Question

How/Where can I declare an object like @User so that it can be referenced globally in any razor view using @?

Something similar to:

_LoginPartial.cshtml:

@if(Request.IsAuthenticated) {
    <text>Signed In As  <strong>@User.Identity.Name</strong> |

but instead reference my object:

  @if(this && that) { <text>@MyObject.GetData</text> }

Answer 1

You can change the base type of a Razor page to a one of your own eg:

public class UserAwareViewPage : System.Web.Mvc.WebViewPage
{
  public IPrincipal User { get { return Thread.CurrentPrincipal; } }
}

And then modify your config file like so:

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

Phil Haack has a very good blog post on this here.

Alternatively, you can add an extension method to System.Web.Mvc.WebViewPage (the base type for razor pages) and use this.

public static IPrincipal User(this System.Web.Mvc.WebViewPage page)
{
  return Thread.CurrentPrincipal;
}

Which would be useable like so:

@if(Request.IsAuthenticated) {
<text>Signed In As  <strong>@User().Identity.Name</strong>

Personally, I prefer the first approach, but thought I’d provide the second for an alternative option.