ASP.NET MVC Database Driven Menu in shared view

Question

I need some guidance on inserting a menu in the _layout.cshtml file. I have hit two problems: 1) Even when I create an additional model to include two data models, I am unable to pass both the models to the layout file eg:

Model:

public class IndexModel
{
    public tblMenu tblMenu { get; set; }
    public tblSite tblSite { get; set; }
}

I need info from the Menu table and the site table on the same page.

2) When I create a partial view to pass the menu data I continually get exceptions telling me that I can't use the model in this way.

My Partialview:

    @model mvcSPS.Models.IndexModel
    <li>@Model.tblMenu.MenuName</li>

My Controller:

   public ActionResult _menu()
   {
       return PartialView(db.IndexModels.ToList());
   }

My _layout.cshtml

            <ul id="navigation">
                @foreach (var item in Model)
                {
                    @Html.Partial("_menu")
                }
            </ul>

I have trawled the net and to be quite frank.. I am having a really difficult transition from ASP classic (yes I know) to ASP.net and MVC.

Your gentle guidance would be much appreciated. Thanks

Andrew

Anthony Shaw · Accepted Answer · 2014-06-12 18:51:27Z

2

change your @Html.Partial in your _layout.cshtml to call the controller function and render the result of the Action method.

@foreach (var item in Model)
{
  Html.RenderAction("_menu", "Home");
}

note: you shouldn't need a prepending '@' since it's in the context of the foreach loop

EDIT: Based on my comment suggestion below

HomeController:

public ActionResult Menu() {
  return PartialView("_menu", db.IndexModels.ToList());
}

_layout.cshtml

@{Html.RenderAction("Menu", "Home");} //be sure to fully-qualify the controller since it's layout, otherwise it'll look to the current controller based on route values collection

_menu.cstml

<nav>
  <ul>
  @foreach(var item in Model) {
    Html.Partial("_menuItem", item)
  }
  </ul>
</nav>

_menuItem.cshtml

@foreach(var item in Model) {
  <li>
    <a href="http://url">text</a>
    @if(item.Children.Any())
    {
      <ul>
         Html.Partial("_menuItem", item.Children)
      </ul>
    }
  </li>
}

edited Jun 12, 2014 at 18:51

answered Jun 12, 2014 at 18:43

Anthony Shaw

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1 Comment

Anthony Shaw Over a year ago

although, looking back at your question, it might be more appropriate to have a second partial view that is called from your main partial view to render your nested items. I do something similar. Otherwise you'll have multiple uneeded calls back to your controller

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