Question

I’m writing an MVC 3 app and I have tried to code a control in the Controller (due to permissions, different menu items will be visible for different users) and use the object in the Razor page. For example, in the Controller I do something like:

public ActionResult Index()
{
    var menu = "@(Html.Telerik().Menu().Name("menu").Items("menus => { menus.Add().Text("Home").Action("Index", "Home"); menus.Add().Text("Deliveries").Action("Index", "Delivery"); }))";

    var model = new MenuModel()
    {
        Menu = menu
    };

    return View(model);
}

And in the View I try to render the Menu using @Model.Menu but I just get the string value rather than an actual menu. Is what I’m trying to do possible?

Answer 1

Extend the HtmlHelper class and use the newly created method to render your menu in the View:

Helper:

public static string RenderMenu(this HtmlHelper html)
{
    var menu = new StringBuilder();

    /* ... menu rendering logic ... */

    return menu.ToString();
}

View:

@Html.RenderMenu();

Nevertheless, it is fine to put this logic in the view. Using the HtmlHelper extension just separates/cleans the code.