Using HtmlHelper in a Controller - asp.net-mvc

Is it possible to use HtmlHelper in a controller, for-example to get the TextBox(...) method? not that I can't write the html that it generates myself, but I just want to understand how this works so I can create the best solution.

Here's an example adapted from this:
var h = new HtmlHelper(new ViewContext(ControllerContext, new WebFormView("omg"), new ViewDataDictionary(), new TempDataDictionary()), new ViewPage());
h.TextBox("myname");
Note that this is a hack, it can be done but I don't think there's any good reason to do this...

You can use method like this:
public static HtmlHelper GetHtmlHelper(this Controller controller)
{
var viewContext = new ViewContext(controller.ControllerContext, new FakeView(), controller.ViewData, controller.TempData, TextWriter.Null);
return new HtmlHelper(viewContext, new ViewPage());
}
public class FakeView : IView
{
public void Render(ViewContext viewContext, TextWriter writer)
{
throw new InvalidOperationException();
}
}

The HtmlHelper is part of the View mechanism by design and should be considered separate to the Controller and Model parts of MVC. I am not sure why you would want to generate controls inside the controller as it's role is to deliver the Data to the view for rendering.
I am not saying that you cannot achieve it, but for good design it would be better.
Can you explain what you are trying to achieve and then we could look at doing it in an "MVC way"?

using System.Web.Mvc;
using System.Web.Mvc.Html;
var h = new HtmlHelper<Effort>(new ViewContext(ControllerContext, new WebFormView(ControllerContext, "omg"), new ViewDataDictionary(), new TempDataDictionary(), new StringWriter()), new ViewPage());
h.DisplayFor(e => Model.Efforts[i].Content.Offer.Price1.Value)

For .NET Core 2 MVC: https://github.com/aspnet/Mvc/issues/7321
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Infrastructure;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.ModelBinding;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Rendering;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Routing;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.ViewEngines;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.ViewFeatures;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.ViewFeatures.Internal;
using Microsoft.Extensions.Options;
using System.IO;
using System.Text.Encodings.Web;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
public class HelperGenerator
{
private readonly IHtmlGenerator _htmlGenerator;
private readonly ICompositeViewEngine _compositeViewEngine;
private readonly IModelMetadataProvider _modelMetadataProvider;
private readonly IViewBufferScope _viewBufferScope;
private readonly IActionContextAccessor _actionContextAccessor;
private readonly HtmlHelperOptions _htmlHelperOptions;
public HelperGenerator(IHtmlGenerator htmlGenerator, ICompositeViewEngine compositeViewEngine, IModelMetadataProvider modelMetadataProvider, IViewBufferScope viewBufferScope, IActionContextAccessor actionContextAccessor, IOptions<MvcViewOptions> options)
{
_htmlGenerator = htmlGenerator;
_compositeViewEngine = compositeViewEngine;
_modelMetadataProvider = modelMetadataProvider;
_viewBufferScope = viewBufferScope;
_actionContextAccessor = actionContextAccessor;
_htmlHelperOptions = options.Value.HtmlHelperOptions;
}
public IHtmlHelper HtmlHelper(ViewDataDictionary ViewData, ITempDataDictionary TempData)
{
var helper = new HtmlHelper(_htmlGenerator, _compositeViewEngine, _modelMetadataProvider, _viewBufferScope, HtmlEncoder.Default, UrlEncoder.Default);
var viewContext = new ViewContext(_actionContextAccessor.ActionContext,
new FakeView(),
ViewData,
TempData,
TextWriter.Null,
_htmlHelperOptions);
helper.Contextualize(viewContext);
return helper;
}
private class FakeView : IView
{
public string Path => "View";
public Task RenderAsync(ViewContext context)
{
return Task.FromResult(0);
}
}
}
Make sure to register in services:
services.AddSingleton<IActionContextAccessor, ActionContextAccessor>();

