static content pages in an MVC web application - asp.net-mvc-3

I have just created my first MVC 3 project for a database search using EF db first, but the search is only a part of a big website most of the pages will just contain some text and images.
My question is basically about these pages which on the website would be .aspx, and the code behind would have nothing at all.
They use a master page and some user controls - my guess is that's the reason our front end person made them aspx not html.
I need to convert/include her pages into my project (I don't want to go back to stored procedures and listview after having used EF and Linq, plus I don't have time).
I know of one possible way: create a controller for each of the main menu items, then add ActionResult named for each of the submenu items returning View(), then create respective views.
public class LearnAboutStandardsController : Controller
{
public ActionResult Index()
{
return View();
}
public ActionResult ITSStandardsBackground()
{
return View();
}
public ActionResult ResearchInitiatives()
{
return View();
}
So my static content pages will become Views.
It's working, I just want to do it for the rest of the pages and modify the links in the text of these pages.
Is there any other way to handle these pages?
There is no logic behind these pages.
I know this was not a perfect project for the MVC pattern with so much static content, but I had my reasons for it.

I handle this with an "StaticContent" controller:
StaticContentController.cs
public class StaticContentController : Controller
{
public ActionResult About()
{
return View();
}
public ActionResult Services()
{
return View();
}
public ActionResult Portfolio()
{
return View();
}
}
Add the code below your route config to handle the static routes:
routes.MapRoute(
"StaticContent",
"{action}",
new { controller = "StaticContent" },
new { action = "About|Services|Portfolio" } // Add more here
);
You're set.
If you need more pages just add the action in the StaticController and adjust your StaticContent MapRoute.

Personally, I would have controllers with simple actions that just render views. That way if you do add more features later you're already set up. And if you want to add security or caching it's a lot easier and more consistent.
You can still use WebForms (with the new Friendly URLs feature if you want "pretty" URLs) for the "static" pages. Or you can use Web Pages with Razor and create CSHTML files for the static content.

Related

How to forbid View

I have controller
public ActionResult Index()
{
return View();
}
[HttpGet]
public ActionResult _Nasljede()
{
return PartialView("Nasljede");
}
and Index action load _Nasljede action with javascript so when i put in browser address bar
..domain/controller#nasljede my page is working.(PartialView _Nasljede is loaded in Index View).
how can i forbid ..domain/controller?
is this even possible in mvc?
If you have any question please ask. i dont know if i explain my problem correctly.
I think this isn't possible with mvc. I solved my problem with jQuery.
if (!window.location.hash) {
window.location.replace("somewhere");
}

Returning to current view after actions in _Layout.cshtml

I'm trying to wrap my head around MVC.NET 3.
I use a _Layout.cshtml as base (structure, navigation). As part of the layout I want to display two links used for changing language/localization.
These should be displayed and clickable no matter what page is viewed, and after changing the localization I want to reload the view that called the action. So the page that the customer is looking at will be reloaded, with new localization set.
One way is to copy and paste the localization-changing action in each of the sites controllers, but is there no easier and more elegant way?
I tried creating a specific controller that handles the localization changing, but can't figure out how to return the viewer to the previous controller.
Perhaps this is easier accomplished with jquery?
This is the DIV from the _Layout file with the language changing buttons. It calls the action in the current controller, which means I have to define it in each of the site's controllers. (The good thing is the view that is returned is always correct.)
<div id="top>
#using (Html.BeginForm())
{
<button id="sv_flag" name="localization" title="#Resources.Global.Sv_Flag_Hover" value="sv-SE" />
<button id="en_flag" name="localization" title="#Resources.Global.En_Flag_Hover" value="en-GB" />
}
</div>
I also tried using a specific controller for this, but cannot think of how I could return to the current view afterwards? Like so:
#using (Html.BeginForm("LocalizationAction", "LocalizationController"))
...
Edit
Now using the suggestion from Darin, I send in the controller and action values from the layout page:
#using (Html.BeginForm("SetLocalization", "Localization",
new { returnController = #ViewContext.Controller.ValueProvider.GetValue("controller").RawValue,
returnAction = #ViewContext.Controller.ValueProvider.GetValue("action").RawValue }))
...
But I cannot get the localization changes to work, my controller action looks like this:
public ActionResult SetLocalization(string localization, string returnController, string returnAction)
{
Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture = Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture = CultureInfo.GetCultureInfo(localization);
return RedirectToAction(returnAction, returnController);
}
You could pass a returnUrl:
#using (Html.BeginForm("LocalizationAction", "LocalizationController", new { returnUrl = Request.Url.AbsoluteUri }))
{
...
}
and inside your LocalizationAction redirect to this url:
public ActionResult LocalizationAction(string returnUrl)
{
... do your localization stuff and once you are done get back:
return Redirect(returnUrl);
}
obviously you could do a little checking before blindly redirecting. Things like whether the returnUrl parameter is not empty and whether it belongs to your domain. You may take a look at how the default AccountController does that once it authenticates a user.
return Redirect(Request.UrlReferrer.ToString());
public ActionResult Change(String LanguageAbbrevation)
{
if (LanguageAbbrevation != null)
{
Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture = CultureInfo.CreateSpecificCulture(LanguageAbbrevation);
Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture = new CultureInfo(LanguageAbbrevation);
}
HttpCookie cookie = new HttpCookie("Language");
cookie.Value = LanguageAbbrevation;
Response.Cookies.Add(cookie);
return Redirect(Request.UrlReferrer.ToString());
}
I found a completely different (and much easier and elegant) solution to my problem.
I simply created a BaseController, that holds the action for changing the localization.
Then all controllers I add to the site inherit from this BaseController. This gives a single location for the code and does not require sending any return parameters, etc.
BaseController:
public class BaseController : Controller
{
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Index(string localization)
{
Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture = Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture = CultureInfo.GetCultureInfo(localization);
return View();
}
}
Each of the site's Controllers then only need to inherit from it, and then mind their own actions:
public class ApplicationsController : BaseController
{
//
// GET: /Applications/
public ActionResult Index()
{
return View();
}
}
...

