How to return a html string outside of a controller in .net mvc5

Question

I'm using .net MVC 5 to build a web application and trying to implement a method similar to the View() method of the Controller class but only return the evaluated html string.

I have my class Person.cs:

public class Person
{
    public string name {get; set;}
    public string address {get; set;}
}

And my view template PersonSummary.cshtml:

@model Project.Models.Person
<html>
    <h1>Name: @Model.Name</h1>
    <p>Address: @Model.Address</p>
</html>

What I want to do is:

Person person = new Person(){ name = "foo", address = "bar" };
string myHTML = myNewFunction("PersonSummary", person);

I do have a current solution (hack) of creating a seperate controller and getting the string from the ActionResult but after something a little more elegant.

user2160375 · Accepted Answer · 2014-08-28 06:55:52Z

1

Maybe it's worth trying to use RazorEngine? It's perfect to use for simple views (as your). It fits perfect f.e. for generating html emails.

Sample methods:

public string Compile<T>(string viewContent, T model)
{
    return Razor.Parse(viewContent, model);
}

public string CompileFromPath<T>(string viewPath, T model)
{
    if (!File.FileExists(viewPath))
    {
        return null;
    }

    var viewContent = File.ReadAllText(viewPath, System.Text.Encoding.UTF8);

    return this.Compile(viewContent, model);
}

Usage:

var html = CompileFrompath(Server.MapPath("~/my/view/path.cshtml"), person);

Remarks:

I'm not sure how library handles with iddational helpers for Html or Url. I belive that it can be configured to handle all desired extensions.

answered Aug 28, 2014 at 6:55

user2160375

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2 Comments

user2865446 Over a year ago

Thanks, I ended up going for the RazorEngine and just using a string as my view. Unfortunately couldn't get the read from file working on the server so I lost intellisense. Will revisit later, Cheers!

user2160375 Over a year ago

@user2865446 feel free to post you problem with reading files on server - we can help :)

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