Render View programmatically into a string

Question

I would like to get the html code a view would generate in a string, modify it in my controller, then add it to my JsonResult.

I found code that would do what i\'m t

Answer 1

This works like a charm (got it through SO).

I use it like this:

public class OfferController : Controller
{
    [HttpPost]
    public JsonResult EditForm(int Id)
    {
        var model = Mapper.Map(_repo.GetOffer(Id));

        return Json(new { status = "ok", partial = this.RenderPartialViewToString("Edit", model) });
    }
}



public static partial class ControllerExtensions
{
    public static string RenderPartialViewToString(this ControllerBase controller, string partialPath, object model)
    {
        if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(partialPath))
            partialPath = controller.ControllerContext.RouteData.GetRequiredString("action");

        controller.ViewData.Model = model;

        using (StringWriter sw = new StringWriter())
        {
            ViewEngineResult viewResult = ViewEngines.Engines.FindPartialView(controller.ControllerContext, partialPath);
            ViewContext viewContext = new ViewContext(controller.ControllerContext, viewResult.View, controller.ViewData, controller.TempData, sw);
            // copy model state items to the html helper 
            foreach (var item in viewContext.Controller.ViewData.ModelState)
                if (!viewContext.ViewData.ModelState.Keys.Contains(item.Key))
                {
                    viewContext.ViewData.ModelState.Add(item);
                }


            viewResult.View.Render(viewContext, sw);

            return sw.GetStringBuilder().ToString();
        }
    }
}