If someone is trying to do this from without a Controller (like when unit testing), there are further problems to deal with, as many of these methods (which I know, were not a testing scenario, but for that scenario) were throwing Null exceptions (ViewContext.ScopeCache). You can see this by the following (note all of these ways require a ViewContext instance to be formed, which is one of the parameters you insert into the constructor of the HtmlHelper instance, so on that object):
viewContext.UnobtrusiveJavaScriptEnabled = false;
Simply setting that value throws an exception with many of these methods, but the problem was fixed for me by this answer, see how he gets an HtmlHelper (see also here).

using System.Web.Mvc;
using System.Web.Mvc.Html;
HtmlHelper helper = new HtmlHelper(new ViewContext(ControllerContext, new WebFormView(ControllerContext, "Index"), new ViewDataDictionary(), new TempDataDictionary(), new System.IO.StringWriter()), new ViewPage());

Related

Get HTML string from asp.net MVC ActionResult in controller [duplicate]

I want to output two different views (one as a string that will be sent as an email), and the other the page displayed to a user.
Is this possible in ASP.NET MVC beta?
I've tried multiple examples:
1. RenderPartial to String in ASP.NET MVC Beta
If I use this example, I receive the "Cannot redirect after HTTP
headers have been sent.".
2. MVC Framework: Capturing the output of a view
If I use this, I seem to be unable to do a redirectToAction, as it
tries to render a view that may not exist. If I do return the view, it
is completely messed up and doesn't look right at all.
Does anyone have any ideas/solutions to these issues i have, or have any suggestions for better ones?
Many thanks!
Below is an example. What I'm trying to do is create the GetViewForEmail method:
public ActionResult OrderResult(string ref)
{
//Get the order
Order order = OrderService.GetOrder(ref);
//The email helper would do the meat and veg by getting the view as a string
//Pass the control name (OrderResultEmail) and the model (order)
string emailView = GetViewForEmail("OrderResultEmail", order);
//Email the order out
EmailHelper(order, emailView);
return View("OrderResult", order);
}
Accepted answer from Tim Scott (changed and formatted a little by me):
public virtual string RenderViewToString(
ControllerContext controllerContext,
string viewPath,
string masterPath,
ViewDataDictionary viewData,
TempDataDictionary tempData)
{
Stream filter = null;
ViewPage viewPage = new ViewPage();
//Right, create our view
viewPage.ViewContext = new ViewContext(controllerContext, new WebFormView(viewPath, masterPath), viewData, tempData);
//Get the response context, flush it and get the response filter.
var response = viewPage.ViewContext.HttpContext.Response;
response.Flush();
var oldFilter = response.Filter;
try
{
//Put a new filter into the response
filter = new MemoryStream();
response.Filter = filter;
//Now render the view into the memorystream and flush the response
viewPage.ViewContext.View.Render(viewPage.ViewContext, viewPage.ViewContext.HttpContext.Response.Output);
response.Flush();
//Now read the rendered view.
filter.Position = 0;
var reader = new StreamReader(filter, response.ContentEncoding);
return reader.ReadToEnd();
}
finally
{
//Clean up.
if (filter != null)
{
filter.Dispose();
}
//Now replace the response filter
response.Filter = oldFilter;
}
}
Example usage
Assuming a call from the controller to get the order confirmation email, passing the Site.Master location.
string myString = RenderViewToString(this.ControllerContext, "~/Views/Order/OrderResultEmail.aspx", "~/Views/Shared/Site.Master", this.ViewData, this.TempData);
Here's what I came up with, and it's working for me. I added the following method(s) to my controller base class. (You can always make these static methods somewhere else that accept a controller as a parameter I suppose)
MVC2 .ascx style
protected string RenderViewToString<T>(string viewPath, T model) {
ViewData.Model = model;
using (var writer = new StringWriter()) {
var view = new WebFormView(ControllerContext, viewPath);
var vdd = new ViewDataDictionary<T>(model);
