ASP.NET MVC Programming

Question

So here's the deal

I'm working on a project that I had originally focused on Zend Framework, But now I want to get into ASP.NET MVC and boy lets just say it's good and a great start though i'm still at the beginning stage of it. But I am having issues with passing Data From My Controller to the Master / Layout Page. Now in Zend I am able to determine which controller and which action I am in through a helper I created. Now I want to implement the same functionality in this ASP.NET MVC application. So my Master Layout Page knows which Controller I am in and hence highilighting the navigation for it. I am using a straight custom html li a structure navigation.

Any help on this specific topic would be greatly appreciated.

DM. · Accepted Answer · 2010-03-11 03:25:22Z

2

Welcome to asp.net mvc... I handle this scenario 1 of 2 ways:

1) I put a line of code at the top of my Master Page that gets the current action being called:

<% string action = ViewContext.RouteData.Values["action"].ToString(); %>

Then, you can do a check on your navigation links and add a class if appropriate:

<% if (action == "Home") { Response.Write(" class='current'"); }%>

2) I send a string along with each view and attach it to the body tag as a class in my Master Page:

public ActionResult Home()
{
    ViewData["BodyClass"] = "home";

    return View();
}


<body class="<%= (string)ViewData["BodyClass"] %>">

Then in your css you can do something like:

.home #nav li a {
    /* something different */
}

Hope that helps.

answered Mar 11, 2010 at 3:25

DM.

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3 Comments

Michael D. Irizarry Over a year ago

I can't imagine using this technique for a huge site.

DM. Over a year ago

Did you down voted this answer because you "can't imagine using this in a huge site?"

Michael D. Irizarry Over a year ago

No. It's just that it doesn't seem maintainable.

Steve Horn · Accepted Answer · 2010-03-11 03:02:26Z

0

You might want to take a look at some of the videos published on the ASP.Net site. There are tutorials and screencasts demonstrating the techniques you're asking about. http://www.asp.net/mvc

answered Mar 11, 2010 at 3:02

Steve Horn

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Comments

Mike Koder · Accepted Answer · 2010-03-11 18:23:16Z

If you want to pass data to your masterpage, I would suggest the following:

Create viewmodel base class, e.g.

public class ViewModelBase
{
    public List<MenuItem> MenuItems { get; set; }
    public string SomeRandomData { get; set; }
}

modify masterpage's 1st row

<%@ Master Language="C#" Inherits="System.Web.Mvc.ViewMasterPage<ViewModelBase>" %>

For every page create viewmodels, e.g.

public class TestViewModel : ViewModelBase
{
    public string Message { get; set; }
}

Controller example

public class TestController : Controller
{
    public ActionResult Index()
    {
        TestViewModel model = new TestViewModel();
        // passing selected menuitem as parameter
        model.MenuItems = createMenuItems("test");
        model.Message = "Hello World!";
        return View(model);
    }
    private List<MenuItem> createMenuItems(string selected)
    {
        // ...
    }
}

Viewpage's 1st row

<%@ Page Title="" Language="C#" MasterPageFile="~/Views/Shared/Site.Master" Inherits="System.Web.Mvc.ViewPage<TestViewModel>" %>

Now you can access ViewModelBase from masterpage and TestViewModel from viewpage :)

Add

<add namespace="yourproject.Models"/>

to 'namespaces' section in web.config so you don't have to type import statement on every viewpage.

Michael D. Irizarry · Accepted Answer · 2010-03-11 03:03:57Z

-1

You can use sitemap and a few tricks for that.

http://www.asp.net/(S(pdfrohu0ajmwt445fanvj2r3))/learn/mvc/tutorial-20-cs.aspx

answered Mar 11, 2010 at 3:03

Michael D. Irizarry

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