Question

I am currently working with an mvc site where I have a fairly extensive main layout page. It is dependent on data from the database which in turns includes inherent logic as what to include etc on the layout.

Most of my controller actions are rendered within this layout. I am not sure of how to work this. Being used to master pages in web forms, all the logic resides in the master page. I have a couple mechanisms to achieve the common layout logic but looking for the best practise way of achieving such.

Options are:

• Replicate logic in all controller actions (not really an option)
• Extract the logic in to another class and call it from the controller actions
• All controllers inherit from a base controller which as overrides the OnActionExecuting method and us this to perform logic and return the necessary data in the TempData
• Use “RenderAction” in the cshtml to call necessary controller actions and extract the layout in to smaller partial views

Any other options open to me or recommendations?

Answer 1

If I understand you correctly, I would use an action partial

@Html.Action("{ActionName}", "{Controller}", new { roleName= "Admin" })

Action Partials call dedicated controller action methods of type

   [ChildActionOnly]
    public ActionResult _TopNav(string roleName)

This way you can design recurring logic that will propagate throughout your application without replicating.

Even better, if your _Layout handles privilege based link generating, you can pass role id’s and control what the end user sees and what their navigation buttons point to.