current HttpContext with a new one that hosts a Response that writes to a StringWriter.
This method works perfectly (a minor difference is that I had to create a separate Action for rendering my partial view, but no drama there).
This worked for me:
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.IO;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.Mvc;
namespace Profiteer.WebUI.Controllers
{
public class SampleController : Controller
{
public ActionResult Index()
{
RenderViewAsHtml(RouteData.Values["controller"].ToString(),
RouteData.Values["action"].ToString());
return View();
}
private void RenderViewAsHtml(string controllerName, string viewName)
{
var vEngine = (from ve in ViewEngineCollection
where ve.GetType() == typeof(RazorViewEngine)
select ve).FirstOrDefault();
if (vEngine != null)
{
var view =
vEngine.FindView(
ControllerContext,
viewName, "_Layout", false).View as RazorView;
if (view != null)
{
var outPath =
Server.MapPath(
string.Format("~/Views/{0}/{1}.html",
controllerName, viewName));
using (var sw = new StreamWriter(outPath, false))
{
var viewContext =
new ViewContext(ControllerContext,
view,
new ViewDataDictionary(),
new TempDataDictionary(),
sw);
view.Render(viewContext, sw);
}
}
}
}
}
}