how to override a views Layout declaration

Question

In asp.net MVC 3 is there a way to override the Layout declaration set in a view from a controller or action filter?

@{
    Layout = \"~/Views/Shared/_Layout.cshtm         


        

Answer 1

You can create an action filter to override Layout file, but if you want to remove it, you will have to create an empty layout file instead of assigning the Master property to null. Like this:

public class OverrideLayoutFilter : ActionFilterAttribute
{
    public override void OnResultExecuting(ResultExecutingContext filterContext)
    {
        var view = filterContext.Result as ViewResult;
        view.MasterName = "_LayoutEmpty";
        base.OnResultExecuting(filterContext);
    }
}

Controller:

public class HomeController : Controller
{
    [OverrideLayoutFilter]
    public ActionResult Index()
    {
        return View();
    }
}

Now your new layout file needs to be placed in SharedFolder and you only put the RenderBody function inside

_LayoutEmpty.cshtml

@RenderBody()

Note: If you have sections defined in a view that you want to override layout you will also have to define those sections with an empty content.