Sharing Razor views across projects

Question

I want to share the layout (Header, Navigation and Footer Razor views) across multiple ASP.NET MVC projects. How can I do that?

Can I create a custom NuGet package t

Answer 1

There are new options (IMHO) better available. I would take advantage of organizing it as Feature splices in ASP MVC Core, this would save a lot of time down the road, I would recommend it in 2 steps.

1. First, organize/put it an area called Features splices MSDN ref. wire it up as in the article and well explained.

   // you're telling ASP that you've other Feature areas that it should look
   public IEnumerable ExpandViewLocations(ViewLocationExpanderContext context,
       IEnumerable viewLocations)
   {
       // Error checking removed for brevity
       var controllerActionDescriptor = context.ActionContext.ActionDescriptor as ControllerActionDescriptor;
       string featureName = controllerActionDescriptor.Properties["feature"] as string;
       foreach (var location in viewLocations)
       {
           yield return location.Replace("{3}", featureName);
       }
   }
   

2. Second, embed Features in a Shared project or Portable Libraries. I have attached links on how to do this from R. Williams and MSDN.

In summary, since you already have it in a common area consider it to be a feature and embed it inside a portable lib or a Shared Project. A nice article by R. Williams.