var viewCxt = new ViewContext(ControllerContext, view, vdd,
new TempDataDictionary(), writer);
viewCxt.View.Render(viewCxt, writer);
return writer.ToString();
}
}
Razor .cshtml style
public string RenderRazorViewToString(string viewName, object model)
{
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();
}
}
Edit: added Razor code.
This answer is not on my way . This is originally from https://stackoverflow.com/a/2759898/2318354 but here I have show the way to use it with "Static" Keyword to make it common for all Controllers .
For that you have to make static class in class file . (Suppose your Class File Name is Utils.cs )
This example is For Razor.
Utils.cs
public static class RazorViewToString
{
public static string RenderRazorViewToString(this Controller controller, string viewName, object model)
{
controller.ViewData.Model = model;
using (var sw = new StringWriter())
{
var viewResult = ViewEngines.Engines.FindPartialView(controller.ControllerContext, viewName);
var viewContext = new ViewContext(controller.ControllerContext, viewResult.View, controller.ViewData, controller.TempData, sw);
viewResult.View.Render(viewContext, sw);
viewResult.ViewEngine.ReleaseView(controller.ControllerContext, viewResult.View);
return sw.GetStringBuilder().ToString();
}
}
}
Now you can call this class from your controller by adding NameSpace in your Controller File as following way by passing "this" as parameter to Controller.
string result = RazorViewToString.RenderRazorViewToString(this ,"ViewName", model);
As suggestion given by #Sergey this extension method can also call from cotroller as given below
string result = this.RenderRazorViewToString("ViewName", model);
I hope this will be useful to you make code clean and neat.
This works for me:
public virtual string RenderView(ViewContext viewContext)
{
var response = viewContext.HttpContext.Response;
response.Flush();
var oldFilter = response.Filter;
Stream filter = null;
try
{
filter = new MemoryStream();
response.Filter = filter;
viewContext.View.Render(viewContext, viewContext.HttpContext.Response.Output);
response.Flush();
filter.Position = 0;
var reader = new StreamReader(filter, response.ContentEncoding);
return reader.ReadToEnd();
}
finally
{
if (filter != null)
{
filter.Dispose();
}
response.Filter = oldFilter;
}
}
I found a new solution that renders a view to string without having to mess with the Response stream of the current HttpContext (which doesn't allow you to change the response's ContentType or other headers).
Basically, all you do is create a fake HttpContext for the view to render itself:
/// <summary>Renders a view to string.</summary>
public static string RenderViewToString(this Controller controller,
string viewName, object viewData) {
//Create memory writer
var sb = new StringBuilder();
var memWriter = new StringWriter(sb);
//Create fake http context to render the view
var fakeResponse = new HttpResponse(memWriter);
var fakeContext = new HttpContext(HttpContext.Current.Request, fakeResponse);
var fakeControllerContext = new ControllerContext(
new HttpContextWrapper(fakeContext),
controller.ControllerContext.RouteData,
controller.ControllerContext.Controller);
var oldContext = HttpContext.Current;
HttpContext.Current = fakeContext;
//Use HtmlHelper to render partial view to fake context
var html = new HtmlHelper(new ViewContext(fakeControllerContext,
new FakeView(), new ViewDataDictionary(), new TempDataDictionary()),
new ViewPage());
html.RenderPartial(viewName, viewData);
//Restore context
HttpContext.Current = oldContext;
//Flush memory and return output
memWriter.Flush();
return sb.ToString();
}
/// <summary>Fake IView implementation used to instantiate an HtmlHelper.</summary>
public class FakeView : IView {
#region IView Members
public void Render(ViewContext viewContext, System.IO.TextWriter writer) {
throw new NotImplementedException();
}
#endregion
}
This works on ASP.NET MVC 1.0, together with ContentResult, JsonResult, etc. (changing Headers on the original HttpResponse doesn't throw the "Server cannot set content type after HTTP headers have been sent" exception).
Update: in ASP.NET MVC 2.0 RC, the code changes a bit because we have to pass in the StringWriter used to write the view into the ViewContext:
