Question

I have repetitious markup for elements, like:

<div class='box'>     <div class='top'></div>     <div class='content'>       content goes here     </div>     <div class='bottom'></div> </div> 

Top and bottom are styled with css to include images for borders.

I could use JQuery to inject tags, but is there a better way to template controls in asp.net mvc?

Thank you

Answer 1

There are probably a lot of ways around this, here’s one:

Create a ViewUserControl (let’s call it ‘box.ascx’):

<%@ Control Language='C#' Inherits='System.Web.Mvc.ViewUserControl<Action>' %> <div class='box'>     <div class='top'></div>     <div class='content'>         <% Model(); %>     </div>     <div class='bottom'></div> </div> 

In your aspx, wherever you need this block, call it like this:

<% Html.RenderPartial('box', Lambda.Action(() => { %> here comes my content! <a href='http://www.google.com'>Google!</a> <% })); %> 

Here’s the Lambda helper class:

public static class Lambda {     public static Action Action(Action a) {         return a;     } } 

If you don’t use this little helper it will crash since it will try to cast the Action.