Question

I understand that only 1 RenderBody can exist in the MVC3 layout page however I want to attempt to create another. Maybe I’m looking at it the wrong way… Ideally I want to add a testimonial section that pulls in from the DB and display 1 testimonial at a time and a different 1 for each page refresh or new page. What is the best way to go about this?

Controller

CategoryDBContext db = new CategoryDBContext();
public ActionResult Testimonial(int id)
    {
        TestimonialModel model = db.Testimonials.Find(id);
        return View(model);
    }

Model

public class TestimonialModel
{
    public int ID { get; set; }
    public int CategoryID { get; set; }
    public string Data { get; set; }
}

public class CategoryDBContext : DbContext
{
    public DbSet<TestimonialModel> Testimonials { get; set; }
}

The View is in a folder called CategoryData.

Answer 1

I would use @Html.Action()

Here is a great blog post about using them: https://www.c-sharpcorner.com/article/html-action-and-html-renderaction-in-Asp-Net-mvc/

This would allow you to have a TestimonialController that can take in values, query for data and return a partial view.