//...
//Use HtmlHelper to render partial view to fake context
var html = new HtmlHelper(
new ViewContext(fakeControllerContext, new FakeView(),
new ViewDataDictionary(), new TempDataDictionary(), memWriter),
new ViewPage());
html.RenderPartial(viewName, viewData);
//...
This article describes how to render a View to a string in different scenarios:
MVC Controller calling another of its own ActionMethods
MVC Controller calling an ActionMethod of another MVC Controller
WebAPI Controller calling an ActionMethod of an MVC Controller
The solution/code is provided as a class called ViewRenderer. It is part of Rick Stahl's WestwindToolkit at GitHub.
Usage (3. - WebAPI example):
string html = ViewRenderer.RenderView("~/Areas/ReportDetail/Views/ReportDetail/Index.cshtml", ReportVM.Create(id));
If you want to forgo MVC entirely, thereby avoiding all the HttpContext mess...
using RazorEngine;
using RazorEngine.Templating; // For extension methods.
string razorText = System.IO.File.ReadAllText(razorTemplateFileLocation);
string emailBody = Engine.Razor.RunCompile(razorText, "templateKey", typeof(Model), model);
This uses the awesome open source Razor Engine here:
https://github.com/Antaris/RazorEngine
Additional tip for ASP NET CORE:
Interface:
public interface IViewRenderer
{
Task<string> RenderAsync<TModel>(Controller controller, string name, TModel model);
}
Implementation:
public class ViewRenderer : IViewRenderer
{
private readonly IRazorViewEngine viewEngine;
public ViewRenderer(IRazorViewEngine viewEngine) => this.viewEngine = viewEngine;
public async Task<string> RenderAsync<TModel>(Controller controller, string name, TModel model)
{
ViewEngineResult viewEngineResult = this.viewEngine.FindView(controller.ControllerContext, name, false);
if (!viewEngineResult.Success)
{
throw new InvalidOperationException(string.Format("Could not find view: {0}", name));
}
IView view = viewEngineResult.View;
controller.ViewData.Model = model;
await using var writer = new StringWriter();
var viewContext = new ViewContext(
controller.ControllerContext,
view,
controller.ViewData,
controller.TempData,
writer,
new HtmlHelperOptions());
await view.RenderAsync(viewContext);
return writer.ToString();
}
}
Registration in Startup.cs
...
services.AddSingleton<IViewRenderer, ViewRenderer>();
...
And usage in controller:
public MyController: Controller
{
private readonly IViewRenderer renderer;
public MyController(IViewRendere renderer) => this.renderer = renderer;
public async Task<IActionResult> MyViewTest
{
var view = await this.renderer.RenderAsync(this, "MyView", model);
return new OkObjectResult(view);
}
}
To render a view to a string in the Service Layer without having to pass ControllerContext around, there is a good Rick Strahl article here http://www.codemag.com/Article/1312081 that creates a generic controller. Code summary below:
// Some Static Class
public static string RenderViewToString(ControllerContext context, string viewPath, object model = null, bool partial = false)
{
// first find the ViewEngine for this view
ViewEngineResult viewEngineResult = null;
if (partial)
viewEngineResult = ViewEngines.Engines.FindPartialView(context, viewPath);
else
viewEngineResult = ViewEngines.Engines.FindView(context, viewPath, null);
if (viewEngineResult == null)
throw new FileNotFoundException("View cannot be found.");
// get the view and attach the model to view data
var view = viewEngineResult.View;
context.Controller.ViewData.Model = model;
string result = null;
using (var sw = new StringWriter())
{
var ctx = new ViewContext(context, view, context.Controller.ViewData, context.Controller.TempData, sw);
view.Render(ctx, sw);
result = sw.ToString();
}
return result;
}
// In the Service Class
public class GenericController : Controller
{ }
public static T CreateController<T>(RouteData routeData = null) where T : Controller, new()
{
// create a disconnected controller instance
T controller = new T();
// get context wrapper from HttpContext if available
HttpContextBase wrapper;
if (System.Web.HttpContext.Current != null)
wrapper = new HttpContextWrapper(System.Web.HttpContext.Current);
else
