Comments on: RenderPartial to String in ASP.NET MVC

By: Kevin Craft

Kevin Craft — Sat, 15 May 2010 17:11:07 +0000

I wrote a post that solves the same problem in a slightly different way. I dug into the ASP.NET MVC source and used the method they use. The Html and Ajax helpers work properly. You also don't have to provide the full path to the partial view's filename. You can use it just like the "PartialView" function in the controller. Check it out at http://craftycode.wordpress.com/2010/05/15/asp-net-mvc-render-partial-view-to-string/

By: Joshua

Joshua — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 15:24:24 +0000

I have implemented this solution, however, I am curious how we retrieve the data in the partial view?

Currently, I am casting the ViewData Objects in the partial view (not using a view model)

Unfortunately, ViewData seems to be empty when rendering.. No matter what I pass into RenderPartialToString as the viewData…

NE thoughts?

By: Bobasoft

Bobasoft — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 10:23:55 +0000

when use ajax helper in partial view – will be crash.

http://msug.vn.ua/blogs/bobasoft/archive/2010/01/07/render-partialview-to-string-asp-net-mvc.aspx – nicer solution

By: Gary Davis

Gary Davis — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 16:37:36 +0000

Based on what I read in your reference, I made these changes to solve the trap:

public static string RenderPartialToString(this HtmlHelper htmlHelper, string controlName, object viewData) { // Added Url to allow ascx to use Url.Action() var urlHelper = new UrlHelper(htmlHelper.ViewContext.RequestContext); // Added ViewContext to allow ascx to use Html helpers var vp = new ViewPage { ViewData = vd, ViewContext = htmlHelper.ViewContext, Url = urlHelper};

Note this is an Html helper called with Html.RenderPartialToString(). If not, use these changes:

var vc = new ViewContext(); // Added Url to allow ascx to use Url.Action() var urlHelper = new UrlHelper(vc.RequestContext); // Added ViewContext to allow ascx to use Html helpers var vp = new ViewPage { ViewData = vd, ViewContext = vc, Url = urlHelper };

Gary

By: Gary Davis

Gary Davis — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 16:05:53 +0000

This worked nicely except when the ascx control used an Html helper (). Html was null causing a Null-ref trap.

The trap did not occur if the control was referenced by Html.RenderPartial() instead of RenderPartialToString().

Gary

By: Brian

Brian — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 05:01:36 +0000

When I tried to use this code I had to change this line:
ViewDataDictionary vd = new ViewDataDictionary(viewData);

To:
ViewPage vp = new ViewPage { ViewData = (ViewDataDictionary)viewData };

Not sure why but when I created the ViewDataDictionary object with the constructor I was losing all of viewData’s parameters.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 15:01:40 +0000

Hey Dan,

As far as I know, your point is quite valid. If you want to render an entire view to a string, the previous post will work and this one will not.

However, the idea behind RenderPartialToString, is geared at just that, rendering a partial view to a string.

By: Dan Atkinson

Dan Atkinson — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 11:23:49 +0000

You link from your last blog post, but this isn’t the same as rendering a view to a string.

This is just rendering a partial as views don’t extend Control.

So, if you wanted to actually generate an entire view into a string, you’d still need to use the old method. That or rework your views to be partials instead…