ASP.NET MVC 3 - Setting up routes

I'm migrating an ASP.NET web forms application to ASP.NET MVC 3. I kind of understand routing, but I sort of don't. In my application, I have created three .cshtml files in the directory located at /internal/products/find/. For the sake of demonstration, those .cshtml files are named "view1.cshtml", "view2.cshtml", and "view3.cshtml".
I have a controller named "InternalController". My goal is to use InternalController for all of the locations inside the /internal path. I'm not sure if what I'm trying to do is allowed. I assume it is. Either way, at this time, I have the following in InternalController:
public ActionResult View1()
{
return View();
}
public ActionResult View2()
{
return View();
}
public ActionResult View3()
{
return View();
}
In my global.asax.cs file, I'm trying to register the routes to these views as follows:
routes.MapRoute(
"View1",
"{controller}/products/find/view1",
new { controller = "Internal", action = "View1" }
);
routes.MapRoute(
"View2",
"{controller}/products/find/view2",
new { controller = "Internal", action = "View2" }
);
routes.MapRoute(
"View3",
"{controller}/products/find/view3",
new { controller = "Internal", action = "View3" }
);
Whenever I try to visit /internal/products/find/view1 in my browser, I see the ASP.NET error screen and it says:
The view 'View1' or its master was not found or no view engine supports the searched locations. The following locations were searched:
~/Views/internal/View1.aspx
~/Views/internal/View1.ascx
~/Views/Shared/View1.aspx
~/Views/Shared/View1.ascx
~/Views/dashboard/View1.cshtml
~/Views/dashboard/View1.vbhtml
~/Views/Shared/View1.cshtml
~/Views/Shared/View1.vbhtml
What am I doing wrong? The path /internal/products/find/view1 is the most important part for me. Ideally, I would like to expose that in InternalController everytime. But I'm having a rough go at it. What am I doing wrong?
Thanks!
When you write
routes.MapRoute(
"View1",
"{controller}/products/find/{action}",
new { controller = "Internal", action = "View1" }
);
it means that whenever user writes into his browser:
http://mysite.com/blahblah/products/find/blahblahview
it will activate action view1 inside controller blahblahview. But it doesn't mean that view1.cshtml file is at that path. Actually, asp.net mvc looks for views at directories defined by convention...and convetion is:
~/Views/ControllerName/ViewName
so, your view should be in a folder:
~/Views/Internal/View1.cshtml
Unlike ASP.NET WebForms you are used to, ASP.NET MVC is pretty much driven by naming conventions as you could probably see (you always name your controllers like BlahBlah*Controller*, you always place your views inside Views folder etc... Read some tutorials here and catch up with basics.

View and controller in asp.net mvc3 - controller should match a view one to one?

I have a very typical situation in any application, where i have the following functionality:
create new record
edit existing record
so other irrelevant actions
IMO, creating and editing should be served by the same view, but different actions. But it appears that I have to have the action name match the view name....would you use partial views for this? I would rather not complicate this scenario - which is very simple and appears in virtually every web app.
Action can return a view with a diferent name this way:
public ActionResult OneName()
{
return View("OtherName");
}
If you don't specify the view name (View("") then the view will be the view with the action name
Partial views are an excellent answer. I'd suggest you look at how the MvcScaffold NuGet package does it. See here or get the package in Visual Studio.
I'd simply use the same action altogether and use the ID to determine if this is a new record or updating an existing one:
/Forum/Post/Edit/0 create a new record
/Forum/Post/Edit/10457 update a record with ID 10457
However, since you insist on using different actions, why not simply create 2 actions, both returning the same view?
public class PostController : Controller
{
public ActionResult Create(Post post)
{
// work your magic...
return View("Edit", post);
}
public ActionResult Update(Post post)
{
// work your magic...
return View("Edit", post);
}
}
If this doesn't work in your scenario, you're pretty much left with partial views.

cshtml file could not be found although it is under Shared folder

I have a cshtml under Shared folder. I am doing a RedirectToAction() to this page but its not looking for this file in Shared folder. Its only looking in the appropriate folder under views. It uses to look into Shared folder before and I have no idea what I could have changed that breaking lookup. Any ideas?
You cannot do a RedirectToAction to a view. You are doing (as it name suggests) a redirect to an action. It is this action that returns a view. By default it will look for views in the ~/Views/ControllerName and ~/Views/Shared. So let's suppose that you have the following action which performs a redirect:
public class HomeController: Controller
{
public ActionResult Index()
{
return RedirectToAction("Index", "Products");
}
}
which would redirect to the Index action on the Products controller:
public class ProductsController: Controller
{
public ActionResult Index()
{
return View();
}
}
Now the Index.cshtml view could be in ~/Views/Products/Index.cshtml or in ~/Views/Shared/Index.cshtml.

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