throw new InvalidOperationException("Cannot create Controller Context if no active HttpContext instance is available.");
if (routeData == null)
routeData = new RouteData();
// add the controller routing if not existing
if (!routeData.Values.ContainsKey("controller") &&
!routeData.Values.ContainsKey("Controller"))
routeData.Values.Add("controller", controller.GetType().Name.ToLower().Replace("controller", ""));
controller.ControllerContext = new ControllerContext(wrapper, routeData, controller);
return controller;
}
Then to render the View in the Service class:
var stringView = RenderViewToString(CreateController<GenericController>().ControllerContext, "~/Path/To/View/Location/_viewName.cshtml", theViewModel, true);
you can get the view in string using this way
protected string RenderPartialViewToString(string viewName, object model)
{
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(viewName))
viewName = ControllerContext.RouteData.GetRequiredString("action");
if (model != null)
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();
}
}
We can call this method in two way
string strView = RenderPartialViewToString("~/Views/Shared/_Header.cshtml", null)
OR
var model = new Person()
string strView = RenderPartialViewToString("~/Views/Shared/_Header.cshtml", model)
I am using MVC 1.0 RTM and none of the above solutions worked for me. But this one did:
Public Function RenderView(ByVal viewContext As ViewContext) As String
Dim html As String = ""
Dim response As HttpResponse = HttpContext.Current.Response
Using tempWriter As New System.IO.StringWriter()
Dim privateMethod As MethodInfo = response.GetType().GetMethod("SwitchWriter", BindingFlags.NonPublic Or BindingFlags.Instance)
Dim currentWriter As Object = privateMethod.Invoke(response, BindingFlags.NonPublic Or BindingFlags.Instance Or BindingFlags.InvokeMethod, Nothing, New Object() {tempWriter}, Nothing)
Try
viewContext.View.Render(viewContext, Nothing)
html = tempWriter.ToString()
Finally
privateMethod.Invoke(response, BindingFlags.NonPublic Or BindingFlags.Instance Or BindingFlags.InvokeMethod, Nothing, New Object() {currentWriter}, Nothing)
End Try
End Using
Return html
End Function
I saw an implementation for MVC 3 and Razor from another website, it worked for me:
public static string RazorRender(Controller context, string DefaultAction)
{
string Cache = string.Empty;
System.Text.StringBuilder sb = new System.Text.StringBuilder();
System.IO.TextWriter tw = new System.IO.StringWriter(sb);
RazorView view_ = new RazorView(context.ControllerContext, DefaultAction, null, false, null);
view_.Render(new ViewContext(context.ControllerContext, view_, new ViewDataDictionary(), new TempDataDictionary(), tw), tw);
Cache = sb.ToString();
return Cache;
}
public static string RenderRazorViewToString(string viewName, object model)
{
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);
return sw.GetStringBuilder().ToString();
}
}
public static class HtmlHelperExtensions
{
public static string RenderPartialToString(ControllerContext context, string partialViewName, ViewDataDictionary viewData, TempDataDictionary tempData)
{
ViewEngineResult result = ViewEngines.Engines.FindPartialView(context, partialViewName);
if (result.View != null)
{
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
using (StringWriter sw = new StringWriter(sb))
{
using (HtmlTextWriter output = new HtmlTextWriter(sw))
{
ViewContext viewContext = new ViewContext(context, result.View, viewData, tempData, output);
result.View.Render(viewContext, output);
}
}
return sb.ToString();
}
return String.Empty;
}
}
More on Razor render- MVC3 View Render to String
Quick tip
For a strongly typed Model just add it to the ViewData.Model property before passing to RenderViewToString. e.g
this.ViewData.Model = new OrderResultEmailViewModel(order);
string myString = RenderViewToString(this.ControllerContext, "~/Views/Order/OrderResultEmail.aspx", "~/Views/Shared/Site.Master", this.ViewData, this.TempData);
To repeat from a more unknown question, take a look at MvcIntegrationTestFramework.
