@Html.Action in Asp.Net Core

Question

Where is @Html.Action in Asp.net Core? I can see @Html.ActionLink but not a direct call to an Action as before.

Was it replaced by ViewComp

Answer 1

ViewComponents are great, but not so great for Ajax.

If you really miss the @Html.RenderAction method, then here's a quick implementation I threw together for AspNetCore.

using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Linq;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Html;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Http;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Http.Extensions;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Controllers;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Internal;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Infrastructure;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Razor;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Rendering;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Routing;

namespace Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Rendering    {

    public static class HtmlHelperViewExtensions
    {

        public static IHtmlContent RenderAction(this IHtmlHelper helper, string action, object parameters = null)
        {
            var controller =  (string)helper.ViewContext.RouteData.Values["controller"];

            return RenderAction(helper, action, controller, parameters);
        }

        public static IHtmlContent RenderAction(this IHtmlHelper helper, string action, string controller, object parameters = null)
        {
            var area = (string)helper.ViewContext.RouteData.Values["area"];

            return RenderAction(helper, action, controller, area, parameters);
        }

        public static IHtmlContent RenderAction(this IHtmlHelper helper, string action, string controller, string area, object parameters = null)
        {
            if (action == null)
                throw new ArgumentNullException("action");

            if (controller == null)
                throw new ArgumentNullException("controller");

            if (area == null)
                throw new ArgumentNullException("area");

            var task = RenderActionAsync(helper, action, controller, area, parameters);

            return task.Result;
        }

        private static async Task RenderActionAsync(this IHtmlHelper helper, string action, string controller, string area, object parameters = null)
        {
            // fetching required services for invocation
            var currentHttpContext = helper.ViewContext?.HttpContext;
            var httpContextFactory = GetServiceOrFail(currentHttpContext);
            var actionInvokerFactory = GetServiceOrFail(currentHttpContext);
            var actionSelector = GetServiceOrFail(currentHttpContext);

            // creating new action invocation context
            var routeData = new RouteData();
            var routeParams = new RouteValueDictionary(parameters ?? new { });
            var routeValues = new RouteValueDictionary(new { area = area, controller = controller, action = action });
            var newHttpContext = httpContextFactory.Create(currentHttpContext.Features);

            newHttpContext.Response.Body = new MemoryStream();

            foreach (var router in helper.ViewContext.RouteData.Routers)
                routeData.PushState(router, null, null);

            routeData.PushState(null, routeValues, null);
            routeData.PushState(null, routeParams, null);

            var actionDescriptor = actionSelector.DecisionTree.Select(routeValues).First();
            var actionContext = new ActionContext(newHttpContext, routeData, actionDescriptor);

            // invoke action and retreive the response body
            var invoker = actionInvokerFactory.CreateInvoker(actionContext);
            string content = null;

            await invoker.InvokeAsync().ContinueWith(task => {
                if (task.IsFaulted)
                {
                    content = task.Exception.Message;
                }
                else if (task.IsCompleted)
                {
                    newHttpContext.Response.Body.Position = 0;
                    using (var reader = new StreamReader(newHttpContext.Response.Body))
                        content = reader.ReadToEnd();
                }
            });

            return new HtmlString(content);
        }

        private static TService GetServiceOrFail(HttpContext httpContext)
        {
            if (httpContext == null)
                throw new ArgumentNullException(nameof(httpContext));

            var service = httpContext.RequestServices.GetService(typeof(TService));

            if (service == null)
                throw new InvalidOperationException($"Could not locate service: {nameof(TService)}");

            return (TService)service;
        }
    }
}

You can invoke from your view using one of these methods:

@Html.RenderAction("action", "controller", "area", new { id = 1})
@Html.RenderAction("action", "controller", new { id = 1})
@Html.RenderAction("action", new { id = 1})

Note:

Controller name, and optionally area name, will default to the corresponding values from the ActionContext if not provided.