Why don't my Html Helpers have intellisense?

Question

I can\'t get intellisense for my own html helpers. My CustomHtmlHelpers.cs looks like this:

using System.Web.Mvc;
using System.Text;
using Syste         


        

Answer 1

So now I will show you the steps

1.Create or open an existing class library project (if you open an existing one be sure to remove the MVC5 nuget package)

2.Add the MVC (5.0) nuget package ( right click project in solution explorer -> Manage NuGet Packages -> search for MVC and install “Microsoft ASP.NET MVC”)

3.Close any and all open .cshtml files

4.Right click project -> Properties -> Build -> change Output path to your project “bin/”

5.Add the following minimal Web.config to the root of your class library project ( the web config file is solely needed for intellisense. Configuration (via Web.config) should be done in the WebApplication hosting your ClassLibrary assembly)

6.Clean and Build the solution.

7.Open cshtml file and try now :)

Answer 2

You actually don't need to restart Visual Studio in most cases. All you need to do is close the .cshtml file and reopen it!

Answer 3

Sometimes it doesn't seem to work right away. Try closing the .cshtml file, and re-opening it. Then if that doesn't work, try restarting Visual Studio. Also make sure you actually compiled your project, intellisense won't work with non-compiled helpers.

Answer 4

I tried to solve an issue like this one yesterday. I had e pre-compiled dll (project name ie: MyHtmlHelpers) containing helpers and lot of other classes.

I had the assembly referenced in the web project and the all "standard"-helpers showed up in intellisense but, even though I added the namespace to both web.config in the root and in the views-folder nothing worked. When running the project helpers works, but not in intellisense.

I added a new class and wrote a new html helper inside the web project, added the namespace to web.config. And that worked.

After some hours add tried my last card, adding the MyHtmlHelpers-project to the same solution as my webproject. That did the trick. I diden't change anything in the configs just added the project to the same solution and changed the reference to point at the project insted of the compiled dll.

Isen't that strange? A VS-bug?

Answer 5

I'm pretty sure that you're not editing the correct Web.config file.

You need to add your namespace to the one in your Views directory.

<system.web.webPages.razor>
  <host factoryType="System.Web.Mvc.MvcWebRazorHostFactory, System.Web.Mvc, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" />
  <pages pageBaseType="System.Web.Mvc.WebViewPage">
    <namespaces>
      <add namespace="System.Web.Mvc" />
      <add namespace="System.Web.Mvc.Ajax" />
      <add namespace="System.Web.Mvc.Html" />
      <add namespace="System.Web.Routing" />
      <add namespace="laget.Web.Helpers" />
    </namespaces>
  </pages>
</system.web.webPages.razor>

Answer 6

It needs it on the local page. I'm pretty sure this has to do with Namespace resolution. It isn't exactly sure what you are referring to without the local using statement.