It makes saves you writing your own helpers to stream result and is proven to work well enough. I'd assume this would be in a test project and as a bonus you would have the other testing capabilities once you've got this setup. Main bother would probably be sorting out the dependency chain.
private static readonly string mvcAppPath =
Path.GetFullPath(AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory
+ "\\..\\..\\..\\MyMvcApplication");
private readonly AppHost appHost = new AppHost(mvcAppPath);
[Test]
public void Root_Url_Renders_Index_View()
{
appHost.SimulateBrowsingSession(browsingSession => {
RequestResult result = browsingSession.ProcessRequest("");
Assert.IsTrue(result.ResponseText.Contains("<!DOCTYPE html"));
});
}
Here is a class I wrote to do this for ASP.NETCore RC2. I use it so I can generate html email using Razor.
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Http;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Abstractions;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.ModelBinding;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Rendering;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.ViewEngines;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.ViewFeatures;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Routing;
using System.IO;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
namespace cloudscribe.Web.Common.Razor
{
/// <summary>
/// the goal of this class is to provide an easy way to produce an html string using
/// Razor templates and models, for use in generating html email.
/// </summary>
public class ViewRenderer
{
public ViewRenderer(
ICompositeViewEngine viewEngine,
ITempDataProvider tempDataProvider,
IHttpContextAccessor contextAccesor)
{
this.viewEngine = viewEngine;
this.tempDataProvider = tempDataProvider;
this.contextAccesor = contextAccesor;
}
private ICompositeViewEngine viewEngine;
private ITempDataProvider tempDataProvider;
private IHttpContextAccessor contextAccesor;
public async Task<string> RenderViewAsString<TModel>(string viewName, TModel model)
{
var viewData = new ViewDataDictionary<TModel>(
metadataProvider: new EmptyModelMetadataProvider(),
modelState: new ModelStateDictionary())
{
Model = model
};
var actionContext = new ActionContext(contextAccesor.HttpContext, new RouteData(), new ActionDescriptor());
var tempData = new TempDataDictionary(contextAccesor.HttpContext, tempDataProvider);
using (StringWriter output = new StringWriter())
{
ViewEngineResult viewResult = viewEngine.FindView(actionContext, viewName, true);
ViewContext viewContext = new ViewContext(
actionContext,
viewResult.View,
viewData,
tempData,
output,
new HtmlHelperOptions()
);
await viewResult.View.RenderAsync(viewContext);
return output.GetStringBuilder().ToString();
}
}
}
}
I found a better way to render razor view page when I got error with the methods above, this solution for both web form environment and mvc environment.
No controller is needed.
Here is the code example, in this example I simulated a mvc action with an async http handler:
/// <summary>
/// Enables processing of HTTP Web requests asynchronously by a custom HttpHandler that implements the IHttpHandler interface.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="context">An HttpContext object that provides references to the intrinsic server objects.</param>
/// <returns>The task to complete the http request.</returns>
protected override async Task ProcessRequestAsync(HttpContext context)
{
if (this._view == null)
{
this.OnError(context, new FileNotFoundException("Can not find the mvc view file.".Localize()));
return;
}
object model = await this.LoadModelAsync(context);
WebPageBase page = WebPageBase.CreateInstanceFromVirtualPath(this._view.VirtualPath);
using (StringWriter sw = new StringWriter())
{
page.ExecutePageHierarchy(new WebPageContext(new HttpContextWrapper(context), page, model), sw);
await context.Response.Output.WriteAsync(sw.GetStringBuilder().ToString());
}
}
The easiest way for me was:
public string GetFileAsString(string path)
{
var html = "";
FileStream fileStream = new FileStream(path, FileMode.Open);
using (StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(fileStream))
{
html += reader.ReadLine();
}
return html;
}
I use this for emails and make sure that the file only contains CSS and HTML

