Question

I want to be able to change the _Layout.cshtml view based on a setting in my database.
I understand that it is probably done in the _ViewStart.cshml view.

I am using EF 4.2 and want to adapt a solution that will not break any design pattern.

Not sure how to go about doing this in MVC.

In web forms, I could easily do this in the code-behind for the masterpage.

I am doing something like this in my base controller:

public abstract class BaseController : Controller
{
    private IUserRepository _userRepository;


    protected BaseController()
        : this(
            new UserRepository())
    {
    }


    public BaseController(IUserRepository userRepository)
    {
        _userRepository = userRepository;
    }

I have looked at FunnelWeb source as well but I am not quite getting how they are injecting things..

Answer 1

Old Question but for anyone coming across this question here is a nice solution using Action Filters Attributes

public class LoadUserLayoutAttribute : ActionFilterAttribute
{
    private readonly string _layoutName;
    public LoadUserLayoutAttribute()
    {
        _layoutName = MethodToGetLayoutNameFromDB();
    }

    public override void OnActionExecuted(ActionExecutedContext filterContext)
    {
        base.OnActionExecuted(filterContext);
        var result = filterContext.Result as ViewResult;
        if (result != null)
        {
            result.MasterName = _layoutName; 
        }
    }
}

and then, you can add an attribute to your base controller (or action) with this custom attribute:

    [LoadUserLayout]
    public abstract class BaseController : Controller
    {
       ...
    }