Using Razor outside of MVC in .NET Core

Question

I would like to use Razor as a templating engine in a .NET console application that I\'m writing in .NET Core.

The standalone Razor engines I\'ve come across (RazorE

Answer 1

There's a working example for .NET Core 1.0 at aspnet/Entropy/samples/Mvc.RenderViewToString. Since this might change or go away, I'll detail the approach I'm using in my own applications here.

Tl;dr - Razor works really well outside of MVC! This approach can handle more complex rendering scenarios like partial views and injecting objects into views as well, although I'll just demonstrate a simple example below.

---

The core service looks like this:

RazorViewToStringRenderer.cs

using System;
using System.IO;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Http;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Abstractions;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.ModelBinding;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Razor;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Rendering;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.ViewFeatures;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Routing;

namespace RenderRazorToString
{
    public class RazorViewToStringRenderer
    {
        private readonly IRazorViewEngine _viewEngine;
        private readonly ITempDataProvider _tempDataProvider;
        private readonly IServiceProvider _serviceProvider;

        public RazorViewToStringRenderer(
            IRazorViewEngine viewEngine,
            ITempDataProvider tempDataProvider,
            IServiceProvider serviceProvider)
        {
            _viewEngine = viewEngine;
            _tempDataProvider = tempDataProvider;
            _serviceProvider = serviceProvider;
        }

        public async Task RenderViewToString(string name, TModel model)
        {
            var actionContext = GetActionContext();

            var viewEngineResult = _viewEngine.FindView(actionContext, name, false);

            if (!viewEngineResult.Success)
            {
                throw new InvalidOperationException(string.Format("Couldn't find view '{0}'", name));
            }

            var view = viewEngineResult.View;

            using (var output = new StringWriter())
            {
                var viewContext = new ViewContext(
                    actionContext,
                    view,
                    new ViewDataDictionary(
                        metadataProvider: new EmptyModelMetadataProvider(),
                        modelState: new ModelStateDictionary())
                    {
                        Model = model
                    },
                    new TempDataDictionary(
                        actionContext.HttpContext,
                        _tempDataProvider),
                    output,
                    new HtmlHelperOptions());

                await view.RenderAsync(viewContext);

                return output.ToString();
            }
        }

        private ActionContext GetActionContext()
        {
            var httpContext = new DefaultHttpContext
            {
                RequestServices = _serviceProvider
            };

            return new ActionContext(httpContext, new RouteData(), new ActionDescriptor());
        }
    }
}

A simple test console app just needs to initialize the service (and some supporting services), and call it:

Program.cs

using System;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.IO;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Hosting;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Hosting.Internal;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Razor;
using Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection;
using Microsoft.Extensions.FileProviders;
using Microsoft.Extensions.ObjectPool;
using Microsoft.Extensions.PlatformAbstractions;

namespace RenderRazorToString
{
    public class Program
    {
        public static void Main()
        {
            // Initialize the necessary services
            var services = new ServiceCollection();
            ConfigureDefaultServices(services);
            var provider = services.BuildServiceProvider();

            var renderer = provider.GetRequiredService();

            // Build a model and render a view
            var model = new EmailViewModel
            {
                UserName = "User",
                SenderName = "Sender"
            };
            var emailContent = renderer.RenderViewToString("EmailTemplate", model).GetAwaiter().GetResult();

            Console.WriteLine(emailContent);
            Console.ReadLine();
        }

        private static void ConfigureDefaultServices(IServiceCollection services)
        {
            var applicationEnvironment = PlatformServices.Default.Application;
            services.AddSingleton(applicationEnvironment);

            var appDirectory = Directory.GetCurrentDirectory();

            var environment = new HostingEnvironment
            {
                WebRootFileProvider = new PhysicalFileProvider(appDirectory),
                ApplicationName = "RenderRazorToString"
            };
            services.AddSingleton(environment);

            services.Configure(options =>
            {
                options.FileProviders.Clear();
                options.FileProviders.Add(new PhysicalFileProvider(appDirectory));
            });

            services.AddSingleton();

            var diagnosticSource = new DiagnosticListener("Microsoft.AspNetCore");
            services.AddSingleton(diagnosticSource);

            services.AddLogging();
            services.AddMvc();
            services.AddSingleton();
        }
    }
}

This assumes that you have a view model class:

EmailViewModel.cs

namespace RenderRazorToString
{
    public class EmailViewModel
    {
        public string UserName { get; set; }

        public string SenderName { get; set; }
    }
}

And layout and view files:

Views/_Layout.cshtml

    

        @RenderBody()
    
    

Thanks,

@Model.SenderName
    

Views/EmailTemplate.cshtml

@model RenderRazorToString.EmailViewModel
@{ 
    Layout = "_EmailLayout";
}

Hello @Model.UserName,


    This is a generic email about something.