Best Method to Get a String from a Razor View

I would like to have my Razor View return a string of the html it renders, so that the controller would return the rendered html string from the View and not just the view. There is no native method I can find in ASP.NET MVC to do this. Are there any workarounds for this?
By way of illustrative example :
public ActionResult Index()
{
return View().ToString; //View has no ToString() method but this is what I am trying to do
}
You can use Html.Partial to return an MvcHtmlString of the view.
You can find the Partial method in System.Web.Mvc.Html.PartialExtensions.
There's more information here about this method: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee402898.aspx
I personally use this for my RenderPartials (plural) extension method:
public static void RenderPartials<T>(this HtmlHelper helper,
string partialViewName, IEnumerable<T> models, string htmlFormat)
{
if (models == null)
return;
foreach (var view in models.Select(model =>
helper.Partial(partialViewName,model, helper.ViewData)))
{
helper.ViewContext.HttpContext.Response
.Output.Write(htmlFormat, view);
}
}
Update
To render your view to a string in your controller you can do something like this (although it seems like a bit of a hack):
var htmlHelper = new HtmlHelper(new ViewContext(), new ViewPage());
var viewString = htmlHelper.Partial("PartialViewName");
The reason I say it's a bit of a hack is because HtmlHelper is designed to be used in your views and not in your controllers or models. That being said, if it works and there isn't an alternative to stringify a parsed view it might be of use to you.
Given the amendment to your question you'd be looking for something like this:
public string Index()
{
var htmlHelper = new HtmlHelper(new ViewContext(), new ViewPage());
return htmlHelper.Partial("PartialViewName");
}
If the above code doesn't create the htmlHelper correctly you can create it like this instead:
TextWriter writer = new StringWriter();
var htmlHelper = new HtmlHelper(new ViewContext(ControllerContext,
new RazorView(ControllerContext, "","",true,null),
new ViewDataDictionary(),
new TempDataDictionary(), writer), new ViewPage());

Mock ParentActionViewContext MVC.Net

I can't find a solution to mock ControllerContext.ParentActionViewContext.
here is the code of my controller
[ChildActionOnly]
public ViewResult Menu()
{
string controller = ControllerContext.ParentActionViewContext.RouteData.Values["controller"].ToString();
string action = ControllerContext.ParentActionViewContext.RouteData.Values["action"].ToString();
List menuItems = new List();
...code to populate my list...
return View(menuItems);
}
What I want to accomplish is mock ParentActionViewContext in a test so i can pass whatever controller and action I want to do my simulations.
I can mock the RouteData of the ControllerContext, but I can't fake the one of the parent controller.
Maybe I'm missing something obviuos.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
You're not missing anything obvious. You already discovered that the ParentActionViewContext property of the ControllerContext is not marked virtual and therefore, un-mockable. You can however, accomplish what you want by creating a ViewContext object with the values you want, adding that object to the RouteData.DataTokens dictionary with the key "ParentActionViewContext."
You can view the source code to the ControllerContext class and the implementation of the ParentActionViewContext property at http://bit.ly/ku8vR4.
Here's how I implemented this in my test:
[TestFixture]
public class SomeControllerTests
{
private PartialViewResult _result;
private Mock<HttpContextBase> _mockHttpContext;
private HttpContextBase _httpContext;
private RouteData _routeData;
private RouteData _parentRouteData;
[Test]
public void CanDoSomething()
{
SetupAnonymousUser();
SetupHttpContext();
SetupRouteData();
var controller = new FooController();
controller.ControllerContext = new ControllerContext(_httpContext, _routeData, controller);
_result = controller.Index() as PartialViewResult;
var model = _result.ViewData.Model as FooViewModel;
Assert.IsNotNull(model);
Assert.AreEqual("New", model.UserStatus);
Assert.AreEqual("21", model.PromoId);
}
private void SetupHttpContext()
{
_mockHttpContext = new Mock<HttpContextBase>();
_httpContext = _mockHttpContext.Object;
}
private void SetupRouteData()
{
SetupParentRouteData();
var viewContext = new ViewContext {RouteData = _parentRouteData};
_routeData = new RouteData();
_routeData.Values.Add("controller", "foo");
_routeData.Values.Add("action", "index");
_routeData.DataTokens["ParentActionViewContext"] = viewContext;
}
private void SetupParentRouteData()
{
_parentRouteData = new RouteData();
_parentRouteData.Values.Add("controller", "home");
_parentRouteData.Values.Add("action", "index");
}
}
Hope this helps!
Michael Ibarra

Unit testing Controller.Initialize

I am setting the thread culture to the culture sent via a cookie on the HttpRequest in the initialize method of a base controller I have created. I now want to create a unit test for this functionality.
In the test I have created a mock HttpContext and added the Cookie. Using this and a routeData helper, I create a RequestContext. Then I create a new controller and call Execute on it passing in the RequestContext.
I first hit a problem regarding TempData and SessionState, which I have fixed by setting the TempData and creating an EmptyTempDataProvider on the controller.
Then I had a problem with the VirtualPathProviderViewengine, which I fixed by creating a VoidActionInvoker.
Is this the best way to test the initialize method? Any doing anything similar and willing to share some code?
Thanks,
Jon
namespace MyApp.UnitTests {
[TestClass]
public class ControllerTests {
[TestInitialize]
public void Setup() {
RouteTable.Routes.Clear();
MyApp.MvcApplication.RegisterRoutes(RouteTable.Routes);
}
[TestMethod]
public void Thread_culture_should_be_set_to_cookie_culture() {
// Arrange
var context = HttpMockHelper.FakeHttpContext();
context.Request.Cookies.Add(new HttpCookie(CultureService.CookieName, "nl-NL"));
var reqContext = new RequestContext(context, "~/Home/Landing".Route());
var controller = new HomeController {
TempData = new TempDataDictionary(),
TempDataProvider = new EmptyTempDataProvider(),
ActionInvoker = new VoidActionInvoker()
};
// Act
(controller as IController).Execute(reqContext);
// Assert
Assert.AreEqual("nl-NL", Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture.Name);
}
}
internal class VoidActionInvoker : ControllerActionInvoker {
protected override ActionExecutedContext InvokeActionMethodWithFilters(System.Reflection.MethodInfo methodInfo, IDictionary<string, object> parameters, IList<IActionFilter> filters) {
return new ActionExecutedContext(this.ControllerContext, false, null);
}
protected override void InvokeActionResult(ActionResult actionResult) {
}
}
internal class EmptyTempDataProvider : ITempDataProvider {
public void SaveTempData(ControllerContext controllerContext, IDictionary<string, object> values) {
}
public IDictionary<string, object> LoadTempData(ControllerContext controllerContext) {
return new Dictionary<string, object>(StringComparer.OrdinalIgnoreCase);
}
}
}
Sounds right to me, the initialize method takes a parameter for the requestcontext that requires an HttpContext, if I've got your post right you're mocking these objects and adding the values you want to test with and then ensuring that your method works correctly. Sounds exactly like what I would do. I wouldn't mind seeing some of the code though.
Edit: Your tests look good to me.

Rendering a view on-the-fly

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);
}
}
}
}
}
}

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